This woman is questioning something that you and I hesitate to talk about: Mental Health

Image courtesy: facebook.com/resh.val

Brightly coloured hair, tattoos and  numerous piercings are probably the least interesting things about Reshma Valliappan. Also known as Val Resh, she is an activist for a number of issues, but primarily for mental health and human rights.

Having dealt with schizophrenia herself, Val Resh’s hard-hitting questions will leave you baffled. Committed to the idea of self-advocacy, she is a powerful voice on issues of stigma and injustice. Having broken away from conventional medication, she is working towards bringing a paradigm shift in how society perceives and understands mental illness.

She is also the author of Fallen, Standing – My Life as a Schizophrenist, a memoir of years of struggle that began when she was 14 years old. The book traces her life experiences from being a rebellious and difficult teenager to actually  being diagnosed eight years later. This is a first-of-its-kind memoir that turns the spotlight on schizophrenia.

11081011_1056291001052072_3639900496549534235_n - Copy
Image courtesy: facebook.com/resh.val

By building on-line and offline spaces for persons living with mental illness, fora where they can freely share their stories, reflect on experiences and choose their own paths to recovery, Reshma is challenging conventional approaches to managing mental illness. Take some time and read what she has to say on this poignant issue.

Of stigma and society

“Societal acceptance is one of the most important enabling factors when it comes to people with mental illness (though I don’t like using this word) as that is what shapes their acceptance and constructions of everything. Families start accepting them only when society accepts them. Mental illness is one of the oldest forms of disability or human conditions, yet strangely people fear to talk about it.

I still hold my breath sometimes when I travel, from fear that I might be offloaded because I am ‘mentally ill’. They want you to talk about your condition and come out of the closet, but in doing so, no law supports you. I can be thrown out without my consent if someone thinks I am being violent, paranoid, or suicidal. Imagine. Why don’t they do this to someone who rapes, gropes or molest another person?

If people invested more of their energy in being caring and compassionate, most of the pain we know today would not exist.”

Image courtesy: facebook.com/resh.val

Breaking away from conventional medication

“Traditional medication for mental illness has more side-effects than actual benefits. The side-effects include increased risk of heart problems, organ failure and other irreversible physical ailments.

Schizophrenia is a word used to describe a wide range of complex human behaviors, emotions and thoughts. We cannot ‘treat’ human experiences and hope they go away like a flu or a cold. We need to confront our buried experiences. That is what I have done. Many ‘symptoms’ have disappeared and new ones come up. It’s not about curing, but more about healing!”

Image courtesy: facebook.com/resh.val

Patient freedom and rights and respect for patient decisions

“Do we question a person with cancer who chooses to opt out of chemo? Most often, the answer is no. But when it comes to people with mental illness, everyone else immediately judges their decision making skills. The problem is that people with mental illness find it a lot more difficult because no one wants to accept them or give them the support required to make their own decisions and help them from there. They need to be given the opportunity to try what they think would work.”

Image courtesy: facebook.com/resh.val

The Red Door Project

“I’ve been inside my four walls for a very long time. Closed as a person, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. Even as an artist, I work alone. The process itself can heighten loneliness and then, to make things worse, there is the condition I have to contend with.

Then I realized that I could paint with others. By doing so, I can overcome my own fear of being with people and start talking to them in the hope that they might understand me and my experiences. That’s how I began the project. Today, seeing a bunch of people painting or telling stories in an open area encourages many others to be part of this project.”

Image courtesy: facebook.com/resh.val

Future advocacy initiatives

“Quite a lot! But, at the moment I’m focusing on myself , as I’ve yet to find alternatives to work around my epilepsy. It’s difficult to do many things at once, especially travel, when I am prone to seizures. I’m in the process of collaborating with several universities to get youth involved in this area of work.”

10408086_436058573226007_1215759774076399555_n
Image courtesy: facebook.com/resh.val

Something everyone should give a thought to!

“People with mental illness are as human as everyone else. They have not raped, murdered or tortured others, and do not deserve to be called violent or to be shunned. Quite often, they have themselves been victims of some kind of abuse. Both families of patients and society in general need to ask a few simple questions: Who does not go through a mental health crisis at some point? Why not talk about it, because it is the one human condition that each individual experiences at different levels. The only difference is that it’s a lot more intense and exaggerated for those with the ‘illness’.”