A lot of talk on social media this week- online activists shaming companies for caring straight jacket costumes, or “mad scientist” outfits. People are losing it over TV shows that have have an “insane” character or feature a haunted insane asylum. These “activists”, who say they are looking out for my best interests, claim that Halloween is aiding to stigmatize mental health patients.

Well I think this is horseshit, and exposes just how extremely privileged the social justice blogosphere is. Those of us who are disabled and do not come from money do not have the luxury to ruminate over Halloween costumes.

1/4 of Americans do not have access to mental health care. And if you are so sick that you become disabled and live in a state that does not have public services; without family funding, you don’t get help. If you are poor and disabled there are no meds to take. There is no one to talk to. If you are so sick that you can’t work, you have to be lucky enough to have friends and family step in, and if they are not rich, then you only have so much support. You have a limited window of time to make a full recovery and to get back to work at a job that has good health insurance. And if you don’t get better in time — what does that mean? If you are disabled that means you have to live on about 1k a month social security if you are lucky.

From personal experience I can tell you it means skipping meals, and eating whatever leftovers are at the food bank (think a diet of only potatoes, mac and cheese, and packaged cookies). Considering how much we know poor diet contributes to metal illness, this becomes yet another obstacle to recovery. It means having access to very limited or no help when something goes wrong with your medication. Since the side effects of many psych meds is suicide, this is a life or death issue. It means no therapy. It means when your car breaks down, you have no solution except making very difficult phone calls to folks who very often can’t help because they are dealing with their own issues of survival. It means stressing out about using too much heat when it’s cold because you might not be able to pay the bill that month. It means very limited entertainment — Youtube, social media if you can budget for internet access- no HBOGO, no Netflix. In a country where all public spaces mean you have to buy something — it means having restricted access to a social life. Recreation, and socializing… anything to take the stress out of life is so critical to recovery — but if you are poor, it becomes hard to find, and yet another additional obstacle because of the poverty.

In short — running out of money when already disabled by mental illness means you have way more to overcome to find recovery than someone with normal health insurance, and money for basic needs. And if you are chronically sick and slow to recover, friends and family are much less likely to even talk to you any more… because of stigma sure, but more likely because depressed people are really hard to deal with and for friends who have no education they have no idea what to do. It is a huge catch 22 because they are ones who can help you get out of a rut financially and emotionally. Isolation for those dealing with mental illness is the absolutely worst thing they can experience to make a bad problem even worse.

I am close to recovering from a half decade lost from severe mental illness, and the side effects of medication. I have been locked inside a hospital five times. I almost died, several times, and because I had some support I found a way out. Even for me though, someone who had a very successful career, someone with a middle class family, survival still isn’t a done deal. Work is sparse, and the cost of medical care is high. How does this kind of chronic illness play out for those less privileged than me? If you visit a homeless camp in any major city — you will meet people who didn’t make it. People just like you — who got sick, who’s families couldn’t help any more, who had to choose between medical help and housing. And once they were on the streets, a chronic issue because unimaginably worse.

So when I see the outrage over Halloween costumes being a huge problem for those dealing with mental illness it makes me a little sick. To those in our patient group who are rich, the poor and working class are still invisible. Instead of being outraged that people with mental illness are disposed of en mass into tent cities to get even sicker in the elements, they care about what fictional character is on TV.

I’m not saying I don’t care about issues of representation in media. I do, it is an important conversation — but when others who are less fortunate are literally left to die in the streets, and no one cares…. isn’t this more deserving of our outrage and activism? Are the very real conditions of the poor who are dying in our cities because they don’t have access to health care, food and shelter worth at least even a few tweets?

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