HELPPPPP
Reminds me of Jason Kander, former Missouri Secretary of State. When he went to the VA hospital to treat his PTSD, he told the nurse that Obama told him he should run for president, and she thought he was delusional.
Correction: It was worse. She asked him how long he's been hearing voices.
I think I'm gonna make this my go-to story. It's not the worst I've ever heard, which is an asset because people won't believe you if you tell them the actual bad stuff those people do. And it just perfectly sums up the casual arrogance everyone working in mental health seems to have. The way they treat you as inherently Lesser for being in their care.
If they can't even handle basic, easily verified shit like "I'm a lawyer" they are never going to believe you when you tell them that you know how to manage a condition you've been dealing with for decades better than they can or will.
And then there's Alexander Morris, who was put in a straitjacket, called racial slurs, and denied treatment for his potentially life-threatening heart condition when he told them he was the lead singer of the band he was lead singer of.
The lead singer of the Motown group the Four Tops has filed a federal lawsuit against Ascension Macomb Oakland Hospital in Warren, Michigan,
There are multiple parts of that article that are Jae droppingly awful but this one really gets me:
They almost let this man die in a straight jacket simply because they were too racist. And then when they realize their "mistake", they tell him that his life is worth a 25$ supermarket gift card. Of course he's suing them for $75,000 as he should but like. Can you imagine how insulted he must've been. The 4 Tops were one of the top Motown bands of all time. You can be at the top of the music scene and still, they'll kill you because you're black. And they'll use fake claims about mental illness and "aggression" to justify it
& to be clear: none of this is good for anyone. actually delusional people, people who actually hear voices or see things, do not deserve to be treated like this. there is nothing about a person harmlessly believing something fantastical (or which sounds fantastical to you) that requires you to put them in a straightjacket and drug them or deny them necessary drugs. Black mentally ill people do not deserve to be tortured and murdered in a hospital for being Black and mentally ill.
this kind of system is a weapon which can be pointed at anyone. in order to prevent shit like this from happening, we also need to deconstruct how we view mentally ill people, including people who are delusional and hallucinate, and what we view as "reasonable" or "necessary" when it comes to such people.
