Some layers don't understand how my mental health crisis works. Police should be able to help me, even if I incriminate myself a little bit.

I think I can help you a little, because you report exactly the same feelings I had all though my youth (and still get intermittently, like today, when in the most deranged possible I just promised to destroy my muse with an 'ammer because toaday, now, I am burningly angry and resentful of aspects of my situation)

Here's the thing, I am in my sixties, and apart from one time when I made the mistake of "seeking help" and got given Prozac, which seriously unbalanced me, I've hurt no-one including myself, since I got a grip back in the very early eighties. 

The bad news is that there is no magic wand, but there are some coping techniques that I lucked into and will now try and share.

1. REMEMBER THIS: These moods are always transitory. AWAYS. You are quite rational, you can see that if you act on those strong feelings things will go to ***, so DON'T. A mantra that hippies use for dealing with the effects of strong psychedelic drugs, (particularly "bad trips") is to remember that this is a temporary problem and that all you need to do is, DO NOTHING and wait it out). Seriously, that's the trick, it worked for me and kept me out of the MH and Justice systems for decades until I was able to work out/ find out out WHY my life was so *** that I felt that way.. 

2. At the end of the day, these negative feelings of frustration and powerlessness are just that. Strong feelings. The whole trick of winnig versus losing, appears to be gaining mastery over your own feelings and not letting them get in the way of your life.

And how do you do that smarty pants? (I hear the reader thinking!) Well, Initially, I discovered the power of cannabis to dull my feelings to a more manageable level around the age of 18.. Drugs can work well, whether licit or illicit to help MANAGE your pain, but they don't really change your situation...

3. Now, and this is where many people will stop reading, if you want a more permanent solution, than merely "staying out of trouble & surviving" you will need to get yourself some "religion"! If there is anyone still reading at this point, here is why we need what I call "religion". Life is as you so poignantly describe, almost impossibly hard and unpleasant for some of us, yet not all of us. For some people life is clearly easy, and things go their way, much more so than for us "losers"!

Rather than resenting the winners in life, (particularly the way they try to stay as far away from "losers like us" as they can!) We need to accept the worked example that they offer, and study it until we can do it ourselves, right? Well I did that for about 30 years, and to save you some time, it's just blind luck. they had the right skillset, aptitude, birth parents, whatever, to allow them to hit the ground running, and thrive in this set of circumstances. We didn't. SO there is NO POINT in "playing the game" exactly the same way that they do, 'cos you will lose. Over and over again. Like I did for a LONG time.

Here's a bit of conspiracy theory, that if you think about it, might turn out to be true. In the 1950's the "generation gap" was created, and became very popular in the media. A serious side effect of defining the "generation gap" was to cut the young people off from listening to the wisdom of the older people, by painting them (us!) as "out of date" or "irrelevant". The idea (according to the theory) seems to have been to successfully erase the sort of oral tradition that cultures are built on with a television tradition, where elders passing on the hard won and valuable lessons of life have been replaced with talking heads telling us and the kids what vested interests pay them to say.

It is hard to push against such pervasive and evil programming with a simple post on a forum, but if I could I'd tell you as a "Wiser elder" that there is a "game" out there called "Mental Health" In this game some pay counsellers and get paid (in some cases very handsomely) for their participation and some players get to be the "patient" who is nether paid, nor does he get to stop playing the role after the working day is over.

I'd you can control your own actions and presentation well enough to avoid playing that mental health game, particularly in the "patient" role, I'd highly recommend it.

Playing the mental health game although it seems to have rewards for some people, tends to disqualify (or at least handicap you) in many of life's other, more enjoyable and rewarding games. And it's almost impossible to stop playing that game once started, because you need the people who are being paid for "treating" your "illness" to sign off on your mental health, which both cuts off part of their income source AND they'd face questioning from their peers, who apparently never "cure" anyone of MH issues.

I watched an interviewer camped outside a psychiatric convention ask exactly that question of the esteemed professionals as they left their conference; "Have you ever cured anybody?" NOT one of them claimed to have ever accomplished that feat.

BUT at least they all got paid for their "efforts". One of many groups that get paid for participation, no matter how ineffective or even harmful to the clients well being that turns out to be. YOUR misery is bread and drink for most of these people, literally!!

And that goes doubly so, for policemen... You are better off keeping your own nose clean, rather than hoping some "professional"  will actually HELP you improve your own lot.

(Lets see how many read this, and are moved to write a detailed first hand refutation of what I say, including a worked example of where their lives personally got improved as a result of reaching out to the police or mental health services... Maybe my observations, limited as they are, are missing out some great and uplifting stories where the involvement of the "professionals" actually did make a qualitive improvement to their lives. Just because I've not experienced or heard of it, does not mean it does not happen).   

I think I can help you a little, because you report exactly the same feelings I had all though my youth (and still get intermittently, like today, when in the most deranged possible I just promised to destroy my muse with an 'ammer because toaday, now, I am burningly angry and resentful of aspects of my situation)

Here's the thing, I am in my sixties, and apart from one time when I made the mistake of "seeking help" and got given Prozac, which seriously unbalanced me, I've hurt no-one including myself, since I got a grip back in the very early eighties. 

The bad news is that there is no magic wand, but there are some coping techniques that I lucked into and will now try and share.

1. REMEMBER THIS: These moods are always transitory. AWAYS. You are quite rational, you can see that if you act on those strong feelings things will go to ***, so DON'T. A mantra that hippies use for dealing with the effects of strong psychedelic drugs, (particularly "bad trips") is to remember that this is a temporary problem and that all you need to do is, DO NOTHING and wait it out). Seriously, that's the trick, it worked for me and kept me out of the MH and Justice systems for decades until I was able to work out/ find out out WHY my life was so *** that I felt that way.. 

2. At the end of the day, these negative feelings of frustration and powerlessness are just that. Strong feelings. The whole trick of winnig versus losing, appears to be gaining mastery over your own feelings and not letting them get in the way of your life.

And how do you do that smarty pants? (I hear the reader thinking!) Well, Initially, I discovered the power of cannabis to dull my feelings to a more manageable level around the age of 18.. Drugs can work well, whether licit or illicit to help MANAGE your pain, but they don't really change your situation...

3. Now, and this is where many people will stop reading, if you want a more permanent solution, than merely "staying out of trouble & surviving" you will need to get yourself some "religion"! If there is anyone still reading at this point, here is why we need what I call "religion". Life is as you so poignantly describe, almost impossibly hard and unpleasant for some of us, yet not all of us. For some people life is clearly easy, and things go their way, much more so than for us "losers"!

Rather than resenting the winners in life, (particularly the way they try to stay as far away from "losers like us" as they can!) We need to accept the worked example that they offer, and study it until we can do it ourselves, right? Well I did that for about 30 years, and to save you some time, it's just blind luck. they had the right skillset, aptitude, birth parents, whatever, to allow them to hit the ground running, and thrive in this set of circumstances. We didn't. SO there is NO POINT in "playing the game" exactly the same way that they do, 'cos you will lose. Over and over again. Like I did for a LONG time.

Here's a bit of conspiracy theory, that if you think about it, might turn out to be true. In the 1950's the "generation gap" was created, and became very popular in the media. A serious side effect of defining the "generation gap" was to cut the young people off from listening to the wisdom of the older people, by painting them (us!) as "out of date" or "irrelevant". The idea (according to the theory) seems to have been to successfully erase the sort of oral tradition that cultures are built on with a television tradition, where elders passing on the hard won and valuable lessons of life have been replaced with talking heads telling us and the kids what vested interests pay them to say.

It is hard to push against such pervasive and evil programming with a simple post on a forum, but if I could I'd tell you as a "Wiser elder" that there is a "game" out there called "Mental Health" In this game some pay counsellers and get paid (in some cases very handsomely) for their participation and some players get to be the "patient" who is nether paid, nor does he get to stop playing the role after the working day is over.

I'd you can control your own actions and presentation well enough to avoid playing that mental health game, particularly in the "patient" role, I'd highly recommend it.

Playing the mental health game although it seems to have rewards for some people, tends to disqualify (or at least handicap you) in many of life's other, more enjoyable and rewarding games. And it's almost impossible to stop playing that game once started, because you need the people who are being paid for "treating" your "illness" to sign off on your mental health, which both cuts off part of their income source AND they'd face questioning from their peers, who apparently never "cure" anyone of MH issues.

I watched an interviewer camped outside a psychiatric convention ask exactly that question of the esteemed professionals as they left their conference; "Have you ever cured anybody?" NOT one of them claimed to have ever accomplished that feat.

BUT at least they all got paid for their "efforts". One of many groups that get paid for participation, no matter how ineffective or even harmful to the clients well being that turns out to be. YOUR misery is bread and drink for most of these people, literally!!

And that goes doubly so, for policemen... You are better off keeping your own nose clean, rather than hoping some "professional"  will actually HELP you improve your own lot.

(Lets see how many read this, and are moved to write a detailed first hand refutation of what I say, including a worked example of where their lives personally got improved as a result of reaching out to the police or mental health services... Maybe my observations, limited as they are, are missing out some great and uplifting stories where the involvement of the "professionals" actually did make a qualitive improvement to their lives. Just because I've not experienced or heard of it, does not mean it does not happen).   

I agree!