As you may well have gathered over the last 15 months of the existence of this blog I work in mental health and I have a mental illness. Today I had to sit in a room with 30 people all of whom have far easier jobs than mine but who get paid more than me. As you can imagine this is somewhat irritating. But sadly par for the course.
Someone said to me that it took her 8 years to qualify and this was the justification for the inequality that I experience every day of my life. But it got me thinking, what gives me the right-or is it qualification-to have the privilege of being let into profoundly damaged lives and more importantly to be trusted? And believe me there are many people out there who do trust me.
Well, I have a Cambridge Masters degree. I have a Post Graduate Certificate in Education. Oh yes and perhaps most important of all an NVQ 3 in Promoting Independence! You may well ask what the fuck is that all about? Good question and my answer is I have no fucking clue at all. Apparently it is equivalent to 2 A Levels! Actually have 4 real ones of those too.
In reality all of those are completely irrelevant. What is important is my life experience. How can one understand a voice hearer without being one? How does one understand being locked up behind iron doors with bars on the window without experiencing it? Who really knows what it is like to try to kill one's self without actually surviving such a trauma. That is my life, a life told in infinite detail in "A Pillar of Impotence".
I have been training for 21 years and I've done it the hard way. Surely that is worth more that spending 8 years studying Freud's bullshit and contemplating one's navel?
I will let you decide.
I Heard a Voice.
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