Hello and welcome to a rare blog re: Mental Health (MH). I, like a heck of a lot of other souls yesterday (and today) are mourning the loss of Linkin Park singer-songwriter Chester Bennington. The following I write while remembering him, but it is mainly for all the people affected by suicide, the many brave warriors embattled with MH challenges and those who assist, support or care for those said battlers. The following may also shock you so therefore I must add a distinctive trigger warning as well as there are some dark things mentioned.
I don’t often write blogs on MH, my brain jumbles the words up that I half feel like saying in blogs a lot of the time and I consequently get fed up. ‘Oh, keep it simple’, some disinterested wotsits might say in response. It just isn’t that simple, period. Much like the unsympathetic fools that say in response to suicide – ‘Oh, that person is a coward’ for doing what they’ve done. Now, this is my view and I own it, though that viewpoint just mentioned is categorically wrong. There are a lot more things that are cowardly. Giving sheepish PR-like (or false) answers to proper, straight questions for example, and in general that is too prevalent today. And no, for once I’m not going to rant about politicians either etc.
Change may be coming, in a good way. Though as I suspect many reading this will note, it takes a sodding ‘age’ to come. New-fangled ideas get stifled, bottled or just flatly ignored. Or even if they are taken on-board, the likelihood is that they’ll ‘sit on them’ for six months while the bureaucrats figure out what to do. Yep, I dislike PR-style answers, sometimes with a passion. Why? Because it simply doesn’t actually say anything of much note or interest. You might as well stick your hand up to indicate you’re not listening as it amounts to the same. That sort of crap among others will have to change if we are going to see a sea change in how the many Experts by Experience (EBEs) and the like are really going to feel like they can contribute, rather than being told ‘you must do this or that’ or be under threat of something or other. It’s wrong and that must stop.
Looking through a glass darkly, I know my time will come as well. Without being disrespectful to anyone, I’m not sure anyone knows ‘when’. I suppose if you believe in ‘pre-destined’ ideology then that may be different, and that’s fair enough. I have no idea about the pain or anguish that Chester himself may have felt yesterday, what I do know is that there is a long, long road to go before MH is thought of the same as cancer or tonsillitis for example.
Yours bluntly,
Scott
Follow me on Twitter at @ScottMHC14
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