1 00:00:11,750 --> 00:00:16,570 Anarchists, anti-authoritarians and radicals of all stripes spend a disproportionate amount 2 00:00:16,570 --> 00:00:20,800 of time and energy confronting the so-called ‘big picture’ challenges of the world. 3 00:00:21,600 --> 00:00:26,439 In this all-consuming competition to change society, too often we overlook the personal 4 00:00:26,439 --> 00:00:30,990 struggles that many of us face, including some of the most basic questions of how we 5 00:00:30,990 --> 00:00:34,219 relate to ourselves, each other, and the world around us. 6 00:00:34,219 --> 00:00:38,280 For some, the mundane tasks of day-to-day living can feel so meaningless, 7 00:00:38,280 --> 00:00:39,750 or so hyper-important, 8 00:00:39,750 --> 00:00:43,340 that even the simplest decisions become impossible to manage. 9 00:00:43,340 --> 00:00:49,060 For others, ongoing or past experiences of physical danger, trauma, and instability, 10 00:00:49,060 --> 00:00:54,030 can severely compound the difficulties that we already face surviving in a white supremacist, 11 00:00:54,030 --> 00:00:56,959 hetero-patriarchal and capitalist society. 12 00:00:57,449 --> 00:01:00,410 Yet despite the large number of us who face these struggles daily, 13 00:01:00,410 --> 00:01:03,340 within our movements, mental health is often tokenized 14 00:01:03,340 --> 00:01:07,410 or treated as an afterthought, and mental illness is often invisibilized. 15 00:01:07,410 --> 00:01:10,960 Mainstream society polarises crazy people. 16 00:01:10,960 --> 00:01:14,961 On the one hand it lifts a few of us up to celebrate our creative brilliance in the fields 17 00:01:14,961 --> 00:01:17,160 of art, film, books and music. 18 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:19,630 When you hear about slavery for 400 years 19 00:01:19,630 --> 00:01:22,110 For 400 years? That sounds like a choice! 20 00:01:22,380 --> 00:01:27,210 On the other, it stigmatizes and fears us, controlling and locking us up. 21 00:01:27,640 --> 00:01:32,290 Far from being a fast-track to creative stardom, mental illness leaves millions of people to 22 00:01:32,290 --> 00:01:34,620 fall through the cracks of our neuro-typical society. 23 00:01:34,620 --> 00:01:37,300 Most insanity does not get celebrated. 24 00:01:37,300 --> 00:01:41,510 For many, it means losing your job or home because you can't get out of bed. 25 00:01:41,510 --> 00:01:46,269 Not being able to socialize or organize due to anxiety, paranoia, or the inability to 26 00:01:46,269 --> 00:01:48,089 maintain relationships. 27 00:01:48,089 --> 00:01:52,799 Using risky coping mechanisms to try and manage your own symptoms, or relying on the toxic 28 00:01:52,799 --> 00:01:55,130 mental health system for your very survival. 29 00:01:55,130 --> 00:01:59,740 To the extent that they can be separated, the psychiatric and pharmaceutical industries 30 00:01:59,740 --> 00:02:05,030 both extract incredible profits in their supposed pursuit of our ‘mental wellness’. 31 00:02:05,030 --> 00:02:09,449 Yet for those who would seek to break free from the State and capital’s system of pathological 32 00:02:09,449 --> 00:02:14,280 diagnoses and lucrative prescriptions... what exactly does that leave us with? 33 00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:18,290 Over the next thirty minutes, we will speak with a range of individuals as they share 34 00:02:18,290 --> 00:02:22,640 their insights on the causes and potential solutions to mental illness, and share their 35 00:02:22,640 --> 00:02:27,170 experiences of fighting stigma, dealing with trauma and getting into the proper headspace 36 00:02:27,170 --> 00:02:29,040 to make a whole lot of trouble. 37 00:03:04,230 --> 00:03:09,040 Mental health means our own interior kind of wellness. 38 00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:15,730 Our own personal equilibrium of how we respond to the ails of the world. 39 00:03:17,680 --> 00:03:24,600 Mental health is your own way of feeling balanced and feeling that you're well. 40 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:28,239 And we need to take it in a very broad sense. 41 00:03:28,239 --> 00:03:33,610 In different cultures around the world, well-being in itself is so different. 42 00:03:33,610 --> 00:03:41,940 So I would see mental health as a very open way of: are you feeling balanced and able 43 00:03:41,940 --> 00:03:46,420 to face life in the complexity that it is? 44 00:03:47,650 --> 00:03:51,980 As indigenous people we've lived through an enormous amount of trauma, and trying 45 00:03:51,980 --> 00:03:58,009 to find that balance living in the environment that you do is challenging. 46 00:03:59,759 --> 00:04:06,890 Mental health is the term that I use to talk about sort of being unable to cope with reality, 47 00:04:06,890 --> 00:04:13,390 and different forms of things that my brain does... and ways that I change the way that 48 00:04:13,390 --> 00:04:17,340 I perceive the world that are usually pretty harmful to my life. 49 00:04:17,670 --> 00:04:22,750 In the society that we live in, oftentimes mental health ends up actually eclipsing 50 00:04:22,750 --> 00:04:24,230 the larger context. 51 00:04:24,230 --> 00:04:28,580 That language that we use to talk about mental health is the the language 52 00:04:28,580 --> 00:04:30,440 of the biomedical model. 53 00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:33,380 But meanwhile it leaves out the social context. 54 00:04:33,380 --> 00:04:38,030 And we're not talking at all about the living situation that you're in, 55 00:04:38,030 --> 00:04:40,130 or the color of your skin, 56 00:04:40,130 --> 00:04:43,630 or the kind of access you've had to housing, 57 00:04:43,630 --> 00:04:46,260 or the access you've had to education, 58 00:04:46,260 --> 00:04:49,470 and what you have to deal with on a daily basis. 59 00:04:49,480 --> 00:04:54,380 So if you live on reserve you have all kinds of challenges there. 60 00:04:54,380 --> 00:04:57,079 If you live off reserve if you have a whole new set of challenges. 61 00:04:57,079 --> 00:04:59,070 And how do you work through them all? 62 00:04:59,070 --> 00:05:01,500 How do you make it better for the next generation? 63 00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:08,409 Since mental health is primarily influenced by social factors, 64 00:05:08,409 --> 00:05:11,130 there's no real way to solve it without changing the social condition 65 00:05:11,130 --> 00:05:12,130 that we're in. 66 00:05:12,130 --> 00:05:19,009 What we see it as is being able to use your psychological abilities to help fight against 67 00:05:19,009 --> 00:05:20,500 the repression that comes towards you. 68 00:05:20,500 --> 00:05:24,150 We need to figure out ways to increase our ability to fight against the forces that are 69 00:05:24,150 --> 00:05:27,080 helping make us mentally ill, as it were. 70 00:05:30,370 --> 00:05:35,870 So I see mental health not just as something that belongs to a person, or lives in a person. 71 00:05:35,870 --> 00:05:39,860 But rather sort of a response to the condition that is around us that 72 00:05:39,860 --> 00:05:42,480 causes us to hurt in this world. 73 00:05:50,270 --> 00:05:54,300 Mental unwellness in broader society is an epidemic. 74 00:05:59,300 --> 00:06:05,830 Whether it's just plain old capitalism that's, like, really selling the idea of 75 00:06:05,830 --> 00:06:10,840 anything solvable through some exchange of money. 76 00:06:10,840 --> 00:06:17,120 The terms of success - of a successful life - that have been passed down by the state, 77 00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:21,490 by mass media, they're really unattainable for almost everyone. 78 00:06:21,490 --> 00:06:26,760 And then even when people do achieve material success in these terms, 79 00:06:26,760 --> 00:06:28,949 they struggle with finding meaning. 80 00:06:28,949 --> 00:06:32,520 The conditions around us have other psychologically damaging effects. 81 00:06:32,520 --> 00:06:37,040 The way that we relate to each other socially and the tendency towards seeking of, like, 82 00:06:37,040 --> 00:06:41,039 social capital than seeking actual, like, close relationships with people. 83 00:06:41,039 --> 00:06:46,350 When I think about mental health in my "immediate community", I see a community that is making 84 00:06:46,350 --> 00:06:49,820 space for particular people who are living with mental health issues. 85 00:06:49,820 --> 00:06:55,560 What I'm reminded of, is the ability for a Black man in my building to live mad while 86 00:06:55,560 --> 00:07:01,330 Black, and walk around in this building in that way would probably not happen. 87 00:07:01,330 --> 00:07:04,039 Because what I know is happening, not just in the city, 88 00:07:04,039 --> 00:07:06,479 but in this province and in this country, 89 00:07:06,479 --> 00:07:11,320 is police responses to Black people living with mental health issues, 90 00:07:11,320 --> 00:07:17,640 or mad-identified, often, but not always, result in fatal shootings. 91 00:07:18,210 --> 00:07:22,679 I would say generally in my community, a lot of people have struggles. 92 00:07:22,679 --> 00:07:25,069 A lot of people see therapists. 93 00:07:25,069 --> 00:07:26,889 Some people have diagnoses. 94 00:07:26,889 --> 00:07:28,689 Some people are medicated. 95 00:07:28,689 --> 00:07:33,450 So I would say, like, in the anarchist community a lot of people are struggling, 96 00:07:33,450 --> 00:07:36,600 but there's, like, a lot more conversations about that. 97 00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:42,730 A lot more informal peer support than in other communities that friends and family who are 98 00:07:42,730 --> 00:07:45,120 not anarchists are a part of. 99 00:07:45,120 --> 00:07:49,949 What I see happening in the mental health system is that there are an incredible number 100 00:07:49,949 --> 00:07:53,749 of people who struggle with issues of trauma. 101 00:07:53,749 --> 00:07:58,340 And what happens is when they come into the system and end up getting diagnosed with a 102 00:07:58,340 --> 00:08:03,800 mental illness, what's happened to them in the past gets eclipsed by this culture, 103 00:08:03,800 --> 00:08:07,240 which is very wrapped up in this whole model where there's a drug for 104 00:08:07,240 --> 00:08:09,849 everything that you could possibly need. 105 00:08:09,849 --> 00:08:14,730 A huge piece of what we can do is think outside the medical box 106 00:08:14,730 --> 00:08:18,490 and use more transformative ways of thinking. 107 00:08:25,630 --> 00:08:30,060 Human beings are social creatures, meaning that we simultaneously engage with 108 00:08:30,060 --> 00:08:32,179 and are shaped by our surroundings. 109 00:08:32,179 --> 00:08:35,620 This fact is often overlooked by those who see madness as nothing more 110 00:08:35,620 --> 00:08:37,750 than a neurochemical imbalance. 111 00:08:37,750 --> 00:08:42,229 In reality, social factors such as how broke you are, the color of your skin, 112 00:08:42,229 --> 00:08:45,150 your gender and sexual orientation, and how well you pass 113 00:08:45,150 --> 00:08:47,470 as a productive member of capitalist society, 114 00:08:47,470 --> 00:08:51,150 all play huge roles in determining how you are treated, what health care 115 00:08:51,150 --> 00:08:54,920 and social supports you have access to, and therefore greatly shape your 116 00:08:54,920 --> 00:08:57,010 emotional and mental well being. 117 00:08:57,010 --> 00:09:02,080 The hyper-individualization promoted by our current social media paradigm swaps human 118 00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:07,350 contact for superficial interactions based on curated personas of likes and follows. 119 00:09:07,350 --> 00:09:08,920 Did you lose your subscribers?! 120 00:09:11,610 --> 00:09:16,310 The realm of spirituality has been so co opted and tainted by religious institutions that 121 00:09:16,310 --> 00:09:21,420 many of us have no access to rituals and traditions that could help us feel a meaningful connection 122 00:09:21,420 --> 00:09:23,280 to the world around us. 123 00:09:23,280 --> 00:09:27,800 Profiting off this mess is the pharmaceutical industry, comprised of some of the world's 124 00:09:27,800 --> 00:09:32,810 biggest corporate powerhouses, who spend billions each year lobbying doctors to push their newest 125 00:09:32,810 --> 00:09:36,970 and most lucrative designer drugs, all with the goal of getting as many people medicated 126 00:09:36,970 --> 00:09:38,120 as they can. 127 00:09:52,430 --> 00:10:04,530 ♫♫ Crazy I'm crazy for feeling so lonely 128 00:10:04,530 --> 00:10:14,720 I'm crazy Crazy for feeling so blue ♫♫ 129 00:10:16,920 --> 00:10:21,820 When one in four people suffer from mental illness, 130 00:10:21,820 --> 00:10:24,949 I have to sort of question what that means. 131 00:10:27,699 --> 00:10:32,289 Whatever the status of mental health is, it’s rapidly declining. 132 00:10:32,289 --> 00:10:35,450 And I think that’s happening in an intentional manner. 133 00:10:38,270 --> 00:10:45,689 It just seems to me that anything and everything is being described as a mental health problem 134 00:10:45,689 --> 00:10:51,160 – in such a way that creates this, like, false idea that there is a mental health 135 00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:52,380 solution for that. 136 00:10:52,380 --> 00:10:55,940 Possibly in the name of a pill, but often in the name of 137 00:10:55,940 --> 00:10:59,600 some other additional kind of control. 138 00:10:59,600 --> 00:11:04,769 A lot of the factors that lead to what we tend to call mental illness are entirely out 139 00:11:04,769 --> 00:11:06,899 of the control of the people who are experiencing them, 140 00:11:06,899 --> 00:11:10,339 and aren’t really from a biological or chemical root. 141 00:11:10,339 --> 00:11:12,829 They’re from the social condition that the people are in. 142 00:11:12,829 --> 00:11:16,190 How can we live in the world that we’re in and be “well”? 143 00:11:16,660 --> 00:11:20,880 We need to recognize that the society that we live in is actually very unhealthy. 144 00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:25,740 If we’re starting from this place that what we’re trying to do is get people to be healthy 145 00:11:25,740 --> 00:11:27,680 so that they can fit into society... 146 00:11:27,680 --> 00:11:29,009 that to me is really scary. 147 00:11:29,009 --> 00:11:31,800 Because I’m often sad, and I’m often hurt. 148 00:11:31,800 --> 00:11:36,019 And I’m often anxious and paranoid ... and those are for very real reasons. 149 00:11:36,019 --> 00:11:41,520 My spirit can’t be stable if the material world around me is absolutely scary. 150 00:11:42,420 --> 00:11:53,709 The real visceral and true fear of deportation, bankruptcy, homelessness, incarceration... 151 00:11:53,709 --> 00:11:58,920 these are things that contribute to someone’s individual experience of despair. 152 00:11:58,920 --> 00:12:05,749 And rather than offering a solution, it’s always just some pill, or injection. 153 00:12:05,749 --> 00:12:08,790 Or just... removal. 154 00:12:09,690 --> 00:12:11,540 I work with refugee claimants. 155 00:12:11,540 --> 00:12:18,500 The very first weeks they arrive here in Canada, they live a whole different range of challenges. 156 00:12:18,500 --> 00:12:19,930 A lot comes from what they carry. 157 00:12:19,930 --> 00:12:26,820 What they lived in their countries: war, rape, being jailed, being tortured. 158 00:12:26,820 --> 00:12:30,930 But also a lot of things they lived trying to get to Canada. 159 00:12:30,930 --> 00:12:36,310 So some of them might have travelled a whole year, crossing ten different countries without 160 00:12:36,310 --> 00:12:39,570 documents, without papers, before they arrive here. 161 00:12:39,570 --> 00:12:43,700 So it’s a very heavy weight they carry with them. 162 00:12:43,700 --> 00:12:49,690 And also a lot of challenges they face is actually arriving here with nothing and having 163 00:12:49,690 --> 00:12:53,730 to face what it is to be a refugee claimant in Canada. 164 00:12:56,150 --> 00:12:59,919 One of the hardest things is being in a state where you don’t know what’s going to happen 165 00:12:59,919 --> 00:13:01,229 to you, right? 166 00:13:01,229 --> 00:13:07,540 So you might wait a year, two years, to know if you’re going to be able to stay here. 167 00:13:07,540 --> 00:13:13,640 So this period of just... not knowing what you can build for yourself and your kids 168 00:13:13,640 --> 00:13:15,880 as a life is very hard. 169 00:13:15,880 --> 00:13:17,310 Very stressful. 170 00:13:25,580 --> 00:13:29,460 I think it’s really important, if we’re gonna talk about mental health 171 00:13:29,460 --> 00:13:32,340 and mental wellness, that we think about ourselves 172 00:13:32,340 --> 00:13:34,930 related to a larger social context. 173 00:13:34,930 --> 00:13:38,990 I think one of the things that really impacts our mental health is that we live in such 174 00:13:38,990 --> 00:13:43,440 an individualistic society, where we think the things that are happening to us 175 00:13:43,440 --> 00:13:45,330 are happening because of our brain chemistry. 176 00:13:45,330 --> 00:13:47,429 Or they’re happening to us because of some fault of ours, 177 00:13:47,429 --> 00:13:49,500 because we’re not strong enough to survive. 178 00:13:49,500 --> 00:13:53,370 When really they’re these larger social issues that are impacting everyone. 179 00:13:54,020 --> 00:13:59,600 On a personal level, I get into trouble when I get disconnected from things 180 00:13:59,600 --> 00:14:02,330 that are meaningful to me in the world. 181 00:14:02,330 --> 00:14:06,370 One of the things that I wanna do with my life is engage with all of the imbalances 182 00:14:06,370 --> 00:14:10,980 of power with communities that are trying to counter those imbalances. 183 00:14:11,770 --> 00:14:17,010 A lot of the factors are just like the standard foundations of society, which is anti-Blackness, 184 00:14:17,010 --> 00:14:18,240 racism and capitalism. 185 00:14:18,240 --> 00:14:22,350 And until those are destroyed, there’s no actual solution. 186 00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:27,309 When I think about the conditions that contribute to unwellness for Black people, 187 00:14:27,309 --> 00:14:30,929 the number one is generally the experience of 188 00:14:30,929 --> 00:14:32,989 the transatlantic slave trade, first and foremost. 189 00:14:32,989 --> 00:14:34,440 The experience of colonialism. 190 00:14:34,440 --> 00:14:36,339 The ongoing experiences of colonialism. 191 00:14:36,339 --> 00:14:39,279 The ongoing occupations of Black spaces. 192 00:14:39,279 --> 00:14:42,650 I see the hyper-surveillance of those communities as a particular kind of occupations. 193 00:14:42,650 --> 00:14:47,049 And I’m using that word sort of in soft quotes, while keeping in mind the context 194 00:14:47,049 --> 00:14:48,990 of what the word ‘occupation’ means here. 195 00:14:50,740 --> 00:14:55,329 500 years of colonialism has really taken its toll on Indigenous people. 196 00:14:55,329 --> 00:14:59,160 And it’s taken it in so many different ways. 197 00:15:01,010 --> 00:15:03,889 There’s been a lot of hurt. 198 00:15:03,889 --> 00:15:05,209 There’s been a lot of pain. 199 00:15:05,209 --> 00:15:09,610 There’s been a lot of trauma that’s been passed on from generation to generation. 200 00:15:09,610 --> 00:15:14,739 It’s a real struggle to get better when you’re left to fend for yourself. 201 00:15:14,739 --> 00:15:21,110 But it seems like in a lot of the communities, they purposefully take everything away 202 00:15:21,110 --> 00:15:24,800 and then are—it feels like they’re just waiting to see everybody die. 203 00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:29,510 I think that with the high rates of suicide in every single community—I know the Inuit 204 00:15:29,510 --> 00:15:33,730 community is probably the highest, but you know, even in my community, y’know, 205 00:15:33,730 --> 00:15:36,500 the suicide rate is pretty high. 206 00:15:36,500 --> 00:15:40,830 I think that when you’re always surrounded by death, because people give up, 207 00:15:40,830 --> 00:15:46,880 that having these ceremonies to turn to, where you can honor their memory 208 00:15:46,880 --> 00:15:50,510 and be surrounded by healers is a good way. 209 00:15:50,510 --> 00:15:55,270 And because the Indian Act forced us to give up all those ceremonies, 210 00:15:55,270 --> 00:15:58,290 now is the time where we have to re-learn them. 211 00:16:08,960 --> 00:16:14,099 Of all the modern sciences aimed at reproducing subservience and reinforcing State power... 212 00:16:14,099 --> 00:16:17,020 psychiatry is particularly nasty. 213 00:16:17,020 --> 00:16:21,680 Its history is fraught with the warehousing and torture of countless individuals in sanitariums 214 00:16:21,680 --> 00:16:23,189 and asylums. 215 00:16:23,189 --> 00:16:27,880 In their eternal quest to understand and destroy that which is different, states have performed 216 00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:32,680 every conceivable type of experiment on human test subjects, from mass sterilizations 217 00:16:32,680 --> 00:16:36,429 and LSD-induced comas to decades of routine lobotomies. 218 00:16:38,439 --> 00:16:43,410 Psychiatrists’ enthusiastic embrace of eugenics during the early 20th century was a major 219 00:16:43,410 --> 00:16:48,730 inspiration for Nazi scientists, providing them a convenient pseudo-scientific justification 220 00:16:48,730 --> 00:16:50,329 for the Holocaust. 221 00:16:50,329 --> 00:16:55,329 And while the term became taboo after WWII the inherent link between psychiatry 222 00:16:55,329 --> 00:17:00,889 and eugenics continued long after, and some would argue, still exists today. 223 00:17:00,889 --> 00:17:05,430 Although psychiatry poses amidst the hard science-based branches of medicine, 224 00:17:05,430 --> 00:17:08,520 nowhere else is the creation of medical conditions and disorders 225 00:17:08,520 --> 00:17:11,640 so socially manufactured as in psychiatry's bible, 226 00:17:11,640 --> 00:17:14,980 the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual or DSM. 227 00:17:14,980 --> 00:17:19,150 While the process of deciding how to categorize the mentally unwell can involve aspects of 228 00:17:19,150 --> 00:17:24,150 the scientific method, it is oftentimes no more than a room full of old white men promoting 229 00:17:24,150 --> 00:17:27,449 their collected social biases and individual agendas. 230 00:17:27,449 --> 00:17:31,849 Ralph was sick. A sickness that was not visible like smallpox, 231 00:17:31,849 --> 00:17:36,869 but no less dangerous and contagious. A sickness of the mind. 232 00:17:36,869 --> 00:17:39,119 You see... Ralph was a homosexual. 233 00:17:39,119 --> 00:17:46,222 Within the sacred pages of the DSM, homosexuality was considered a mental disorder until 1987, 234 00:17:46,222 --> 00:17:50,880 and to this day, many transgender people need to be diagnosed with a mental illness in order 235 00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:52,850 to receive the treatments they need. 236 00:17:52,850 --> 00:17:56,490 Women who may have once been labeled as nymphomaniacs or hysterics, 237 00:17:56,490 --> 00:17:58,820 are today branded instead with BPD, 238 00:17:58,820 --> 00:18:03,290 or borderline personality disorder, a catch-all diagnosis primarily inscribed 239 00:18:03,290 --> 00:18:07,149 on women whose histories of trauma are not seen as real or legitimate. 240 00:18:07,149 --> 00:18:12,350 Although there have been attempts to distance psychiatry from this legacy, its ongoing history 241 00:18:12,350 --> 00:18:18,450 is one of padded cells, forced injections, electroshock, and indefinite institutionalization. 242 00:18:18,450 --> 00:18:22,460 If you find yourself on the wrong side of the modern mental healthcare system, 243 00:18:22,460 --> 00:18:26,380 you can easily fall into a vicious feedback loop of mental health crises, 244 00:18:26,380 --> 00:18:30,770 often caused by trauma, leading to further violence and re-traumatization. 245 00:18:30,770 --> 00:18:34,600 This may take the form of forced hospitalization, incarceration, 246 00:18:34,600 --> 00:18:36,520 hurting yourself or people that you love, 247 00:18:36,520 --> 00:18:39,300 or ultimately ... being murdered by the police. 248 00:18:46,600 --> 00:18:53,000 The state engages with mental unwellness by being the identifier of those of us that are 249 00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:54,630 well and those of us that are unwell. 250 00:18:56,080 --> 00:19:02,770 So the state and psychiatry define being well in terms of how well you conform to a normal 251 00:19:02,770 --> 00:19:07,580 and in this society that normal encompasses all of the problematic 252 00:19:07,580 --> 00:19:09,840 natures of mainstream society. 253 00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:14,450 If you went back and asked your guidance counselor what their version of success would be for 254 00:19:14,450 --> 00:19:17,950 you moving forward, well, it’s like how well you conform. 255 00:19:17,950 --> 00:19:22,210 They started the residential schools to assimilate the children. 256 00:19:22,210 --> 00:19:26,760 It was the law that if you didn’t give up your children you were sent to jail. 257 00:19:26,760 --> 00:19:31,500 They call the foster care system the next residential school. 258 00:19:31,500 --> 00:19:33,900 The kids that are in care aren’t brought up in a good way 259 00:19:33,900 --> 00:19:36,020 and they fall through the cracks. 260 00:19:36,310 --> 00:19:38,490 The state usually criminalizes mental unwellness. 261 00:19:38,490 --> 00:19:41,180 Generally if you look at the ways that psych wards operate, 262 00:19:41,180 --> 00:19:43,670 it’s not significantly different than prison. 263 00:19:43,670 --> 00:19:47,380 And if you look at the way prisons operate they’re usually used as psych wards. 264 00:19:47,380 --> 00:19:51,270 There’s no real distinction between the carcerality of american society in general 265 00:19:51,270 --> 00:19:53,140 and the way that we treat the mentally ill. 266 00:19:53,140 --> 00:19:55,674 Including the way that police shoot mentally ill people. 267 00:19:55,674 --> 00:19:58,640 News 1: A police officer shoots and kills a teenager with schizophrenia. 268 00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:03,710 News 2: A mentally ill man being shot four times by a police officer despite the fact 269 00:20:03,710 --> 00:20:05,820 that the victim showed no threat of force. 270 00:20:05,820 --> 00:20:08,579 News 3: And a mentally ill man shot dead by two Dallas officers. 271 00:20:09,089 --> 00:20:15,870 I’ve spent four and a half months in state jails, about a month and a half in psych wards, 272 00:20:15,870 --> 00:20:18,690 and there are some, like, really noticeable similarities. 273 00:20:18,690 --> 00:20:22,710 There’s coercive violence, isolation - but the difference is that 274 00:20:22,710 --> 00:20:25,780 like, when I’m in jail, I’m well and I’m myself, 275 00:20:25,780 --> 00:20:28,310 I’m in a battle against the state and they're my enemy 276 00:20:28,310 --> 00:20:29,600 and they’ve locked me in a cage. 277 00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:32,809 And when I’m in a psych ward, it’s like a whole different world. 278 00:20:32,809 --> 00:20:36,550 I don’t understand what’s going on. I have no connection to myself. 279 00:20:36,550 --> 00:20:39,450 If I refuse medication, I’ll be tackled to the ground 280 00:20:39,450 --> 00:20:41,280 and have it injected into me. 281 00:20:41,420 --> 00:20:46,980 The trauma that I feel in my life from having been in jail is so much less profound than 282 00:20:46,980 --> 00:20:49,250 the trauma that comes from a psych ward. 283 00:20:49,250 --> 00:20:53,120 Generally mental illness is treated as something to push under the rug and hide 284 00:20:53,120 --> 00:20:56,210 and either like fix with, you know, dumbing you down enough that you can 285 00:20:56,210 --> 00:20:58,890 actually deal with whatever bullshit society is giving you. 286 00:20:58,890 --> 00:21:02,030 Or, with putting you away if you’re unable to actually get back 287 00:21:02,030 --> 00:21:04,700 into the capitalist flow of things. 288 00:21:05,730 --> 00:21:11,390 Generally, the state engages with unwellness on a complete individual basis. 289 00:21:11,390 --> 00:21:15,900 The problem is individualized and the solution is also individualized. 290 00:21:15,900 --> 00:21:19,740 Self-care is usually a stand-in for a lot of neoliberal approaches 291 00:21:19,740 --> 00:21:21,500 to dealing with mental health problems. 292 00:21:21,500 --> 00:21:26,340 I worry that sometimes this expectation that people practice self-care 293 00:21:26,340 --> 00:21:29,330 kind of misses the target in many ways. 294 00:21:29,330 --> 00:21:35,309 Generally it focuses on a very individualized approach of like, taking care of your personal 295 00:21:35,309 --> 00:21:39,779 needs as far as like attention or how people interact with you or things like that. 296 00:21:39,779 --> 00:21:44,749 My wellness is maintained by taking pharmaceutical drugs 297 00:21:44,749 --> 00:21:48,139 that are made by some of the worst corporations in the world. 298 00:21:48,139 --> 00:21:52,229 People that are capitalizing off of hyper medication, 299 00:21:52,229 --> 00:21:55,880 they’re advertising to doctors to try and get, you know, 300 00:21:55,880 --> 00:21:59,500 as big of a quarterly fucking profit as they can. 301 00:21:59,500 --> 00:22:06,350 You have to simultaneously be able to hold the understanding that the pharmaceutical 302 00:22:06,350 --> 00:22:10,350 industry, like, really what they’re interested in is profit and they’re gonna try to get 303 00:22:10,350 --> 00:22:14,170 as many people as they possibly can addicted to their drugs 304 00:22:14,170 --> 00:22:18,480 … with the reality that like, there’s actually a lot of people for whom 305 00:22:18,480 --> 00:22:20,770 the drugs are really helpful, you know? 306 00:22:20,770 --> 00:22:23,100 Not nearly as many people as who are on them... 307 00:22:23,100 --> 00:22:27,810 but I think it’s really important to be able to have that analysis 308 00:22:27,810 --> 00:22:31,930 where you don’t just get shut down and think in a black and white framework. 309 00:22:31,930 --> 00:22:36,370 And I think that just because a system exists doesn’t mean that we can’t critique it 310 00:22:36,370 --> 00:22:39,519 while understanding that there are some people that might benefit from that. 311 00:22:39,519 --> 00:22:42,680 And that there’s no shame in being able to be a person that decides 312 00:22:42,680 --> 00:22:45,889 what your care might look like. That doesn’t make you less critical, 313 00:22:45,889 --> 00:22:49,040 that doesn’t make you less of a mental health advocate. 314 00:22:49,350 --> 00:22:54,989 As a psychiatrist, I basically have to work with a lot of people who have, 315 00:22:54,989 --> 00:23:01,500 at least historically if not currently, found psych drugs and hospitalizations 316 00:23:01,500 --> 00:23:04,849 helpful at least to some extent. And I think that’s fine. 317 00:23:04,849 --> 00:23:12,429 What I do like to focus on with people is maybe a return to true informed consent. 318 00:23:12,429 --> 00:23:19,750 I like to focus, when possible, on supporting people who maybe can’t find somebody who 319 00:23:19,750 --> 00:23:25,700 is able and willing to help them taper or withdraw from the medications that they’ve 320 00:23:25,700 --> 00:23:32,049 been taking or live in a less coercive environment during a crisis. 321 00:23:32,529 --> 00:23:41,049 You have to walk in the white man’s world to get the accreditation that they find believable 322 00:23:41,049 --> 00:23:44,070 in order for you to help your own people. 323 00:23:44,070 --> 00:23:49,080 For instance, I can get a psychologist from Health Canada. They’ll pay for that. 324 00:23:49,080 --> 00:23:54,000 But I can’t get funding from Health Canada to pay for my spiritual elder 325 00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:56,470 cause he doesn’t have a degree in spirituality. 326 00:24:10,030 --> 00:24:14,320 Rather than unquestioningly accepting the State's authority on the causes and nature 327 00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:18,120 of mental unwellness and official dictates on what our interventions can and should 328 00:24:18,120 --> 00:24:23,010 look like, today many crazy people are asserting our power to choose the right mix 329 00:24:23,010 --> 00:24:26,480 of institutional and informal supports for the problems we face. 330 00:24:26,480 --> 00:24:30,779 This growing movement seeks to counter stigmatizing conceptions of mental illness 331 00:24:30,779 --> 00:24:34,300 that paint it as an isolated and individualized phenomenon, 332 00:24:34,300 --> 00:24:37,650 positing instead the need for dynamic peer-based solutions 333 00:24:37,650 --> 00:24:40,840 rooted in interconnectedness and community support. 334 00:24:42,380 --> 00:24:45,630 Social media, with all its flaws, can play an important role in building 335 00:24:45,630 --> 00:24:49,370 peer to peer networks, by offering us the ability to connect with others 336 00:24:49,370 --> 00:24:54,080 who have faced similar experiences. This can be particularly helpful for individuals 337 00:24:54,080 --> 00:24:58,260 that face geographic or emotional barriers to community and mental health support. 338 00:24:58,910 --> 00:25:02,380 Because at the end of the day… the best person to take care of someone in 339 00:25:02,380 --> 00:25:06,540 mental health crisis is often someone who’s already been through it themselves. 340 00:25:24,570 --> 00:25:30,179 When we try to support or be allied with people that face this type of mental health issue 341 00:25:30,179 --> 00:25:33,290 or trauma, we should be, in a way, curious. 342 00:25:33,290 --> 00:25:35,630 Not be afraid to ask questions. 343 00:25:35,630 --> 00:25:36,840 To learn. 344 00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:39,990 And to try to connect with those people we try to help. 345 00:25:39,990 --> 00:25:46,680 And really try to understand on a human and deeper level what these people faced 346 00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:49,239 in the past, and what they are feeling right now. 347 00:25:49,929 --> 00:25:55,020 The government did everything that they could to destroy us... and yet we’re still here. 348 00:25:55,020 --> 00:25:57,700 We all carry a different kind of trauma. 349 00:25:57,700 --> 00:26:03,740 And sometimes those traumas eat away at us until there’s nothing left. 350 00:26:03,740 --> 00:26:11,140 And sometimes those traumas, we’re able to work through them and they become our 351 00:26:11,140 --> 00:26:12,900 —almost energy source. 352 00:26:12,900 --> 00:26:18,560 To keep moving forward so that we can help the next generation. 353 00:26:18,860 --> 00:26:23,450 I have hope that, y’know, this generation is addressing these issues in a good way. 354 00:26:23,450 --> 00:26:26,370 So that we don’t continue the trauma. 355 00:26:26,370 --> 00:26:29,310 And try to reverse it if possible. 356 00:26:29,310 --> 00:26:32,610 Situations and humans are so complex. 357 00:26:32,610 --> 00:26:35,760 And we need to really be open to that complexity. 358 00:26:35,760 --> 00:26:39,670 Never try to simplify or put labels on people. 359 00:26:39,670 --> 00:26:43,810 This person is ‘traumatized’, or this person is ‘gonna be okay’. 360 00:26:43,810 --> 00:26:46,330 She’s ‘strong’, she’s ‘resilient’, right? 361 00:26:46,330 --> 00:26:49,870 We simplify situations that are very complex. 362 00:26:51,340 --> 00:26:54,540 People tend to have a lot of personal and community ways of dealing with 363 00:26:54,540 --> 00:26:58,509 mental health problems, but societally we tend to fail entirely. 364 00:26:58,509 --> 00:27:01,000 Generally what I’ve noticed in communities is a desire to help 365 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:02,550 and a lack of ability to. 366 00:27:02,550 --> 00:27:06,970 The actual, like, social conditions that cause these kinds of problems are 367 00:27:06,970 --> 00:27:08,220 more what needs to be addressed. 368 00:27:08,220 --> 00:27:10,410 And no one really seems to do that very well. 369 00:27:15,340 --> 00:27:18,440 The best community support that I’m a part of is very informal. 370 00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:22,989 It’s just talking with friends about how we’re doing, and what we’re thinking about. 371 00:27:22,989 --> 00:27:25,690 A lot of it is about building those relationships beforehand. 372 00:27:25,690 --> 00:27:29,980 Because whatever you do when a crisis occurs is going to be affected by and influenced 373 00:27:29,980 --> 00:27:33,070 by the actual relationships you have with people. 374 00:27:33,070 --> 00:27:37,179 Y’know, just making sure that our interactions with people are consensual. 375 00:27:37,179 --> 00:27:41,120 Understanding what it may feel like for someone to feel really scared 376 00:27:41,120 --> 00:27:43,230 and be sharing something with you. 377 00:27:43,230 --> 00:27:45,820 Not only what do they need, but what can I offer? 378 00:27:45,820 --> 00:27:48,800 And I think for me, actually that’s one of the first questions. 379 00:27:49,300 --> 00:27:53,440 There’s this opportunity in the crisis, and in the breakdown, 380 00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:55,310 for it to be a breakthrough. 381 00:27:55,310 --> 00:27:58,370 If you stick around, y’know, if you go through the hard times 382 00:27:58,370 --> 00:28:00,900 and get through the other side there’s a damn good chance 383 00:28:00,900 --> 00:28:03,809 you’re gonna come out with some wisdom that you never would have had. 384 00:28:03,809 --> 00:28:08,660 As a community of people who like, actually, care about making change in the world, 385 00:28:08,660 --> 00:28:14,250 we need to lay the foundations for a more understanding relationship to crisis. 386 00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:18,190 The best community support doesn’t have to look like an intervention. 387 00:28:18,190 --> 00:28:23,150 And ideally, when our communities are in a good place, and when individuals have 388 00:28:23,150 --> 00:28:26,990 really good, caring relationships and support networks set up, 389 00:28:26,990 --> 00:28:31,310 then the crisis doesn’t happen. Or it can be alleviated. 390 00:28:31,310 --> 00:28:36,770 I think that what we really have to begin to take seriously is that emotions surface 391 00:28:36,770 --> 00:28:38,830 at a different range for different people. 392 00:28:38,830 --> 00:28:42,431 And I think that some times there’s a way that we think listening is enough. 393 00:28:42,431 --> 00:28:46,210 And it may be sometimes people might require something of us. 394 00:28:46,210 --> 00:28:56,679 The authority that a psychiatrist is granted can be subverted to lift the voice of the 395 00:28:56,679 --> 00:29:00,270 participant in the therapeutic relationship. 396 00:29:00,730 --> 00:29:07,550 The role of the therapist, psychiatrist, social worker, mental health worker 397 00:29:07,550 --> 00:29:13,910 ... should be to step the fuck back and model a non-hierarchical, 398 00:29:13,910 --> 00:29:18,100 non-secretive way of being with one another. 399 00:29:18,100 --> 00:29:23,569 I hope that all of the work that our communities are doing around healing from trauma, 400 00:29:23,569 --> 00:29:27,090 around transformative justice and community accountability 401 00:29:27,090 --> 00:29:30,100 – that these can coalesce into some peer support models 402 00:29:30,100 --> 00:29:32,860 and some models for, like, intervening in crisis. 403 00:29:32,860 --> 00:29:38,260 And as much as I hope, and am excited about this work, I’m also skeptical 404 00:29:38,260 --> 00:29:42,480 because of the magnitude of mental health crises. 405 00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:47,489 There are so many different issues that face us that sometimes it can be overwhelming. 406 00:29:47,489 --> 00:29:52,779 But if you keep moving forward, and you keep addressing these issues and keep trying to 407 00:29:52,779 --> 00:29:57,360 find those solutions ... it brings hope to others. 408 00:30:04,850 --> 00:30:08,700 From the epidemics of suicides and overdoses, to the shock and rage 409 00:30:08,700 --> 00:30:11,290 sparked by the never-ending wave of police killings, 410 00:30:11,290 --> 00:30:13,530 it’s painful to think about all those who’ve died as a 411 00:30:13,530 --> 00:30:17,240 result of complications with mental health and their inability to receive 412 00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:18,900 the support that they needed. 413 00:30:18,900 --> 00:30:21,959 But their stories and lives aren’t forgotten. 414 00:30:21,959 --> 00:30:24,900 Even as we continue to struggle within and against a world 415 00:30:24,900 --> 00:30:27,370 that is growing increasingly scary, 416 00:30:27,370 --> 00:30:31,470 we must take steps to collectively prepare ourselves for the battles to come. 417 00:30:32,460 --> 00:30:37,250 Finding new ways to manage mental unwellness, with all the beauty and conflict that entails, 418 00:30:37,250 --> 00:30:41,640 is a fundamental component of building stronger, healthier communities of resistance. 419 00:30:42,220 --> 00:30:46,950 If we are able to do this, our movements will not only become more sustained and resilient, 420 00:30:46,950 --> 00:30:52,610 but will gain new layers of possibility as we travel into the uncertain future together. 421 00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:56,770 So at this point, we’d like to remind you that Trouble is intended to be watched 422 00:30:56,770 --> 00:31:00,300 in groups, and to be used as a resource to promote discussion 423 00:31:00,300 --> 00:31:01,350 and collective organizing. 424 00:31:01,980 --> 00:31:05,929 Are you interested in starting a local peer support group, or just wanna better integrate 425 00:31:05,929 --> 00:31:09,200 mental health awareness into your existing organizing projects? 426 00:31:09,200 --> 00:31:12,810 Consider getting together with some comrades, organizing a screening of this film, 427 00:31:12,810 --> 00:31:14,740 and discussing where to get started. 428 00:31:14,740 --> 00:31:18,610 Interested in running regular screenings of Trouble at your campus, infoshop, 429 00:31:18,610 --> 00:31:20,930 community center, or even just at home with friends? 430 00:31:20,930 --> 00:31:22,759 Become a Trouble-Maker! 431 00:31:22,759 --> 00:31:26,460 For 10 bucks a month, we’ll hook you up with an advanced copy of the show, 432 00:31:26,460 --> 00:31:30,369 and a screening kit featuring additional resources and some questions you can use 433 00:31:30,369 --> 00:31:31,869 to get a discussion going. 434 00:31:31,869 --> 00:31:34,980 If you can’t afford to support us financially, no worries! 435 00:31:34,980 --> 00:31:40,960 You can stream and/or download all our content for free off our website: sub.media/trouble. 436 00:31:41,650 --> 00:31:46,860 If you’ve got any suggestions for show topics, or just want to get in touch, drop us a line 437 00:31:46,860 --> 00:31:49,249 at trouble@sub.media. 438 00:31:49,249 --> 00:31:54,340 A reminder that our online store is fully stocked with fresh swag for any subMedia fans 439 00:31:54,340 --> 00:31:55,949 on your holiday shopping list. 440 00:31:55,949 --> 00:32:00,120 We’re a broke collective funded entirely by donations, and all proceeds from these 441 00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:05,110 sales go towards making it possible for us to make more films like this one. 442 00:32:05,110 --> 00:32:09,480 We’ll be doing our last shipment of the year on December 16th, so be sure and get 443 00:32:09,480 --> 00:32:13,249 your orders in before then at sub.media/gear. 444 00:32:13,249 --> 00:32:17,570 This episode would not have been possible without the generous support of John Hamilton. 445 00:32:17,570 --> 00:32:21,590 This is the last episode of the year… and after this we’ll be taking a month off. 446 00:32:21,590 --> 00:32:26,410 But stay tuned early next year for Trouble #18, as we take a closer look at policing, 447 00:32:26,410 --> 00:32:29,460 and community resistance to state violence. 448 00:32:29,460 --> 00:32:32,540 So we see, in the context of the War on Terror, 449 00:32:32,540 --> 00:32:35,760 within the last, y'know 10, 12, 15 years, 450 00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:40,725 an attempt to fuse policing resources to better respond to what are perceived 451 00:32:40,725 --> 00:32:42,305 as domestic threats. 452 00:32:42,675 --> 00:32:44,607 FUCK. THE. POLICE! 453 00:32:44,607 --> 00:32:47,450 Now get out there…. and make some trouble!