Get Out Of Jail Free Card?

 

In many of my entries, I have referred to this notion of the 'Get Out Of Jail Free" card when it comes to one's mental health and their operation in society.  It occurred to me that perhaps my usage of this phrase is confusing or my meaning not fully grasped.  Therefore, I decided to take the time to arrange my thoughts in a fashion that would help clarify as well as edify.

Throughout the time that I have been birthing my business, Cafe-Girl Productions, Inc, I have had the opportunity to work with a plethora of creative types, actors and crew, through a variety of media projects.  In this assortment of human, I have come face to face with a reckoning of how different people handle or even mishandle their mental health problems.  A very few are aware of their troubles and actively work on themselves, behaving in a fashion that is both authentic and ethical.  Others have not chosen to seek out adequate help and thus their dysfunctions rise up negatively effecting their wellbeing as well as interactions with those closest to them, personally and professionally.  In this instance of my both personal and professional life, it becomes both and I have had to make the difficult decision to step back from those that have yet to prioritize seeking therapeutic help for their dysfunctions but instead to live as if the issue is not their own, but the fault of the external.  

How this shows up in the realm of a project, either mine own or in a theatre world, is that a person signs up for the project with much enthusiasm.  Yet, not caring for themselves regularly, their troubles build up and overtake, on a day when their presence is necessary for the play or on set, and being unable to regulate their emotional state, having not done adequate care along the way, their reaction is to run away, causing havoc in their wake as those they are abandoning scramble to cover their unnecessary absence.  Although this momentarily may alleviate their un-ease, however, it does not heal their dis-ease, as it causes a rift to build between them and those they have neglected, as a lack of trust begins to form.  They have two choices, then, to admit they were at fault and seek care for their mental health issues or blame those they are working with for the cause, and I have found it is usually the latter rather than the former.  Or even, the former is used as a means to manipulate further for sympathy and to perhaps win the wronged back over.

In the end, the relationship is torn, trust shall need to be rebuilt, and even more so, this person does not heal and evolve past their emotional and mental dysfunction, but remains stagnant, the pain increasing with every 'get out of jail free' card used to not attend to the issue but instead to flee.  Thus, the mental health is not healed, the soul does not find true peace, and the issue remains.

Furthermore, this 'get out of jail free' card mentality darkens the already dark stigma of mental illness as it is now freeily tossed around in mis-use and detracts from those who truly suffer, who cannot truly cope with the mainstream, who truly need and are seeking the help.  

So, this then, is what is meant when I refer to the 'get out of jail free' card.  I do not mean to negate anyone's struggles with mental health but do insist that adequate treatment be sought after and given for those in need and I believe all could use some love to the realm of the mental and emotional.  But to use it as a manipulative ploy is not the answer, it will not help the afflicted in the long run nor will it help to maintain healthy relations that will influence one to seek professional help and achieve true and lasting peace, freedom from the pain and dysfunction. 

If you or someone you love suffer with a mental health condition, please know that support and assistance is available.  Please contact the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI): https://www.nami.org/Home