Michele Gyselinck

I have some poems I wrote in the mid-1990s before and after I was diagnosed with schizophrenia, which was one of the most stressful periods of my life.  One of them is on this computer ; its title is "Mountains".  Unfortunately I can't get it in this window.  I don't know how to, but I could send it to Disability concerns to publish in your newsletter along with the others.

Interesting.  I'll watch the video later, but I wanted to say that I got my latest issue of Scientific American Mind in the mail today and there is an article about schizophrenia in it.  "Schizophrenia's Genetic Roots" in November/December 2014. p. 13.

I don't see why communicating with us is such a big deal.  Most of us are normal people who happen to have a handicap, so the problem is really in their heads; they're the ones tagging us with the word "disabled", so they just need to stop thinking of people with handicaps as disabled and the hurdle will be gone.  Another thing that might help them would be to keep in mind that we're all limited in some way or other because of the effects of sin in our lives, and for some people it's more obvious than for others.  Nobody has the word disabled written on their forehead, and you're not abnormal because you walk with a stick or get around in a wheelchair.  Some people are really stupid and maybe that's their handicap.

Oh, I didn't mean stupidity in that sense, but to avoid talking to people because they have a visible handicap, or to talk down to them as though being blind or walking with a stick or having a mental illness equals being intellectually handicapped, that's what I find stupid. Whether we have a visible handicap or not, we are people first and foremost.

What an awful disease ALS must be!  Mind you, schizophrenia is not exactly a picnic at the beach but things could be worse.  For example I'm well enough to be looking for work part-time now.  I would have  been well enough sooner, but I wasn't ready for it psychologically then. I was hoping I'd earn enough money from the sale of my paintings to manage that way, but it didn't materialize so I decided to get back into the workforce, and the director of the day center on whose board I sit has offered to help me out with my job search, but he and the staff person who will be helping me out have gone on vacation for three weeks, so I figured I may as well enjoy some more time off as well.  This isn't a very good time to look for work anyway.  My mom often says we can always find people who are in worse shape than us, and it's true.  Look around and you'll see them.

 I also believe that this supposed finding of a link between vaccinations and autism is baloney.  I subscribe to Scientific American Mind, and in one issue there was an article titled "Why We Cheat," in which the case of this fraud was discussed along with other scientists who were also found to have cheated with data while they were still Ph.D. students but apparently their supervisors failed to confront them at the time, and when they submitted an article with fraudulent data and were found out their budding careers were over.  Who wants to hire an individual known to cheat and lie?

My sister also believed that autism was linked to vaccines and was extremely reluctant to have her son vaccinated because of that fraud, but she resigned herself to have it done because he would not have been admitted at the school where she and her partner wanted to register him UNLESS he were vaccinated.  I have lent her the issue but I don't know if she's read it yet since she's a pretty busy woman.  However, since both she and my brother-in-law are engineers, there is very little likelihood of them being anti-science.

  Here in Montreal, the maximum limit for indoor gatherings is 250 people.  Since our congregation is nowhere near that when we're all there, which is rare since we have housebound people, there is no need for people to register to attend anymore.  However, we are still not allowed to sing during services, and we have to observe protocols during the service.  Other than that I'm not aware of anyone refusing to wear a mask to get in or out of church.  We are encouraged to keep our masks on during the service, but once we're in our seats we're allowed to take them off as long as we put them back on to get out of church at the end of the service.  

And our church still puts a service online for people who are not necessarily members but who watch it on YouTube.

In Québec the majority of the population is compliant with the order in council that requires people to wear masks while riding public transit or while inside public spaces, but we do have our share of yahoos who won't listen to public health explanations of why we should do so, people who prefer to believe conspiracy theorists rather than reason, and some of them have made death threats against Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) or other government officials.

  I attend the First CRC in Montreal, and we have Communion in our last Sunday of the month service, and we have the monthly Pot-luck lunch AFTER the Service.  We started doing that when our former pastor was here.  In fact, it was relatively soon after he came here with his family.  I don't remember exactly how it came about because It's been awhile, and I wasn't on the Worship Committee at the time, but it seems that the proposal was submitted to the congregation for a vote--probably because it needed the support of the majority for it to work.  What we do is we have our service with the Lord's Supper and after the service is over people go downstairs to the Fellowship Hall where we have coffee and socialize while the dishes are being heated.  And when everything is ready, then we pray for grace over the meal and people line up to help themselves to the food.  It is served buffet-style on a long table, and people go around the table to take what they want and go sit at another table to eat and chat with those around them.

I haven't seen a brown bin at church, but I do know that my church does recycling.  Usually the bin is kept inside next to the side door of the building, so if there was a brown bin it would probably be there too.  Maybe the pastor does.  I'll forward the question to Council.  I do at home.

I am a Disability advocate, and I have been living with schizophrenia since the age of 28, my dominant symptom being depression.  I have been blogging about mental health issues since 2014 on the Disability Concerns website. The Health and Wealth Gospel is a load of BS.  I’m glad that you are still alive and taking medication.  Hang in there, and read my posts. Michèle Gyselinck 

I hope that one day you will find your way to become a disability advocate because there will never be too many people to speak on behalf of those who struggle with mental health challenges.  You are living proof that there’s a need for that kind of work.  Please join us at Disability Concerns and add your voice to ours.  Michèle Gyselinck 

@Tricia Rhoda.  The concerns you voice can depend on a host of factors like how severe their depression is,; what they’ve been told, I.e. that the reason they’re depressed is unconfessed sin, lack of faith etc.  When people are made to feel guilty about an illness, they may be afraid to push back against platitudes.  Also, not all people are equally connected to their emotions or able to verbalise them.

 In the book Finding Jesus in the Storm: The Spiritual Lives of Christians with Mental Health Challenges, by John Swinton, the author wrote that in some churches believers who have mental illnesses are told by other people that they have a demon or are demon-possessed.  You have to investigate what their background is before you assume that people are content with platitudes.