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kenny66
Senior Contributor

INSIGHT

For those who might be interested. The ABC program Insight is doing a series on Jobs and Disability including Mental illness. Its a full panel discussion.

I think it starts next Friday-ABC 8.30 pm

10 REPLIES 10
kristin
Senior Contributor

Re: INSIGHT

Thanks Kenny,

I'm not a tv watcher these days but I might steal one of my kids' earbuds and watch it online.

BTW The thread heading takes me on a slight tangent. What do people think about developing insight into one's illness and self? What helps to grow insight? How can insight help in the longer term with managing MI?

Best regards,

Kristin

Re: INSIGHT

Looks a good program. 

Having a high degree of insight into ones own MI seems to be a bit of a mantra for the psychiatrists.

When i have been admitted I ususally  try and knock off my practice notes from nurse station, üsually at about midnight. If I am successfull and get to read it, apart from all the medication rubbish on it, there is often a note from my psychiatrist that says kenny lacks insight  into his Schizoaffective Disorder" So  it must be important to them anyway..

I will have to think about your questiono/n i think.

 

Re: INSIGHT

I am not sure if I think insight or any perception of my MI is relevant to me or not. I sort of know what schizophrenia is from reading about it.

Whilst  I am in having hallucinations or hearings voices mode I imagine I have real insight into everything including my MI but that might be the schizophrenia talking there.!!!!!  I remember it the next day  and usually understand what got me there.

So in a way I guess having some understanding of triggers and what to avoid as well as positive things to help me through an event is beneficial.

My psychiatrist likes to think that improved insight means I am on the road to recovery, significantly improved insight, even greater recovery. I don't think you can measure it in that way.

I suppose having a perception into the complexities of ones own mental illness might  be beneficial. I would have thought that it would be more important as to how you would deal with the outcome of that perception.

I think I am self aware, but my definition of self in that term might be quite different to the norm, but that is ok.

How do I percieve self awareness (insight) and self realisation?.

There is a tale about a man who was turned into a monkey by a witch. That monkey joined a group of travelling monkeys who quickly ran away.

The mans wife hunted for the monkey troupe for weeks and eventually came upon them drinking at a water hole. She was distressed that it was not possible to find her husband amongst the group of monkeys there.

An old man with the group lined up a large amount of fruit in front of a mirror. As each monkey came up to the mirror to take the fruit it would attack the mirror thinking its reflection to be an intruder. When the man who was turned into a monkey stooped to pick up his fruit he looked into the mirror and wept. 

 

 

Kenny

Re: INSIGHT

Hi Kenny,

Thanks for your very thoughtful (and I think insightful!) reply 🙂

Two things in response before I go and feed my family dinner

Firstly - 

noun: insight
  1. the capacity to gain an accurate and deep understanding of someone or something.
     
    • an accurate and deep understanding.
      plural noun: insights
      synonyms:understanding of, appreciation of, revelation about, illumination of
       
  2. PSYCHIATRY
    awareness by a mentally ill person that their mental experiences are not based in external reality.

Please note that a) the psychiatry definition is different and actually means self-insight, b) it may be that the psychiatrist lacks insight and so believes the patient lacks self-insight. (I have known of people telling their psych they need to be in hospital and being told they can't possibly know they're gettin sick because they have a MI.

Secondly I think the story is wonderful but I suggest that the we are confronted by our humanity in the mirror of MI and we do weep, but it is the gift of grief because tears loosen the stranglehold of the past on our hearts. See poem below.

Grace

Engulfed in this agony
Too long have I held each thorny branch
Clutching them to my heart
They are part of me now,
Though I’d fling them if I could
You urge me
“Sacrifice them …
Let go… give all to Me”

Painstakingly I tear them from my embrace
Offering You my loss, my shame
These writhing worms
For which I’ve held myself to blame
You take so gently with loving regard
Stroking them tenderly, kissing their ugliness;
For an eternal moment
You breathe Your love upon them
And, smiling, gift them back to me

Quivering, I can hardly bear to look –
Behold! What’s this I see?
You’ve transformed them into butterflies
Alighting softly on my heart

© August 2012

 

Take care Kenny, you may not have perfect self-insight but who does? 

Kind regards,

Kristin

 

Jake
Senior Contributor

Re: INSIGHT

Hi Group,

If anyone is interested, the TV program called 'Insight' is featuring 'Jobs & Disability' tonight on SBS ONE 8.30pm tonight.

http://www.sbs.com.au/insight/episode/overview/638/Jobs-and-Disability#.U_MNxfmSySo

Regards, Jake

 

Jake
Senior Contributor

Re: INSIGHT

Hi Group,

Did anyone get to watch the program last night? If anyone is interested, here is the transcript:

 (sorry, it's rather a long read): http://www.sbs.com.au/insight/episode/transcript/638/Jobs-and-Disability

I thought is was great to have a good range of disabilities represented, going from a lady in a wheelchair, to two other ladies with the 'invisible illnesses'.

I also thought it went ok, except for when the man in the audience (Mark Bonnell) said something that just reinforced in my mind the stereotypical attitude that somehow anyone with a mental illness poses a physical threat to society?? (anyway that is the way I interpreted it - I have included an extract below, so you don't have to read the whole transcript). 

 

Interviewer: (Jenny Brockie) -

"Mark, just getting back to the question of episodic illness, I just wanted to ask you about that particularly in relation to mental illness and how you would feel about that, managing that as an employer? 

 

Audience member: (Mark Bonnell) -

"Well, it's very difficult and I'll be honest, one of the key things I said about five years ago is that we actually would not hire people with mental illness, I actually said that and through ignorance, but more so through being scared and having someone go off and hurt someone. 

So then once I got to experience a little bit and I have a relative who suffers from it, majorly, and so I'm around it. But I'm not qualified to deal with it and as an employer I'm trying to create jobs, I'm trying to make money, I'm trying to do all these things, I think the last thing I need to do is be bogged down, and this might sound harsh, I don't mean it disrespectfully but I can't afford to be bogged down dealing with one person with a mental illness that I have no idea how to help.

In saying that, we changed - I changed my attitude towards it and said okay, I want to know do they have a violent past in their episodes?  And if it's a no, I'm very relaxed about bit. If there's a violence, if they have violent behaviour, then I will not employ them, just a blanket no.  Not because I'm scared they're going to whack me but I'm for concerned what that will do to my customers and what it could potentially do to me for a liability. 

Needless to say there was a major audience reaction and one of the panel members responded very aptly (in my opinion).

 

Interviewer: (Jenny Brockie) -  

Sorry, hands going up everywhere, this was obviously.  Bryson first, yes? 

 

Panel Member: (Bryson Douglas): 

"Well I kind of have a theory about just, I guess it's about stigma in so many different areas, whether it be mental health, you know, physical disability, myself, you know, I'm transgender, because that, that's an added barrier, I call that like a social disability because you're grappling from something, with something that doesn't affect you personally in terms of what you can do but you are really grappling with the attitudes of people around you."

"And if you already have a physical or a learning difficulty or something, to have something extra that adds a social disability, it's even harder."

Regards, Jake (emphasis mine)

 

 

 

 

Re: INSIGHT

Thanks Jake, 

I will check out the transcript later, as the sound on my clunky old pc is broken and I can't steal my kids' earbuds very easily. I appreciate you putting this up for us. If I have the headspace I'll listen out for the exerpt you gave us and let you know how I read it, although a lot may be lost without the tones of voice. Maybe I should borrow the headphones?

Cheers,

Kristin

Former-Member
Not applicable

Re: INSIGHT

Hi all, I read through most of the transcript. Thanks for the link. It is about attitudes. Stigma still exists. I am off work for my MI this week and will have an excuse for my employer. I have disclosed to employers in the past and faced real discrimination. I'm not ready to share with my employer what is going on with me. It's harder for ppl with visible disability and it's sad to see the negative attitudes in this day and age. Anyway, time will help I think
JT
Senior Contributor

Re: INSIGHT

I only managed to watch part of the show and plan on going online today to watch the rest of it. I really thought it was good and I think it's great that the employers were honest in their responses rather than saying what everyone wants to hear.

Devils advocate though, and saying this as having previously been a manager and employer - also not saying it's acceptable - but it is difficult to manage episodes and make adjustments.  Before anyone gets offended by that I did employ staff who were intellectually and physically disabled not to mention my own mental illness.  I employed the people who were right for the job and worried about the rest later.  However, it was time consuming especially in a small business.  I was exhausted at the end of the day.  Ironically I left that company in blazing glory after 6 months of being viciously targeted by my boss who used every trigger she knew to cause an eventual breakdown.  Both those staff lost their jobs prior to me going.  

I was employed by another large retail company who had copious staff.  The manager at the top was supportive and flexible to my needs - I have nothing bad to say about him.  However, there was 2 managers under him that felt differently.  One was female and thought I was letting fellow women down by showing a weakness, the other was male and of the opinion I was a typical lazy female who got hysterical once a month. Unfortunately the top manager went on leave for 6 weeks and one of them was in charge - after 3 weeks of bullying and reversing the allowances put in place for me I left.  The attitudes amongst fellow staff was also poor.  When a manager says well you have to work that day because she can't often enough people start to resent you.  

I think what we need to focus on is providing a positive level of education amongst management and staff. Disability and mental illness need to be in the spotlight and not just as a discussion on DSP.  The invisible needs to be made visible and to do that more people need to be coming out of the closet, disclosing their illness and discussing it.  Yes I know that is a dangerous thought but there are an awful lot of people who are potential advocates for showing the positive side who quite simply don't talk about it so all we hear is the bad side.  

Before I step down and make another green tea, I'd like to share something that happened about 4 years ago.  I was at a community sector managers skill swap meeting.  There was about 25 managers from various organisations and businesses all in the disability sector and all employing staff.  We had a guest speaker speaking to us about employment of people with disability.  Towards the end of the talk we were asked to put our hand up if we employed anyone with a disability.  At first I didn't but then it occured to me that my receptionist had a phsyical disability so my hand went up with a whoops I forgot about that.  (at that stage there was just me and her in the organisation).  There was only 2 of us with hands up.  We were asked for details and I had to admit I couldn't remember because whilst she has a very obvious disability I was more focussed on the fact she was polite, efficient and I could actually leave the office in her hands whilst I attended these meetings lol.  Anyway, then the others were asked why they didn't.  Generally it was the same through the group - a lot of hard work, need staff to come off their other duties to supervise, couldn't be bothered but the worst one was a large national organisation who employed close to 100 staff and were in disability support for families.  She said "we tried that once but it was too much trouble so we won't be doing it again."  I think when we have attitudes like that in a sector that should understand...... 

As I said, devils advocate.  There is 2 sides to every arguement and both are valid.

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