Regulating Mental Health Treatments

So I'm sitting here halfway listening to the news and they're talking about the most recent shooting by some crazed mentally ill person.  Yes, there needs to be something done with mental health treatments.  There are some really bad people in those hospitals.  I've had to sit next to them during hospitalizations.  I've sat there and played cards with them.  I've eaten meals alongside them.

But not everyone in a mental hospital is bad or evil or scary.  The media is still putting that fear out there and I'm listening to it in this restaurant and there is a whole room full of people watching and listening.

Yes, I agree there needs to be a steady monitoring of people in mental health care who could potentially be dangerous.  You can sense violence in a person by the things they're saying.  But then you raise the question of Who Is Doing The Judging?  Also, speaking from experience, these powerful psych meds can really mess a person up if not taken properly.  Do you listen to the disclaimers on the tv ads?  Some of them cause suicidal thoughts.  These pills are not to be taken lightly.

I may have already told this story here before but I'll tell it again.  During my last hospitalization, there was a total jerk in his 50s or 60s across the hall from me.  He was argumentative in every group therapy session and made me so uncomfortable.  He was angry because he was going to lose his job over this hospitalization and he possessed a bad energy I just knew didn't jive with me.  So one morning before a group was starting, he was talking aggressively and really openly about sexual violence and all the things he'd like to do to some woman.  A hyper bipolar girl was really into his conversation and it was the only thing you could hear in the room.  I was really sedated and could barely move, but it was a trigger for me and I went over to him and told him to shut up and told him he was an asshole.  I wanted to cry, but I couldn't because of the meds.  A fellow patient brought me some water and I decided to leave group and go back to my room.  As I was walking back I could hear him enraged and yelling.  And they just let him.

So a few minutes later as I was shivering in my bed, a worker comes into my room and scolds me for calling someone a name.  It was like preschool.  She wouldn't even listen to me when I tried to describe the content of his conversation.  And then a few minutes later a doc came in and pulled down my pants and shot me in the butt with an antipsychotic.  I slept for two days.

I am not dangerous.  Most of the time I'm frightened in those places.  There are scary people in there, probably avoiding prison.  The people talking about mental health reform are damn right, there needs to be CHANGE.  But can the good patients be heard every once in awhile?  Are our thoughts totally pointless and worthless?