It often hits me like thunderbolt or a punch to the throat when I’ve called suicide prevention lines or my therapist again questions whether she needs to invoke the Mental Health Act, call the cops & have me admitted to the psych ward against my will…
That none of these ppl have the right or moral authority in a country w #AssistedSuicide to prevent me from unaliving myself. I’m totally against the use of law enforcement in mental health crises. For the most part I’m against involuntary admission too. But it goes beyond that.
I’m beginning to wonder, and I assure you that once mental illness becomes a qualifier for assisted suicide many others will too. What exactly is the pt of #SuicidePrevention? What’s the pt of therapy? What’s the pt of voluntary admission? Yea I know the right and proper answers.
But I’m putting voice to something that will surely rise up in the minds of more than just me when living at the bottom of a dark hole. If the state & the law, society & culture, media & medical establishment tell me suicide is a reasonable response to disability & mental illness
I’m telling you, #MAIDinCanada undermines everything. It undermines me when I’m alone with my thoughts. It undermines the encouraging and loving voice of people who care about me. It undermines the voice of mental health professionals who are genuinely trying to help me.
You simply can’t tell disabled & mentally ill folks they’d be better off dead, that you support their “choice” to die with a drs note by enshrining assisted suicide in law & expect *the law itself* not to have an impact. For C7 to not undermine mental health & helping professions
One of the biggest reasons I have considered dying as answer to my chronic pain, mental illness and increasing disability is *only* bc Canada has assisted suicide laws. The only “treatment” our “universal” healthcare will provide me.
For 2nd time in a yr I’m abt to spend considerable time in inpatient psychiatric care, again, largely bc Canada has MAiD laws. Offering “comfortable supported peaceful” #AssistedSuicide to ppl w/ mental illness or disabled folks going thru a season of depression Is Not Compassion
For 3yrs MAiD has fucked me up. Add severe persistent pain, denial of pain meds & medical attn, discrimination & misconduct in healthcare, poverty, pandemic policy that dictates disabled people are disposable, #ableism (internal & systemic) trauma (personal & systemic) then what?
I as excited as a kid on Christmas waiting for Santa! Why? I’m getting a new bed delivered. Before it comes and I’m able to post pics, I want to tell you about why this is a major accomplishment for me. Bc in the choosing & ordering, I had to fight thru a lot of #PovertyTrauma 🧵
I live in legislated disability #poverty. I have been sleeping on an old couch for about 5yrs. I haven’t had the privacy or mental / health benefits of my own room. I have chronic pain. #ODSPoverty has meant I couldn’t replace the ancient bed that was more painful than the couch.
I was able to buy a new high quality bed & bedding bc I made some 1X money in Nov. I am giddy w/ excitement rn bc it’s coming… soon. But I shed a lot of tears in the process of buying this bed. A few months ago @DisabilityFili1 I shared about growing up in generational poverty.
#HappyNewYear to all my crip friends w special shoutout of Gratitude to @mssinenomine, @Arley_McNeney & @mich_mcq
I’ve been in hospital near 2 months & 2+ hrs from home. But G’s @cripcare1 Holiday Edition has made sure I’m brimming with crip love & care🧵 cripcare.com/crip-care
1st came cookies for each patient on my ward. Everyone was in Grateful disbelief how & why some unknown persons would bring them Craig’s famous 🍪 I felt same of @mich_mcq & Lucy who brought these to me, a stranger, along w my 1st real coffee in a long time Cokes too! TY Michelle
Then came cards & letters, they’re still comin from mostly @DisabilityFili1 mutual peeps from #DisabilityTwitter.
When @mssinenomine asked me what I wanted most in hospital. This was it. To hear from y’all. I’m quiet lately as I work on getting well but u mean the world to me 💜
My roomie will tell you unrelenting severe pain has snuffed the light & life out of my eyes. The person I love most misses me bc I have almost no capacity to talk to her for the few mins I force myself to now 🧵
I know I’ve been writing abt my deadly dance w MAiD for awhile. I often feel lk I’m crying wolf. Gawd i want that to b the case. But in Apr @DisabilityFili1 when saying for 1st time out loud I didn’t think I’d b alive next yr, I was already barely hanging on
There are no words for how annihilating months of 8,9,10 outta 10 pain has been. There’s nothing left of my life except trying to stay alive 1 hr at a time until I can maybe medicate myself to sleep. I’ll do “almost ANYTHING to relieve” this pain.
I’ve been saying this for awhile. Saying this to my therapist. But it’s not *just* relevant for when #MAiD becomes available for sole mental illness. Because Bill C7 isn’t medical assistance in dying. It #AssistedSuicide for disabled people who are not dying. What message…
What message do you think state and culturally sanctioned, medically assisted suicide sends to disabled folks before we even talk about poverty or lack of supports? Do we honestly not think someone who wants to prematurely end their life doesn’t incl some lvl of depression? And…
What kind of msg do we think is being sent in headlines after headline, and in a MAiD process when there are clear remedies to suffering, stated by the applicant and/or MAiD assessor but policies, systems and govts will not provide? Would rather euthanize than relieve suffering?
Not just suicide prevention crisis lines. When my therapist asks “do I have a plan?” How fcked up is it that the biggest part of my answer is now that the canadian govt has a plan for me. She then has to take a somewhat neutral position. Why? I’m disabled.
OTD that MAiD is trending & ppl are so outraged abt what #DisablePeopleToldYou was gonna happen. I don’t have more words for how much assisted suicide laws messed w me or what it’s like to have mental health professionals try to help but ultimately must say — It’s your “choice”
Not once in 6 mnths have I had traditional #SuicidePrevention. Nope. Bc I have #disabilities (and severe pain the healthcare system refuses to relieve) I at best get — well if it’s what you really want u’ll hv to see if the drs who refuse you help will give you a lethal injection