Because of my interest in the suicides at the Gap in Albany I have been loosely following the story of poor Charmaine Dragun who jumped into similar Gap in Sydney. This 'Perth native jumped off the Gap on November 2, 2007 after sending a message to her long-term partner Simon Struthers saying she "couldn't conquer (her) thoughts."'
It is sad that no-one seemed to be able to help her and I really feel for her family who are trying desparately to understand but I am just appalled at some of the statements people are making about this tragic event.
The latest is that: 'Had she been diagnosed with a bipolar disorder she would have been properly treated with a mood stabiliser and she probably would not have committed suicide.' Funny that, I seem to remember someone else who had been diagnosed with the same disorder, was getting treatment and jumped into the Gap in Albany anyway. In my better moments I think these statements are just plain stupid but in my worst I think they are incredibly arrogant. The medical profession knows so little about mental illness it is embarassing, even more tragic is that they don't realise how little they know.
Primitive cultures know more about this than our own sophisticated medical profession. I worked with psychotics for 2 years in a 'mental institution' and 5 years at a drop in centre. I don't profess to have all the answers but anyone with a bit of insight can see that these people are suffering from what 'primitives' refer to as 'a loss of soul'. Is it any wonder that so many of them talk incessantly about Jesus and the Devil in their grasping to find it, although ironically it is Christianity itself that has contributed to their condition by splitting off the larger chunk of the psyche.
My time as a mental health worker convinced me that drugs simply try to control the condition and nobody gets cured. There are so few alternative options if you don't want to take the drugs and they have horrendous side effects. I was not surprised to hear that they are still using the same major tranquilisers they were 30 years ago. Over the last few years I have watched as one of my previous 'clients', who I met as a young man with the usual attendant 'voices', decline steadily. In front of my eyes he morphed into an obese zombie with little to look forward to and the prospect of further Parkinson-like side effects from the long-term use of drugs that keep him 'functional'. Go on, define 'functional'.
