The "Unpeople"

‘The more ancient the abuse, the more sacred it is' - Voltaire.

In his classic dystopia ‘1984', George Orwell referred to a group known as the ‘Unpeople', people who ‘Don't exist, and never existed.' They were members of ‘The Party' that ruled Orwell's fictional society and held sway over the lives of all who lived in it. Until, that is, they deviated from the Party-defined and universally accepted ‘normal' mode of life. They had committed, in Orwell's words ‘The crime that essentially contains all other crimes within itself', the ultimate sin known as ‘thoughtcrime.'

In Orwell's fictional world, the ‘Unpeople' were to be airbrushed from history as though they were not, and never had been, in existence at all.

This is what society has done to many who have the misfortune of having mental health problems.

And it continues to do so.

Of course, polite society doesn't refer to psychiatric patients as ‘Unpeople' as that would be dismissive and politically incorrect. Polite society refers to us as ‘service users', ‘clients', ‘patients' and so on. While impolite society has a great many names for us as well.
‘Psycho', ‘loon', ‘nutter', ‘headcase', ‘space cadet', loony tune', ‘freak', ‘nutjob' and a whole host of others seem to be a part of the English language for many people these days. The attitudes displayed towards us by a sizeable cross-section of people these days are reminiscent of the way that abuse and discrimination on racial, religious, ethnic, sexuality and gender grounds.

It was once perfectly OK to look down on someone for having a different skin colour or religion or gender and quite rightly these attitudes were outlawed, although they still exist and nobody with an ounce of life experience would say that they don't. But abuse and discrimination, sometimes of the most outright nature, seems to be rampant and tolerated pretty much as before in many circles. It used to be the case (for some over a certain age, at any rate) for the popular cry to be ‘No blacks, no Irish, no dogs'. Today it seems to be that, while those attitudes still remain in some quarters (witness the demonization of Muslims today, for example), they are slowly being suppressed and that's a good thing. Not so much the case for psychiatric patients, however.

Because psychiatric patients seem to be the new oppressed minority.

We're the people it's OK to point at, laugh at, mock, insult, degrade, abuse and deny the right to lead our lives in as ‘normal' a way as possible. We're that weirdo on the bus that nobody wants to sit next to. The loonspud who potters about the streets in dirty clothes, scruffy and unkempt, carrying a bottle of cheap white cider or meths and muttering to ourselves about nothing in particular. We're the people who wander about with kitchen knives up our sleeves wondering who we can carve to pieces in an alleyway somewhere. We're the ones who lie in padded cells 24/7, in straitjackets or restraint belts, doped to the eyeballs in case we suddenly start claiming to be Napoleon, God or, in some cases, Elvis Presley. And so on.

And, just in case you were wondering, I AM a psychiatric patient, so don't turn all PC and think this is some random diatribe against crazy people. Or, come to that, think this is some random diatribe BY some random crazy person. I accept who I am but many of, yes, YOU, the ‘normal' people out there, even many who like to think of themselves as being somewhat more enlightened than most, DO NOT accept me or my fellow sufferers for who we really are. And it's time for that to stop.

I have bipolar affective disorder, that's what used to be called manic depression in case you hadn't heard of it before. I also have an autistic spectrum disorder. I'm high capacity autistic, so I'm luckier than some but distinctly worse off in some areas than others. I've also got asthma, high blood cholesterol and diabetes. In fact about the only thing that isn't wrong with me is a bad case of the galloping clap.

So thank Heaven for small mercies. In short, I'm unwell and I don't appreciate being written off, patronised and generally treated like a second class citizen in my own country simply because I have a few chronic illnesses to deal with. Although I do appreciate being avoided by people who are too short-sighted and pig-ignorant to at least give me a chance to show my worth before disappearing over the horizon like greased lightning as soon as I mention my various diagnoses. If they're too ignorant to give me a chance, then they're too ignorant for me to waste my time bothering with.

Are you still reading this? If so, great. It makes a change from being ignored. Because that's one of the things that really does ‘unpeople' a lot of damage. It's a vicious circle. We're picked on and abused, so we withdraw. As we withdraw further and further from what most of you would consider a ‘normal' existence, we can lose sight entirely of what ‘normal actually' mean (whatever it mean nowadays) so we stand out more, attract more and more hostility, and withdraw further. Eventually some of us break down and are confined to psychiatric units or, mercifully few, finally snap and commit some serious act of criminality, sometimes very violent and, very occasional, hurt or kill someone else.

Then, society finally notices us, only to tar us all with the same brush as though we're all the kitchen-knife-concealing latent ‘Jack The Ripper' types so beloved of the tabloid press. Then, and often only then, does polite society finally acknowledge that we're here at all.
In short, we don't really exist (or at least many would rather we didn't) until one of does something dreadful and then we're seemingly all to blame.

Now then, having vented my spleen for a little while, this isn't to say that everybody is either ignorant, unhelpful or both. There are a great many people who do what they can for us with what they have to work with. Family and friends (those who haven't disappeared or cut someone loose for whatever reason) can be invaluable in terms of support, but they also have lives of their own and their help can only extend so far.

It's the same with mental health professionals like psychiatrists, psychologists, community psychiatric nurses and so on. It isn't the fault of these professionals that the system is, at its best, in dire need of a major overhaul and vastly increased resources. It's just that they have to cut their cloth to suit their circumstances and, unlike more ‘sexy' health issues, the mental health services are often last in the line when resources and financing are doled out and are often left sucking hind tit. It's usually the system itself that is at fault, not those trying to work within it.

Of course, the system occasionally has its day in the spotlight, often after one of us attempts or commits some act such as suicide or violence towards another person, but even then the media spotlight, in the manner of the media spotlight, doesn't usually shine long or hard enough upon the problem of mental health or of the fact that the system rarely seems to be working. Once the latest media furore has died down and the hacks are back in the Groucho Club, sipping martini's and swapping (or, often, creating) their latest tall tales for public consumption the system usually goes on pretty much as before.
Which brings us to the thorny issue of ‘Care In The Community', known by some ‘service users' as ‘Careless In The Community' or ‘Don't Care In The Community.'

Indeed, some mental health patients refer to themselves as ‘survivors' of the current mental health system rather than as patients and, as one myself, I can see quite clearly where they are coming from. When many of the old institutions were closed and sold off to private investors for demolition and redevelopment, the idea of ‘Care In The Community' was put in their place. It was spun as being a bright new opportunity for those with mental health difficulties to have the option of trying to lead their own lives in the community, as opposed to being confined to the former asylums and special hospitals. In practice, it hasn't really worked too well.

Again, this is not the fault of those at the sharp end of the new system. Not the professionals and certainly not the patients. It comes down to the system being, as it currently is, often largely unsuitable for meeting patients needs. Instead of having enough beds for the acutely ill, there are not enough beds. Instead of the daily supervision and support that the old institutions might once have offered , we have many case of vulnerable and, in some cases, patients who may be a risk to themselves and/or others, being catapulted out of their homes into what I call ‘BedsitLand' and seemingly there to sink or swim as best they can. Given the proper funding and resources, it is more than likely that there would be many more people in a safer environment inside what remains of the old hospitals than outside having to struggle to survive and stay at least functionally sane. A task that some of us simply can't manage on our own.

That isn't to say that every mental health patient is a drooling and dribbling pant-wetter who howls at the moon and recites endless variations of the mantra ‘wibble, boing, oblongs' whenever the clock chimes the hour. Not at all. Many of us crazy people are in fact at least as intelligent as the average human and some of us, shocking though it may be, might just be more so. It's just that, like patients with any other chronic illness, we need specialist care and support and that little bit of extra help and consideration sometimes, that's all.