An
excerpt from a letter sent to my personal email address:
"
Rebecca, you wrote on your blog (which seems to be abandoned):"5150 is California Welfare and Institutions Code for the lights are on but nobody is home."How can you call yourself a professional, let alone a Christian, with a snide remark like that? Major depression is a medical illness that affects 15 million Americans adults per year. "
Allow me to answer: I feel I have
earned the right to describe "5150" any way I want, being is that, I AM one of the 15 million Americans who has been diagnosed with Major Depression. I fight and win that battle on a daily basis. I
choose to laugh rather than cry as my own form of therapy. Do I truly care about the mentally ill? I have personally wiped the bubbling foam from a mentally ill person's
trachea tube Sunday after Sunday at church services held specifically for the severely physically and mentally disabled. My father is a (
LCSW)
psychologist, and I grew up on the grounds of a state institution for the mentally ill that he was in charge of, so I feel I have more experience then many, and certainly a more unique viewpoint than most. Should I go on? I lost my
entire memory to a medical illness and was nearly, mistakenly, 5150'd myself, years ago. More? How can I call myself Christian? Being, a Christian means I have been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ who died for my sins and yours. Period. It does not mean I am perfect. As a Christian I would never, purposely cause another person, mental anguish. I feel quite certain, my blog has not truly caused you mental anguish; it is about innocuous as they come. In the
interest of fairness, Daniel, I have posted your entire email. It is your side of the story in total and I respect it, but you are barking up the wrong tree, coming after
me as not understanding the true nature of mental illness. How can I, tritely say what I say in my blog? Because I stand before you personally WITH MY OWN LIGHTS ON AND NOBODY HOME. Thank you for the email and the material.
"Rebecca, you wrote on your blog (which seems to be abandoned):"5150 is California Welfare and Institutions Code for the lights are on but nobody is home."How can you call yourself a professional, let alone a Christian, with a snide remark like that? Major depression is a medical illness that affects 15 million Americans adults per year. Over 10 million Americans have bipolar disorder. Schizophrenia, another medical illness, affects 2 million American adults. Two to 5% of American adults have panic disorder. The aggregate numbers are alarming.Are all of these Americans "crazy?" "Loons?"Only to the untrained and ignorant.Many, many times I have witnessed California's 5150 (72-hour hold) being abused by peace officers; officers who show little to no compassion for people with
bona fide medical illnesses. People are routinely humiliated, demoralized, and traumatized by being handcuffed and treated like a prisoner -- all of which stems from simple, but widespread, ignorance.So the tone, title, and subtitle of your blog does not come as a surprise to me. God forbid that you or a loved one ever have to experience any of the illnesses, whether listed above or not, at some point in their life.And spare me the public safety lecture. I've worked in EMS for years.Hoping you see the light,Daniel"
