Caring, Mental Health Problems, and Empowerment

A friend of mine recently told me that he had run out of his psychiatric medication, and he was feeling a bit unwell because he had been lowering his dosage.  Luckily, the chemists let him have two days supply of tablets.Whilst he was in the chemists, he noticed a woman who had been crying, and when she saw him she fixated on him and seemed to want to talk to him.  He looked at her with kindness, but started to feel worried, because he got thefeeling that she would freak out on him and insult him because he was a man.He thought that maybe her husband had been beating her up or some other terrible trouble like that, but he wasn't feeling strong enough to help herso he avoided her eyes.

What occurs to me about what he said, is that he was caring in his feelings and concern for her, but that he didn't feel strong enough to put that care and concern into action.  In other words, he didn't feel empowered.

It's a shame that he didn't feel able to help the woman in the chemists whohad been crying, but maybe just looking at her kindly was sufficient enough for her to feel a bit better about herself.  It's sometimes hard to know when and how to help strangers who are in distress.  I've seen strangers cry and in distress before and not known how to help them, whilst other times I have intervened and asked them if they were OK.  I agree with my friend that we should try to befriend and help people who are in distress though.

It says a lot about our society when there is a lack of good samaritanship around, but not being able to put caring and concern into action is a social and a CULTURAL problem, and not just a personal one, unless we all just rely upon the Police and Social workers to do this for us.  There's always the Samaritans for people in trouble or distress, but nothing beats real face-to-face empathy, sympathy, and interactive understanding andcompassion.

The story of the good Samaritan in the Bible was about two individuals from different racial groups, one who helped the other, but would not normally even talk to one another.  The person who helped the individual who was beaten and robbed, also paid an in-keeper so the person had somewhere to stay for the night, and so empowerment can also mean economic help, independence, or mutual support.

I told my friend not to blame himself if he wasn't feeling too well to talkto the woman in the chemists.  I personally still think that you can carefor someone whilst having mental health problems, but one thing that Survivors Speak Out used to protest a lot about, is that people who have mental health problems and are parents or carers are not given any or enough practical and emotional support to be carers; because psychiatry has a false notion that you can't have mental health problems and have emotional and intellectual care and concern for others at the same time.

It's as if they are saying that we're robots with no kindness and feelings, which is completely untrue.  It's also as though they're saying that only they have the authority and status to care in society, and so therefore we can't care for and support each other as ordinary and diagnosed people. It's an argument and ideological view which is political as well, and it tends to go against collective self-help and personal empowerment in mental health.

I think it's possible to care and still be powerless though, like my friend was with the woman in the chemists, but then what the diagnosed person needs is some kind of individual or collective empowerment, and not just to be told that they are incapable of caring and being a carer.  I think we can all care for each other in society really, and I'm opposed to unequal power relationships of caring, and hierarchies of authority where one person is doing the caring and the other person is just like a subject who is considered can't be caring or having no mutual human emotions.