Care co-ordinator
In my experience (being cared for and working alongside people in this role), care co-ordinators have been dedicated, adaptable and heavily oppressed by deadlines, targets, paperwork and impossible demands. Being expected to pull a caring, openminded countenance together after being sworn at, being sent rude emails (by those policing their adherence to training / endless repetitive but not cut-and-pasteable forms) must be difficult. When the extent of the criticism unleashed for both co-operation and non co-operation with other services looking to pass the buck and designate their (frequently heart clients as dangerous / needy / not suitable for them is considered alongside the high expressed hatred unleashed by both people ‘co-ordinated’ for and their ‘carers’ it’s hard to know how they could win. Not that they always get it right or even start off with values privileging the lived experience of the individual, but those that do might expect disillusionment and burnout. NHS services seem to rarely value their employees even where clients / service users / patients are receiving a good service. Rant over – complain vociferously whatever your position.
Committed
Some people still think this happens, that the untethered mind of the lunatic can be trained to act in accordance with acceptable norms (approved or ‘normal’ ways of behaving) by virtue of a forced relationship where the individual is placed inside the mental health problem ‘container’ (hospital) and not allowed to leave, hardly an equal ‘relationship’. The ‘norms’ would be those advocated by the asylum (see previous) to which a person is entrusted /abandoned (committed). As a union, there may be some areas where trust / respect are lacking on either side, though the potential for over dependence (for funding / outcomes / an identity) is also terrifying. Another angle is the degree to which individuals are ‘committed’ to treatment / change / staying themselves. The ‘professional patient’ concept – an individual who doesn’t want to get better because it is easier / more lucrative to stay ‘unwell’ might be also designated a ‘committed’ party. Though in terms of finding and keeping an identity, that is constant, familiar, alternative, meaningful, expressive and unique, wouldn’t refusal to be deflected, misrepresented or overlooked be highly adaptive commitment?
Consciousness
A marvellous thing, which we cannot replicate, define or understand. Often described as the thing that’s missing when we are driving on autopilot, but also the thing that drives us to do things to heighten itself (take drugs, stim, love). I spent too much of my life not appreciating the similarities and differences between my and others’ minds and found an unhappy medium where everyone knows what a shit I am and I don’t have the faintest idea how to change / decouple from their view of me that must be more accurate than mine by virtue of them being the audience. I’ve been told I care too much what other people think, which is probably true (though I’d be a rubbish psychologist if I didn’t). Consciously acting to create an impression you actually can’t control rather than acting in accordance with values that are meaningful leads to self annihilation. But we need a reflection to prove we exist (thanks to the Manic Street Preachers for that handy capsule sentiment), if we scream in a vacuum does it matter if no-one hears or will we just get sectioned? Medication has an unhappy habit of creating cognitive deficits – memory, attention, mental agility, alertness can all diminish to unknown ends (research on newer atypicals only started a few years before I started taking them long term in 2000). But that doesn’t matter as long as we aren’t having those pesky heightened experiences others find so garish.
Contraception
Trying not to have children, it turns out, can seriously impair enjoyment of life. Not through the absence of more little us’s running around the planet. Hormones intended to reduce the stress of children overload have seriously played on my emotions and rejuvenated the delightful opera that is the interaction between anxiety, depression, paranoia and self consciousness in my mind. Similar to a chemical cosh, an enzyme that accelerates mental self destruction innocuously shuts down normal functioning and masquerades as a socially responsible life aid – problem is the alternatives are also painful to think about. Harder to act on.
Conviction
The degree to which you know your Bad Stuff to be true. Often handily rated by asking the percentage you believe it to be true, right now. It’s accepted (and almost pathologised) that this changes with the day, time, weather etc. It is also the word that denotes the proven guilt of someone. It can also be the drive that leads another to accomplish great things, going where others fear to tread. Standing alone seems to be the common factor, but the drive to stick to something that may be life changing or world beating whilst suffering the slings and arrows of others’ discontent sounds like a romantically worthy endeavour. Trying to encourage a committed (convicted) individual to abandon their sociocentric principles for individual gain (letting go of saving the world because its stressful and taking up crocheting instead) must make it seem like the world really has gone mad. Why would you want to hang around and get with that programme? Of course this is oversimplistic and I had loads of personal gain related projects that wouldn’t have fitted this template and that were awfully embarrassing. Holding an idea against the tide of the rest of human comprehension has a noble air to it even when the core of the idea evades understanding. If the underpinning values (however deeply buried) are morally justifiable, laughter at the expression of an idea is the real sickness.
PsychCoblog 