Crazy: The
New Plague of the 21st Century
“They’re
downstairs in the basement, I heard them, big snakes, they must have come from
them rattlesnake eggs Little Mickey left down there…they were hissing and
screaming my name, you have to do something about this RJ, I can’t live like
this!
This all started when Eve and the
Voodoo woman came to my house and put down that Voodoo powder around my bed and
the three headed monkey started swinging from the chandelier back when your
Daddy was in the hospital…”
My heart had
sank because either she thought I was some kind of fool and she was playing
another head game, or she is descending into some kind of mental illness or
both. “Mom…Little Mickey hasn’t lived
here in 10 years, there are no snakes in the basement, I was just down there,
the hissing is from the heat coming up, the same hissing that you’ve heard for
the last 48 years. By the way
Rattlesnakes bear live young, they are not hatched from eggs.
Aunt Eve was
never here with a Voodoo woman and the powder around your bed was a kind of
carpet cleanser Maria used to clean your rug.
Stop talking crazy because it’s upsetting, annoying and you don’t even
believe it Mom.” Looking at her I
noticed her ankles were swollen and she left her medicine by her bed. “Mom, Why don’t you take your medicine and
why won’t you let Dee take you to the Doctor.”
“I know what your trying to do RJ, you all are trying to get me put in the “Crazy House” and take everything I have, you all are evil!”
Then Mom started shouting “Almighty God is going to send Angels down from Heaven to stomp the shit out of you and strike you all dead!”
I stopped
her “‘MOM’ you are making ‘here’ the ‘Crazy House’. Pilgrim State has been torn
down, if you keep seeing things they will put you in a nursing home; a
neurologist can give you medication that keeps you from seeing ‘three headed
monkeys swinging from the chandelier’ believe me Mom if me or Fatwad saw
anything swinging from the Chandelier we would kill it or make it pay rent.”
But it was early December
and Dee (my sister) did have Jenna (Dee’s daughter, Mom’s granddaughter) go
with her and take Mom to the neurologist.
Mom will not travel with me anywhere (another story).
The
Neurologist ran down the news to Dee who gave it to me in short order when she
got Mom back to the house. “RJ, the
Doctor thinks Mom has DLB (Dementia with Lewy Bodies) it’s a type of
progressive dementia. There is no cure,
treatments are limited and some experimental, DLB is a neurodegenerative
disorder that results in progressive intellectual and functional deterioration.”
“So let me
get this straight, there is no cure for what this Neurologist thinks Mom has,
is that right Dee.” “Yep, he won’t know for sure until some blood work comes
back and if he can get Mom to cooperate in taking some more tests RJ.” I thanked Dee and called up the Elder Care
service that I have been taking classes with to find out what else I could do
for Mom.
I had to see
my Doctors about my blood pressure and anxiety.
Candy told me to do something about it earlier last month when she and
her ‘girlfriends’ had conspired to hogtie me, drive me out to the Pine Barrens
and burn out three tazers on my angry, worried, worn out ass. When I saw my Primary Care Doctor she had information from
my other two Medical Specialists.
“You are a
caregiver in need of care RJ. You are
burned out from worry and the anxiety of dealing with a parent in physical and
mental decline. Right now the County
Health Agencies along with others are going to have a new set of caregivers
look after your mother. My concern is
‘you’ RJ.” I said “OK, what is it your
going to prescribe for me now Doc.”
My Doctor
(an attractive middle age woman) said “you need to get away because you cannot
control your anxiety levels. You need to
get a new perspective on this problem and prepare yourself for the hard
realities that will inevitably come.
Right now you are a stroke and/or heart attack candidate and if you have
either one, if you live, I have concerns on how you would survive if you
couldn’t take care of you!”
I said, “I
see your point.” Doc looked at me and
put her hand on my hand and said “do you really? RJ, I have your file, I know your wife died, your
family all but puts the financial burdens related to your Mother on you, you
have no steady companionship, you have no one to confide in, your Father,
Uncles and Mentors are dead and most of your friends are miles away or
insulated from your home life. All these stress factors contribute to your condition.”
I asked,
“What are you getting at Doc?” “If you end up in a facility who will take care
of you RJ?” “OK, just tell me what I
need to do Doc?” “I suggest you take
some time to get away from your family, get your siblings involved in you
Mothers care and look to your physical and mental health.” “So Doc, you mean be somewhere else for a
couple of weeks?” “Yes, maybe even
longer RJ.”
I left the
Doctors office went home and prayed.
Then I got a call from my old boss in LA. “RJ, we need you as soon as possible…when can
you get out here?”
I said “let me clear
up some home problems and I will call you back.” I did as the Doctor ordered, my old bosses
call was affirmation and an answer.
While boarding the aircraft the Stewardess stared at me and I asked her “is everything OK," the Stewardess said “I was going to ask you that, you looked
stressed out.”
I said, “TSA ransacked my carry on because I
had a plastic bag full of coins. All of it American
money I set aside for paying tolls or buying food from vending machines if I
found myself on the road. TSA broke the
strap on my carry on and I am thoroughly pissed off. God forbid I drop a roll of dimes to call my
useless Congresswoman to complain.”
The
stewardess brought me a complementary cocktail and sat me in a row with a
vacant seat next to me so I could calm down.
As the plane
took off at JFK, I thought long and hard about the details of what Dee
presented me from Mom’s Neurologist. I
had cross referenced the CDC before I left to see what the hell the stats
really are even though I knew the numbers from the year before. Am I the only one going through this or is
this a big problem that no one wants to talk about.
Is mental illness the new plague for the 21st
century?
The hard
fast facts are that 1 in 4 adults in the United States has a mental
illness. That is 25% of the adults
living in this country. Mental illness
is associated with cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes. There is serious mental health surveillance
done by the CDC through subsidiary Health Assessment Groups.
I thought
about how people can snap, the number of tragedies in this country caused by
poor help or no treatment of mental illness to include massacres, revenge
killings, random shootings and suicides.
As I sat in the aircraft, the mini tv in the headrest played the
breaking news of the Elementary School Massacre at Newtown, Connecticut.
I had to turn it off, the grief was overwhelming and the pain of it resounded deep in my bones to the point of tears.
The reporter
said that the “profile of the shooters in all of the current tragedies are
single males, anti-social, sociopaths, mostly Caucasian with a history of
mental health issues.” Until the stigma
surrounding mental illness is dealt with the most heinous manifestations of
untreated Mental Illness will result in the death of innocent bystanders and
people we know.
But first,
we must assure our own mental health.
Then deal with the realities of admitting that we are dealing with
Mental Health issues right in our own homes.
If we don’t take responsibility for our own selves the Government will
inflict and require the responsibility through laws.
Don’t get
labeled. But do get help for you or your
family. Somebody else’s life may depend
on it.
RJ
the government always seems to have their hands up your ass one way or the other.
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