In their urgency to cure my psychoses
anti depressants, SSRIs are prescribed
with lithium to settle moods and
as a last measure twelve sessions
of ECT under anaesthetic.
Noone slows down, explores reasons
for extreme symptoms at this stage of
a long life. Can they be traced to early trauma,
father’s death when only nine months old,
mother smothering her own powerful grief?
My friend says, “This is not a breakdown
but a break through.” Maybe afterwards.
Stigma of mental illness, psych ward
doesn’t admit the insights and compassion
we mad people learn for ourselves and others.
We ask for gentler environments
than mental hospital detention, rooms
for rest and recovery in communities,
care and helpful conversations, value
placed on our deeper comprehension.
