Dignity and respect

When a beloved son asks whether your bipolar is his fault, how do you answer? With dignity, self-respect and gratitude for the part your son has played in helping you through the journey of recovery.

Suddenly, one day, Graham is in a different mental place. His head feels different, the world is a different and challenging place – and recovery seems a distant goal. But Graham is a fighter at heart, determined to get through this battle – and to share his experiences so that others can get through the struggle as well.

Michael has been labelled and put into many different boxes over the years because of his sexuality and HIV status. He cares for his parents for many years, but the system needs to show its respect for his efforts by matching them with its own. Where is that support and respect in the last weeks of his mother’s life?

Terri’s life had been a roller-coaster ride of stress, and anxiety that came to rule her life, creating a cycle of self-destruction and self-harm. Only when she starts Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) does she begin to learn how to practise and apply skills that allow her to take back the control, dignity and self respect that her borderline personality disorder had denied her.

Is the denial of someone's illness the ultimate removal of dignity and respect? Bob's alienation, pain and experiences are put aside by professionals for forty years before his mental health issues are finally acknowledged with a diagnosis. Only then, with good support from his Mental Health Trust and restored faith and faith in himself, can he become part of the world again.