This morning I had to drive my son to work. At 6:20 a.m. On a Sunday. The town is so quiet during that time. We went to get breakfast and coffee at a Starbucks drive-thru, his treat, as a way to thank me. I normally sleep in on the weekends. Being up early like this placed me in a type of lucid dream state. Has this ever happened to you? You’re OK to drive but much of you is still in bed.
We drove through town, the same route I take to work. The entire trip was 40 minutes, but we only saw perhaps 10 cars. This October morning, in the city on Bellingham Bay, the sun sleeps in until 8:00 a.m., and a low fog blankets the hills and frosts the street lights. I’m thinking back to last Thursday when I called 9-1-1 to assist a young homeless guy I’ve been keeping an eye on. I see him on my way to and from work right around this intersection. Wearing the same clothes, curly red hair, and an overgrown beard, too thin. He is someone’s son.
Last Thursday he was in crisis. Standing on the corner of an intersection that directs traffic coming off the freeway with the University during rush hour. He had smeared mud in his hair and his arms were flailing about. The local H.O.T. team advised me to call 9-1-1, so I did. At 6:00 a.m. on a Sunday, I see his Thursday-ghost on the corner. In my lucid state, I wondered where he slept. Was he in the Arboretum, the wooded hill adjacent to the University? It is thick enough to keep a sleeping person safe.
I thought about the word Arboretum. An Arboretum is a botanical garden devoted to trees. And then the word “asylum.”
Asylum can be political.
The right of asylum is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another entity which in medieval times could offer sanctuary.
-Wikipedia
Asylum, according to the Oxford Dictionary, also means a place that offers shelter and support to people who are mentally ill.
Let me share a little American Asylum history. In the modern, industrialized America, we had asylums until the 1960s. President John F. Kennedy signed the Community Mental Health Act on October 31, 1963—60 years ago. Kennedy had a special interest in the issue of mental health because his sister, Rosemary, had incurred brain damage after being lobotomized at the age of 23. The institutions were generally replaced with SSDI benefits and new psychiatric mood-altering drugs. In a sense this was “wall-less” care; give the people some rent money and prescribe them drugs to calm them, they should be able to live a more natural life. The 1975 movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest greatly changed people’s perspectives on asylums. There was an outcry to increase the rights of patients, as more and more abuse and neglect cases began to emerge; insane asylums were a legal risk. Over the decades following presidents began to lower the federal funding and close these institutions systematically, releasing the patients out into society. Some folks adapted many did not. But, here’s the thing, NEW patients continue to be diagnosed. These are the lucky ones who happen to be in the right condition, have the money, healthcare, case management, to receive a diagnosis.
19.86% of adults are experiencing a mental illness. Equivalent to nearly 50 million Americans. 4.91% are experiencing a severe mental illness.
NAMI Mental Health Facts, date unknown, https://www.nami.org/nami/media/nami-media/infographics/generalmhfacts.pdf
The World Health Organization (WHO) claims between 2017-2022 there was a 13% increase in worldwide mental health conditions “due to demographic changes” including substance use disorders. In America, we’ve encountered wave after wave of opioid, meth, and fentanyl epidemics. Many people of various backgrounds self-medicating.
Childhood drama is also damaging. Finally, in 2021, the National Institute of Health published, (I want to say finally admitted) “There is strong evidence of an association between childhood trauma and later mental illness.” Could it be that a percentage of Americans with undiagnosed mental disorders, because of the stigma towards the mentally ill, had children, and raised them with inconsistencies and trauma? The children learned these behaviors, didn’t recognize them as toxic, and repeated the behaviors on their children? My question: Could it be that 1 in 5 American homes are factories generating mentally unstable adults? Is this America’s new industry?
You know, I’m just one person, asking questions. I work with low-income people and do my best to get them housed. I’m seeing an increase in clients who need personal assistance walking through each step because they lack basic skills such as following up, filling out an application, using computers, and submitting paperwork on time. Often over the phone or an in-person visit, when they realize they messed up, or are extra desperate, a middle-aged adult will slip into a child-like voice unconsciously. People sometimes revert to childlike behavior to cope with trauma, stress, severe illness, or mental health disorders. Age regression can be unconscious (involuntary) or conscious (voluntary) behavior.
The history lesson and rant are over for today. As you can tell, I got beef. So many hurting people walk our streets, hurting inside and out. What is America doing about it?
I drop my son off and drive home, no sign of the red-haired homeless young man, and on comes the 1993 song by the Crash Test Dummies, “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” on my car radio. We saw them. When we were kids, teenagers, in college, at parties as young adults, co-workers at our jobs, a neighbor on our block in crisis. We see them on the street on our way to work—–hurting people. Mentally ill, homeless, hurting people who have a right to live life as they want to.
Is it working?
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33315268/
https://www.verywellhealth.com/age-repression-therapy-5212676#:~:text=People%20sometimes%20revert%20to%20childlike,or%20conscious%20(voluntary)%20behavior.
shannon p. laws 