Almost another fall

Editor's Note:  Like much of what I post here, this entry has much the quality of a diary entry.  It hasn't been pre-structured or enough revised.  It was composed after an upsetting event.  My father (eighty seven years old and frail) did not fall, but he might have, and the ensuing panic led to elevated adrenalin levels and exhaustion.

Original Entry now revised:

My father did not fall, but he might have.
 I panicked, shouted, was angry and frightened --- later, exhausted and despondent.
What good am I? This is hopeless. And where the hell are my two sisters? They should see with their own eyes! If you love someone and care about them, you want to see for yourself. --- but my sisters do not come.

If you love someone, you want to see with your own eyes how they are doing----whether they
are sick or healthy, unhappy or happy, you want to see for yourself!


 One  sister has been turned into a virtual child- invalid by an over- protective and not terribly imaginative husband and so- called health professionals.

Bracketed thought:   The USA has a record of over- medication and other abuse ... do I really believe that these so-called experts are real experts?  Why should I?  Merely completing a course of study proves nothing!

Moreover, they have self-interested reasons for resisting my questioning.  When I was a teacher, I was frequently called upon to show that my students were making progress----and most did make progress...

counterpunch

APRIL 28, 2010
A Conversation with Robert Whitaker
The Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America
by BRUCE E. LEVINE


http://www.counterpunch.org/2010/04/28/the-astonishing-rise-of-mental-illness-in-america/



 After- thought: clearly, there is a need to balance safety and quality of life. However, insofar as a person becomes self- absorbed and attempts always to avoid potential sources of stress, she ceases- to that extent- to have a fully human or fully adult life. In my father's case, I wish I hadn't panicked. I hope that next time I can gently ( but quickly) offer him a helping hand. He did not fall tonight, but the anxiety and fear which I experienced is precisely the sort of thing that takes a heavy toll. My days and weeks are full of ceaseless worry and cares, with a niggardly amount of help from professionals.

Do I dare contemplate the thought of so-called "assisted living"?  No!  In this land of capitalism, the care for the elderly has been made a business, a source of profit for the already rich!  That is obscene.

Consider the above a series of fragments, not a finished work....