*The Medicalization of Society*

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I am still following/reading and immensely enjoying /benefiting from this thread, I'm just experiencing heavy brain fog that makes communicating in a worthwhile fashion almost impossible. I'm taking it all in though, so keep it going please.

Are you still following a gluten-free diet?

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You remind me of my daughter. For her 48th birthday she threw a raw food party and her cake was a black bean cake. Very tasty, so I heard. I didn't go. Stayed home to babysit so my youngest daughter could go.

Mmmmm! Delicious. So am I correct in thinking that you are no longer on a gluten-free diet?

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You are correct.

You can only really take in one horror at a time, but it's not just women. There's just so many things wrong with the world...
Even when they do wake up to a certain horror, most people don't seem able to stay awake for too long. Or they pick one or two issues and can't focus on the rest because it's too horrible.
Like cruelty to animals... The first movement about protecting animals preceded the first movement to protect children, and that first effort was actually a division of an animal cruelty organization.
It's so overwhelming that it's hard to think straight.

I feel a difference, depending on what I've been eating lately. And I really believe that vitamins have made a difference. Funny, that the shrinks have never once have asked or make a suggestion about food.

Today's headache: my husband's little brother (age 40) and his girlfriend.
He was a heroin addict for decades and his own mother still has a restraining order. He knows what it's like to sleep outside in the winter.

He's been on the wagon for the past year or so, and seems to be truly trying. He has a marginal job with a landscaper, so it's not worth much in the off-season.
His girlfriend has a similar history, plus bipolar, plus a hysterectomy last November. She's out of her mind. Her shrinks are through charity care, and you get what you pay for. If they were trying to kill her, I'm not sure what they would do differently.

They were living with a friend in a condemned house, which was sold a couple of months ago. The deadline to get out was April 1st. They did nothing at all until the new owner stopped by to remind them that they needed to be out the next day. The acted as though this was news and flew into a panic, running around begging for money and/or a place to stay, looking for a furnished room... He has been in similar situations before, and still expected people to bail him out. The duo can't understand why everyone is so mean, why no one will help them.

They ended up in our shed, and still have no plan. They've been there for two nights, and will be back again tonight, but it has not occurred to them to come by during the daylight to clean it up a little. I went out today and spent a couple of hours rearranging and sweeping, so at least they have enough room to stretch out. Neither did it occur to them to take the beach chairs off the wall hooks so that they could sit. I arranged things so it's almost habitable.

I gave him a ride this morning to a friend who owed them money. I didn't ask, but I'm guessing $50 or so. And his first order of business was to stop by the convenience store for cigarettes and two large coffees. I actually yelled at him that that's crazy, and that She needs FOOD. "Ok," said he, "I'll get come doughnuts." I yelled at him again. So he got both the coffees and the doughnuts.

I called his mother (my mother-in-law) to rant about how they act like they really don't seem to know any better... she said she would try to repeat that lesson. She's stuck with them anyway. She won't let them sleep in the house, but can't bring herself to kick them out during the day, in the rain...

There's so many things wrong with everyone, everywhere...

Great thread. I can't think of anything to add, but a couple of articles (I don't know if people have generally seen these or not).

Excellent piece from the Ragged Edge Online:

Critic of the Dawn, by Cal Montgomery

This is a long conversation between two autistic adults about institutions. I imagined those places would be bad, but this lays out the literal structural institutionalization of dehumanization that is inherent the idea of such places, and how it effects people. (Warning: not good to read if you're having a bad day.)

Conversation About Institutions

An autistic adult failed by everyone whose job it was (supposedly) to help. Too "high functioning" to qualify for help, to "low functioning" know how to world works and not to end up in prison for not cleaning her house. (Also a tough read.)

Autobiography of Anonymous

Brilliant. Thank you very much for the links.

I had already read the piece by Cal Montgomery, and I remember it having a huge effect on me.

Reading about the institutions I am not so much surprised by the descriptions of conditions, ( which I had already heard about from a couple of friends and read about in books etc ), as by the fact that governments continue to fund, maintain, and build, these places.

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@ Apple_In_My_Eye

I have read Autobiography of Anonymous. I had to force myself to keep reading it as It's very disturbing. I probably will never forget what I read and wonder endlessly about the woman who wrote it. Whoever she is, I hope she will one day have the peace she deserves. I can only take so much of that kind of reading/knowledge in one day, so the rest of the links you posted will have to wait. Knowing that so many people like that woman and her story exist and will go on existing is very heart breaking.

For someone with nothing to say, those were some heavy links. I was up until 6:00 am.

@ Ouinon

Sure, you're welcome.

@ cosmiccat

Yeah, Autobiography of Anonymous is one of the hardest things I've ever read. I wouldn't recommend anyone read all 3 of those at once unless they really feel up to it (I discovered them one by one over some months).

I've been searching all evening for an update I saw once, but can't find now. It was basically that her circumstances were somewhat stable, and she was wondering aloud if her spirit had been hurt too much to make a happy life -- but I suppose if someone has to wonder, then their spirit isn't broken and there's hope. But still, heartbreaking, yeah.

@ Tahitiii

Wow, you read that all in one night?

Well, for what I can't get my brain to express those authors do a great job. (I could really use telepathy for direct non-verbal thought transfer...) Those articles just come together in my mind in a way that makes 'sense' of a lot of human insanity. Stanford Prison Experiment, basically; and in the way that that dynamic is everywhere, and that the only difference is that most people in (our non 3rd world) everyday life have limited power over us (well, more or less). That it's about everything from why people can witness bullying without 'seeing' it, to why psych survivors and POW's and other disparate people can tell such similar stories of abuse.
That abusers don't lack empathy or Theory of Mind, but are literally running it in reverse. They'd be worse at it if they had no empathy or ToM.
@ Ouinon

Sure, you're welcome.

@ cosmiccat

Yeah, Autobiography of Anonymous is one of the hardest things I've ever read. I wouldn't recommend anyone read all 3 of those at once unless they really feel up to it (I discovered them one by one over some months).

I've been searching all evening for an update I saw once, but can't find now. It was basically that her circumstances were somewhat stable, and she was wondering aloud if her spirit had been hurt too much to make a happy life -- but I suppose if someone has to wonder, then there's hope. But still, heartbreaking, yeah.

@ Tahitiii

Well, for what I can't get my brain to express (yet) those authors do a great job. (I could really use telepathy for direct non-verbal thought transfer...) Those articles just come together in my mind in a way that makes 'sense' of a lot of human insanity. Stanford Prison Experiment, basically; and in the way that that dynamic is everywhere, and that the only difference is that most people in (our non 3rd world) everyday life have limited power over us (well, more or less). That it's about everything from why people can witness bullying without 'seeing' it, to why psych survivors and POW's and other disparate people can tell such similar stories of abuse.
That there is a specific, refined, instinct in the human brain not just to abuse but also for how to go about it. (And that that conscious awareness is secondary to it.) That abusers don't lack empathy or Theory of Mind, but are literally running it in reverse. They'd be worse at it if they had no empathy or ToM.

Well, maybe all that's not a revelation to anyone but me, I dunno. My thoughts all coming out in a jumble here, so enough rambling for now.

No, I didn't finish. I'd read a little, drift a little, read a little, drift a little...