on rage and hope, combined
I've spent some time this week with a friend in crisis. The stress of a precarious housing situation in a brutal rental market, added to the demands of the cost of living rises (eg Tory austerity come home to roost) together pressed relentlessly upon my friend and sent her into a tailspin. Life's challenges became overwhelming to the point that she ground to a halt. I won't elaborate further; suffice to say that she was in crisis mode, and is still now hauling herself out of it step by weary step.
The common narrative of this type of situation is that there are 'social factors' which 'impact upon' one's state of mental health. In other words, the problem lies within the mind of the individual – and these circumstances affect it adversely, like leaning one's weight on an open door.
Let me tell you: I am enraged by this narrative. My friend is not suffering from the 'challenges' of 'poor mental health.' She is suffering from the shit setup of a capitalist society in which shelter is a profit-making commodity rather than a human right. She is suffering from the shit setup of a capitalist society which demands that she work full-time for little pay and then fork over more than half of it to keep a roof over her head. A roof, I might add, which is no more than a single room in a shared flat – this isn't luxury we're talking about.
My friend is living between a rock and a hard place and her crisis is born of that and that alone. I am so sick of madness being framed as a personal problem, an individual illness. It's not an illness. Madness is a howl of outrage at the indignities pressed upon us, it is a spiritual cry of despair, a shriek of the really real tearing through the bullshit of this human-crafted atrocity we call civilised society.
Deep breath.
Heavy sigh.
My friend will be ok, she will be held, my personal faith contends that a solution will arise and that this episode of crisis will be resolved. I am able to see that even when she is feeling so overwhelmed that she can't see it herself. But I've been where she is, and I know how it feels to become ungrounded and to feel oneself drowning in despair. It's one of the scenes of madreality.
I need to go prepare for hosting the online Journaling for Mad Minds meetup – so I leave this post dangling. The theme of today's meetup is 'hope' and I grab hold of that, gripping onto it for all I'm worth. I offer it to my friend, and we shall see where it leads us.
photo by Dmitry Ratushny on Unsplash