Furious Seasons

April 25, 2006

Who Is A Survivor?

My little dust-up with a group of suicide survivors over the weekend has gotten me thinking how we use the term survivor in the mental health world. The suicide survivors don't think I am one of them, despite
overcoming serious bipolar disorder and suicidality myself. Apparently, that's just not traumatic enough for them.

Anyway, the term survivor comes in 3 different flavors in the mental health world. There are survivors of suicide: not necessarily mentally-ill themselves, they have lost a family member, lover, friend, etc. to suicide OR they are mentally-ill themselves and have survived suicide atttempts, suicidality and so on. There are consumer/survivors: a catchall term that describes patients in some form of recovery from mental illness. And, there are psychiatric survivors: the most politically-charged of the survivor
groups, they are former psych patients who've typically had awful experiences with mental health care and as a result have rejected psychiatry and most standard definitions of mental illness.

I am not a big fan of balkanizing survivordom this way. We are all fundamentally in the same struggle and differentiating ourselves this way dilutes both the term survivor and whatever power (arguably, damn little) that attaches to it. But everyone likes to see their own trauma as being more special than someone else's. I have no idea why that is, except I suppose it gives people an identity to hang onto.

But you sure don't see cancer survivors dividing amongst themselves this way. The yellow Livestrong bracelet covers all cancers.

Either way, I think we need better terminology in the mental health world because all of these terms have weaknesses. The term consumer/survivor, for example, is one promoted by the federal government's SAMSHA--and I just don't trust language being given to the mentally-ill by the government. Psychiatric survivor is far too confrontational. Suicide survivor seems to be an exclusive club. And so on.

But with the deep ideological divides in the mental health world, it's hard to expect that kind of cohesion. Everyone wants their agenda to prosper--from Fuller Torrey to David Oaks. I wonder if we could even agree on a rubber bracelet of our own (I know that NMHA's Mpower has some kind of braclet thingy) and especially what color it would be and what it would say. What is our Livestrong message?

Personally, I don't need the term survivor to feel good about myself. But it is out there, so I may as well use it. And so I will. Without qualification.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at April 25, 2006 08:48 AM

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Comments

Well I dont know what color I would want,probably pink, at the end of the day black. Yellow means "do not resuscitate" in the ER. Ive seen many psychs recently wearing that band. Do they mean it? does anyone mean it when they wear a band? do they know the ER meaning and not want to end up on life support?is it for show?too look cool?I wasnt impressed by one of the docs wearing that yellow one, because , he didnt give a shit, and was cold hearted. : I want one that says "Carpe Diem". But that is what I would wear in the morning. As far as that goes, I might need an assortment of sayings to go with the moods. As the day goes on, I may switch to "shut up", "bad ass", "im nice, really I am", "life is hell". Could act a warning system for those around me. I can hear it now: Look out she has the bad ass bracelet on. Thank God she's wearing Carpe Diem, maybe she'll cook dinner!

Posted by: Stephany at April 25, 2006 09:44 AM

http://www.mhasp.org/bracelet.html
"Recovery Wristbands
The Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania has launched an awareness campaign to promote the idea that people with mental illnesses can and do recover and live productive lives in the community.

You can get your own orange silicon wristband with the words "Embrace Recovery" or order enough for your entire organization!

Wearing these bracelets spreads the word that recovery from mental illness is real. The recovery movement encourages us to move past merely accepting mental illness. It empowers consumers to take charge of their lives and the decisions that affect them."
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There's another word you have posed here: recovery. But it's ongoing. Lots of room for thought isn't there.
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http://www.schizophrenia.com/sznews/archives/002171.html
I like this one. Many times I have used the words, courage, hope and dignity in my journey. Dignity is one of the first things I saw missing for some patients in psych wards. Every one needs courage and we can't lost hope or we would be toast.

Posted by: Stephany at April 25, 2006 09:54 AM

It's just people angling for status, man. It's no different than Hot Topic punks trainspotting for posers, and kids who listened to Thursday "before they broke" talking trash about kids who listen to "Taking Back Sunday" as being "new school."

It's the old "my pain was more significant than your so I'm more important." What they fail to realize is that everyone gets the pain they can handle - it may not be easy to get through it, but no one gets more than they can rise to survive. You proved that.

Anything else is a fucking pity party and I have no time for it.

Posted by: Puckett at April 25, 2006 11:45 AM