Goal of the year!

Never again will I think that every footballer is a boofhead. In fact, I think Wayne Schwass is truly heroic. From The Age:

Mentally ill win promise on rights

Nick Miller

January 30, 2009

HUMAN rights abuses are a regular, even routine part of Victoria's mental health system, a review has been told.

In response, a government-appointed panel, including Public Advocate Julian Gardiner and former footballer Wayne Schwass, pledged its support for stronger protection for the state's mentally ill when they face involuntary electro-convulsive therapy, seclusion or medication.

They spoke at the end of a day-long official community consultation, part of the Government's review of the 20-year-old Mental Health Act.

"It's essential that the Act respects and adheres to the basic, fundamental rights of the individual," Mr Schwass — who battled depression for 14 years — told the meeting. "This is an opportunity to change things that currently aren't working."

The review heard the opinion of about 100 people who had been through the mental health system, including involuntary treatment.

Some angrily told of their experiences, saying they had been put on unhealthy medication without being warned of the consequences. One compared the experience to being "clinically lobotomised" with "guesswork pharmacology" before he could understand what was happening to him.

They said seclusion was being used as a punishment rather than a last resort, and was too often abused.

They said requests for a review of involuntary treatments were ignored.

Mr Gardiner said he had heard "loud and clear" that the Government needed to make sure people's rights could be enforced through better complaints and review systems.

People who were caring for mentally ill relatives said they were not alerted when their son, daughter or brother was sent for electro-convulsive therapy, and were not consulted when they were often in the best position to advise on the most effective treatment.

I can see myself in the future (in the distant future) teaching this subject at a university and working professionally as an activist for the human rights of people labelled mentally ill, and with a champion footballer on board I can see that great changes are possible. I already feel more at home in Australia.

Here's to you, Wayne Schwass. I will always think fondly of your goals, but not the ones you kicked in any football match.

An Appetizer

This is just an appetizer to make you hungry for the full story. It may take me a several weeks to write the full story.

The main fixed beliefs that my psychiatrist, Dr John Robertson (see the text in the sidebar), maintains are schizophrenic delusions that justify ongoing forced treatment with a powerful anti-psychotic drug are the following:

On the Monday after Melbourne Cup day in November 2005 I emailed the following Confucius saying to Lawrence Money and Suzanne Carbone, the gossip columnists for The Age, and to the gossip columnists at the Herald Sun: Confucius says “The gossip-monger is the outcast of virtue.”

This message clearly disturbed Lawrence Money. He quickly sent me a cryptic email that was clearly meant to insult me. But that didn’t satisfy him. The next day he inserted a phony Confucius quote into a piece of work that appeared in The Age on the Wednesday, and on the Thursday of that week he planted another bogus Confucius quote into a piece that appeared in The Age on the Friday.

The gossip-mongers at the Herald Sun also responded by insulting me in their column, but they did so directly by mentioning my name.

Here are some copies of the articles in question.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55269951@N00/2956898438/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55269951@N00/2956920988/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55269951@N00/2956912262/

I believe that Lawrence Money meant to secretly communicate with me via these bogus Confucius quotes. I believe that both the content and secretive form of the messages were meant to insult me. I believe that the bitchy and blokey Money, who was aware I had suffered delusions of reference in regards to The Age in 2000/2001, meant to discriminate against me on the basis of my mental illness.

Because I hold these beliefs my psychiatrist thinks I’m delusional. Not only does he maintain that Money didn’t mean to secretly insult me, he maintains that Money didn’t mean to communicate with me at all. Any suggestion from me to the contrary elicits the claim that I have no insight into my illness. He’s truly a dangerous fool who shouldn’t be allowed to practice psychiatry anywhere.

Here, very briefly and incompletely, is how I responded to the discrimination dealt me by The Age and how my response to this injustice was met by another injustice:

I tried in vain over a number of months to peacefully obtain an apology from The Age. I tried in vain to make an example of The Age via Media Watch and the Press Council. I tried in vain to peacefully obtain an apology from The Age. I failed to get arrested when I threw eggs at Age employees from a distance (I didn't hit anyone). It was my hope I could gain a degree of sympathy in court and an example of Lawrence Money and The Age would be made that would help in the fight to reduce discrimination against the mentally ill. For the same reason I smashed the glass door of The Age building. I was arrested and detained in the psych ward of Northern Hospital for two weeks. While there I was diagnosed as a delusional schizophrenic by Melbourne University acedemic Dr Suresh Sundram, before I was released on a community treatment order that has been upheld and renewed up to this day by a few other psychiatrists who think Dr Suresh's word is gospel.

I should never have been assessed by Dr Suresh. Here are links to two Age articles that featured his views before he diagnosed me as delusional.

Have I got the wrong idea from the photo above or has the Mental Health Research Institute really built a fundamentalist church to worship psychiatry?

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/17/1084783451625.html

http://www.theage.com.au/news/asia-tsunami/help-for-sri-lankas-wave-of-mental-illness/2005/04/09/1112997220286.html

And here are links to two Age articles that featured the views of Dr Suresh after he diagnosed me as delusional.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/brain-boosters-the-drug-of-choice-for-the-anxious-intellectual/2008/05/03/1209235234290.html

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/new-mental-illness-hits-refugees/2008/05/27/1211654031687.html

Is this man a model of objectivity or what? This man is practically on the Fairfax payroll!

Did he diagnose me as delusional because he wanted to protect the reputation of The Age? Did he want to punish me for attacking his favourite newspaper and put me in my place? Does he feel that anyone who attacks The Age or uses violence is crazy? Did he attempt to suppress the fact that a journalist sent secret messages because he feared it might encourage delusional people to stand by their delusions or because it makes them seem not so sick and more like normal human beings to others? In a sane world this man would at the very least be investigated for possibly committing an abuse of power.

I'm certain he knew I wasn't delusional in regards to Lawrence Money's secret messages.

That’s all I have to say for now. Please come back for the full story.