Sinead O’connor, My Thoughts
This week, we uploaded to our Facebook and Website pages on searchingforgrey.com/sinead-oconnor the raw footage of the video from Sinead O’Connor, where she shares in very raw language and emotion the battle she is and has been facing with mental illness. She appears to rambling yet her emotions and words pierce the soul of the listener. She is a world renowned music artist, with many resources available at her fingertips, yet she is holed up in a hotel room, in New Jersey, far from her home Country of Ireland. Sinead is without her family or friends and claims that the only person “that is keeping her alive at this point” is her psychiatrist, who we can assume, by what she claims, is in touch with her. The pain and terror in her voice, the hopelessness she feels, is palpable.
As she says to us that “People who suffer from mental illness are the most vulnerable people on earth” and explains that “You’ve got to take care of us. We’re not like everybody”. Does this statement have merit? Is it warranted? Or, is it just the ramblings of someone in a desperate situation. Do YOU agree with it? Does our society as a whole, agree with it? If so, what is being done to eradicate this plea? Are we, the mentally ill community, drowned out by all the other causes and mallidis that exist in our world today? Are we just thrown on the pile of “to be addressed at a later time?” We in the United States are dealing with the threat of a world war, our politics are in a more divisive state than ever before and then there is Sinead O’Connor, calling out from a hotel room in New Jersey. Would we rather plug in our earphones and drown out the noise with the latest hot play list...is there room for the plea she makes?
Does it take another suicide to listen for a bit. Fans paying tribute with flowers, memorials and weeping with twitter feeds overwhelmed by questions of how we could have prevented this. Temporarily. Let’s face it. The attention span for something like this does not last too long. Robin Williams, Amy Weinberg, Kurt Cobain, Chester Bennington, are they just statistics lumped together in the neverending cry for help from the mentally ill? When do we finally step in, as a society, and take these pleas for what they are? As I have said before, where are the walks, the ribbons and the concerts to raise money to help the mentally ill? Do we have a voice? Or, perhaps it is a voice that society does not want to understand. It is a different, weird, misunderstood, undefinable voice. There are a myriad of mental illnesses to choose from. Do we choose one to confront, or, is there a united front against all that are afflicted in spite of the variety of symptoms?
Take the suicide of an unknown versus a celebrity. The parents and loved ones suffer in silence, often afraid to even speak of the true reason for the taking of life. They are left to struggle with the questions…”Could we have seen the signs?” “Should we have done more”? “How did we not notice”? The friends and loved ones of the victim may chock it up to your classic depressive episode. That is much more understandable and mainstream than something like Borderline Personality Disorder or Schizophrenia. How deep do people not affected by these symptoms really want to dig into the vessages of the disorder? Could it be that, finding it too much to handle, they turn away in confusion and denial, leaving the afflicted to try and figure it out?
Sinead is a billboard for what we with mental illness are like. Unabashedly raw, plaintive and seemingly hopeless, she makes the case for all of us. She is blatantly showing society what it is like to suffer and live with our symptoms. In her pleas for society to “give a damn” about “us” she throws up her hands in dismissal at the very thought of knowing HOW society should give a damn. She is abrasive, fragile, self destructive and loveable all at the same time. This is not a reality show but rather a show of reality. She claims to have been distanced and isolated from her loved ones due to her symptoms. There seems to be legal intervention as to her ability to be around her children. She claims the men in her life have used her for what she can give them from her status as a superstar musician...taking money and having her support and provide for them...only to wash their hands of her with regard to her disorder.
Why is this not done to Cancer victims or Diabetics? They are not called weak; they are championed. We don’t leave them or kick them to the curb as a society. We dig our heels in to help them and voice for them what they are not able to voice for themselves. The gay, the transgender, the aids victims, all have a voice on behalf of our society. Yet, in the case of mental illness the silence is deafening! Sinead is asking for us to step in and do the work before the suicide. She is asking for the rescue prior to the demise. The world can critique the video for the salty language and just the mere picture of seeing someone in such pain and anguish. This is not a strung out drug addict or alcoholic, it is a human being with a disorder of the brain. The drugs and alcohol may be on the sidelines albeit as a self soothing mechanism, but they are a symptom, not a cause. The root cause is the brain disorder.
I am again asking for your active participation in our campaign, to Empathize, Educate and Advocate for those of us with mental illness. To create a voice for us in society that is heard amidst all the other cries for help. Just because you may not understand ALL of what we are up against, isn’t it time to create a space for us on the radar? Can you agree with me that loving the mentally ill and reaching out to help them is better than just eulogizing them? Is there a reason why this video by a “little woman in a hotel room in the back arse of New Jersey” is causing us to stop and stare? Yes, Sinead had the guts and the courage to speak out on our behalf, begging and pleading with us to come to the aid of, not just her, but all of us that suffer from mental illness.
Again, I invite you to join our cause.
EMPATHISE, EDUCATE AND ADVOCATE for those of us who are not able to do it for ourselves.
Thank you for listening. XO Alice