Dear Rep Murphy: On the meaning of reprehensible

You say that it is morally reprehensible for anyone to help a patient question the medical advice a professional gives him.

Let me tell you about reprehensible.

Where I live bipolar disorder is as much a function of the doctor you go to as the symptoms you display. One doctor basically believes everyone is bipolar. He says that the fact he consults and does “education” for a pharmaceutical company has nothing to do with it. Another talks about people “feeling bipolar” to him. They never seem to have the right symptoms for the right period of time but still…. The psychiatrist at the psychiatric unit basically doesnt believe anyone is bipolar. He thinks it is way over diagnosed and way over-dramatized. He normally cures people from bipolar really fast. He just tells them they dont have it. Considering they deal in “medical science” that seems reprehensible to me. How do people know which expert not to question since the 3 of them sometimes tell the same people diametrically opposite things?

My sister in law was according to your terms “severely mentally ill.” She took her life 14 years ago but the illness didnt kill her. The treatment did. She was taking so many meds she had meds for her meds. She couldnt think a clear thought. She told me she was lost. Then she told me there was nothing left to find. Then she died. That was reprehensible.

I met a young lady who told me she had diabetes. She was 22. No family history. No risk factors. She told me she took risperodol for bipolar disorder. Strangely enough about a year later she stopped taking the meds. 4 years later she is doing fine. Was she troubled? Without question yes. Did she have serious issues? Probably. But did she have bipolar or pick doctors poorly? I dont know. She didnt pick diabetes. It was given to her. That is reprehensible.

I live in state that has over 80000 people with mental health issues without insurance because they have chosen not to expand medicaid. That is reprehensible. And it is totally reprehensible that you have voted over 50 times against the ACA while claiming to be an advocate for the very people you would deny medical coverage for.

People with “mental illness” die years earlier than those without. They by and large get lousy medical care. They get “cured” by medicines that for some have life altering consequences. That is reprehensible.

Over 60% of the people with a mental health diagnosis in my state are unemployed. In some states it goes over 90%. It is a result of systematic discrimination against labeled people. That is reprehensible. Never, not once, have I ever heard you address that. Without a job you dont tend to have insurance. You are more likely to become homeless. Your family is more likely to suffer.

You preach about the plight of the “mentally ill” in the jail but you never talk about the factors like poverty, drug addiction, trauma, gang involvement, racism and others that lead to criminal behavior. Largely your party is against any legislation that would affect any of those factors. That is reprehensible.

People are traumatized and hurt everyday in the penal system. Never, not once have I heard you address the abysmal track record of the treatment of the “mentally ill” in our jails. That is reprehensible.

To explain all this as “mental illness” and ignore the widespread injustice faced by so many is blaming the victim and so very Republican. And that is reprehensible.

You would raise the alarm about “crazy people with guns” and ignore the fact this country has a real and pervasive problem with gun violence. You ignore the deaths of thousands of people and seem to write it off as the price of us protecting our constitutional rights and that is so very, very reprehensible.

You ignore the fact that the “mentally ill” are much more likely to be the victim of violence than the perpetrator and in maintaining that prejudice make them more likely to be victimized and that is reprehensible.

You preach against the mental health system and paint SAMSHA as the source of all things bad. You ignore the fact that mental health systems are state creations. But while in one breath you slam the mental health system as being ineffective and almost criminal in the next breath you advocate for a bill that would force people to receive services from the same system you say is useless. You cant have it both ways. To try to smacks of political opportunism and outright fraud. And all of this is way past reprehensible..

You talk about psychiatric hospitalization like criminal behavior is the result of a defiency of hospitalization. The boat sailed a long time ago on hospitalization. They may indeed remain but they will never be the cornerstone of the system again. Other than perhaps crisis stabilization there is no proof they work and many people with lived experience will tell you they do much more harm than good. To even imply that people are against hospitalization because of maintaining their own financial interests in community programs is dishonest, libelous, and, you guessed it, reprehensible.

The budgets of mental health systems have been cut to the bone by state legislature after state legislature. It befuddles me that you dont even seem to recognise that in your prescription of problems. You seem to only see what is in your political interests to see. And that is reprehensible.

AOT is old news. Except New York which pours millions of dollars into, it basically lies fallow. It costs too much and does too little for too few. In New York it serves 1/3 of 1%. To pass it off as the essential piece of reform in a system needing widespread is at best a distortion and at worst a lie. And it is reprehensible.

And a final word (believe me much more could be said) in this country it is not reprehensible that someone would try to help someone else to protect their rights. It is reprehensible not to.