Random Spiel, Life is Harder When You Have a Record

This post was inspired from a recent interview with the patient that came in for follow as a case of Schizophrenia. Apparently, he was doing well but considered moving out from his neighborhood just to avoid further altercations with the local folks there. It's that social stigma about people having problems with their mental health and how this public insensitivity makes things harder for people that need help.

TL:DR, patient was involved in a fight that ended up with him stabbing someone in self defense but no one else bought his story because he's already known by people as a case with mental issues but upon asking some collateral info regarding the events, I found out that he was just trying to protect his family from trespassing and the one that got stabbed was drunk that time and provoking him into a fight in the first place. But you know how it's rough for people who can't be trusted to be right in the head due to their condition so patient got incarcerated.

I think to myself how often similar stories happen on a daily basis out there. The stigma is people with mental health problems that make them lose sight of reality have it permanently be like that but that's not true if they actually take their meds and have gone into remission.

I lost count on how many times patients would come into the office telling how they had it rough in life being bullied at school or work due to being found out their meds were labelled "antipsychotic". And these people are functional, so functional you wouldn't be able to tell the difference when you sit next to them unless they tell you themselves. But alas, the world and society can be cruel for these folks and they just have to put up with it.

You see, if you had a mental health problem, whenever you go into a tantrum after being gaslighted or tried to put up some self defense even when it's warranted, some people just have difficulty understanding your side. If a patient with intellectual disability steals and is unable to process the consequences of their actions, people who wouldn't know better would be harsh their judgment and punishment. It's a blessing to find people to take a step back and be considerate that maybe that raging Karen complaining to a manager has a problem they're not in control or that odd behavior has some deeper roots to unpack.

I don't know. I just know that after getting into this field, I practice the suspend judgment whenever some erratic behavior presents in front of me or looking at people that may seem to be out of touch with reality. After a few months in, I just learned I'm more patient with these patients compared to people of sound mind but want to be irrational.

Just thinking about life for these people starting on hard mode. I think these people are much tougher than people give them credit for because it's already hard being normal and even harder to fit in trying to be normal in society.

Thanks for your time.