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MENTAL HEALTH SHOULD NOT HAVE A STIGMA ATTACHED TO IT.

Most “normal” people will go through times in life where they are mentally and emotionally under pressure.

To have a mental health problem is as “normal” as having a cardiac, digestive, circulation or joint problem.

Many mental problems are associated with a trauma or a life occurance.

They can be triggered by problems in work, in a relationship, in a financial predicament etc.

This is especially true of conditions like depression and anxiety.

My first encounter with real anxiety happened when I was working in Divis Flats Belfast when I was living with two priests who were mentally torturing me 24/7.

I was sensible enough to talk to a doctor and to a psychiatrist who reassured me that my anxiety and panic attacks were the result of the intolerable situation I was living in.

I have always been one to tackle a problem head on.

I did a two week residential course in Nottingham with the famous psychiatrist, Dr Frank Lake.

DR FRANK LAKE

I discovered that I had my first panic attack just before my birth when the birth pangs started to expel me from my mother’s womb – the only world I knew at the time – and a world from which I was being forced to leave – an annihilation experience.

Panic attacks are part of the fight or flee basic human instinct.

When I learned that for myself, I never had another panic attack.

All “animals” panic when they are threatened with attack or annihilation.

We are part of the animal kingdom too.

I also relived my birth experience with Dr Lake and was able to come home and tell my mother things about my birth that she had forgotten!

The human mind is like an iceberg with only 3% of it above water.

Our subconscious mind represents 90% + of our consciousness.

When we cannot deal with reality we hide what’s bothering us in our subconscious.

There, it has the propensity to trouble us for years or for forever.

OTHER MENTAL HEALTH CONDITIONS

There are some mental health conditions that are not simply “situational” but have deeper causes.

I’m thinking of things like Bi Polar Disorder or Schizophrenia etc.

These can be caused by chemical problems in the brain or by extreme forces like PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

A very easy to read book for psychiatrists called DSM 5 can be read if you have £ 60.

But please, as an amateur, please do not use this book to diagnose yourself or another.

Such diagnosis is strictly for professionals.

But there is nothing wrong with suspecting that you or a friend might have a mental disorder.

Always consult a professional.

One of the big problems with mental health is that the person suffering from it might either not know – or not accept that they are ill.

This is a very challenging situation for relatives, friends and even doctors.

In the old days persons were diagnosed and institutionalised far too easily.

Now the pendulum has swung the other way and it is extremely difficult to get a patient in denial help.

Let’s use remove the stigma from mental health.

Let’s all talk about it.

83 replies on “MENTAL HEALTH SHOULD NOT HAVE A STIGMA ATTACHED TO IT.”

Many of us will experience a human breakdown of some kind: panic attacks, fatigue, depression, days of unworthiness, feeling of uselessness, that I’m getting nowhere. We can all identify with these moments. Often they disappear quickly but often they overstay their welcome. Up to the 80’s we hid people away with mental and emotional difficulties. We did likewise to many young pregnant teenagers! The medical community prescribed bucket loads of drugs, rarely saw any person with the potential to become well again. When i discovered my sister in a catatonic state lying under her bed one Sunday in a.hospiral ward, thinking she was dead and askkng me whhat I was doing in her grave, I knew her doctor had gone too far with drugs. I knew him as we worked together during summer holidays but I challenged him as to why my sister was given no other options or treatment except tablets…He failed to satisfy.my questions and I requested a family consultation which we were given a week later. At this meeting I asked many questions about how I had found her so often lying under her bed. I said it won’t ever happen again as I want you this very night to transfer her back to a half way house where she was making great recovery. Furthermore I demanded she be given a lady doctor. I told them I would detail everything I recorded and observed if my demands were not considered and recount all in a local newspaper. . Within a week my sister was sent back into a community setting with 6 others and assigned a lady psychiatrist..That doctor saw my sister as a human being with the capacity to get better and gain independence. Thankfully after 2 years with this community and lady doctor my sister stepped out into a whole new world and for 15 years she had an amazing life before she succumb ed to covid in 2020. Some of our ways of treating people with psychological illness is barbarous. I am glad my sister had 15 years of great joy and adventure. Be careful who you go to for professional help.

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Pat, you should do a blog on ex priests becoming psychotherapists. Tony Rice is making 2k per week at this game.

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GOOD psychotherapists, counsellors and psychiatrists are very useful.

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Shona, good to hear Fr Rice is a counsellor in your college. We didn’t actually know that. No disrespect intended. Tony is shrew and some would say cute. Delighted you find him helpful.

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I’m a ex-priest who practises as a psychotherapist. I charge €70 for a fifty-minute session. Each session costs me €28.70 (€15 room hire, vat). Supervision costs €70 per month. CPD costs an average of €600 euro per year, accreditation €370, insurance €180. My training in DCTC cost over €25k. I did not make one cent for my first three years, building up hours for accreditation.

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Mr Rice is a counsellor in our college. He is very good. No need for your disrespectful comment about him, totally unwarranted.

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2k Tonysays:
Oct 4, 2022 at 8:44 am
Richard Sipe.
The wonderful Richard Sipe (deceased) became a psychotherapist after leaving the Benedictines, what a lot we owe to him for highlighting sex abuse amongst Roman Catholic priests
Tony Anatrella –
French Roman Catholic priest, (born 1941) was a psychotherapist of adolescences, and the Roman Catholic church “shrink”, who had a penchant for touching up young males he was treating.
That’s two, there are more, especially in the U.S psychotherapist after being laicized, because of sexual abuse.

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8:44 no disrespect to Tony Rice but there have been cases elsewhere of ex clergy with highly questionable backgrounds taking this career route, suits their “control addiction”. 😏 dangerous for vulnerable.

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12.29 your sister was extremely fortunate to have such a caring and articulate family member prepared to go public if she did not receive the level of care that she required. Sadly that appears to be one of the 2 weapons that work when professionals let those in their care down so badly. Vicky Phelans story about how coverups are orchestrated to protect professionals in organisations is a real eye opener and only one of many. Vicky is a very selfless lady who exposed the HSE when she finally found out that so many other women were also victims of negligence and she also stated that she hoped to ensure that this never happened again. People like Vicky Phelan are inspirational and refuse to be silenced by large over privileged networks.

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Religious and ex religious should not work as counsellors. They should be Garda vetted and should disclose religious associations.

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4:35pm I agree, they will continue to have close associations with former colleagues in the church which is completely unacceptable. The church is more than a lifetime club, their insiders never truly “leave” – even families that had clergy in past generations are to present day “complicit”.

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Do not share personal medical information with anyone connected to the RCC, it will be weaponised and used against you. Guaranteed.

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Pat, on the diary I pencil in 100 client hours per month, but there will be no shows, cancellations etc so I average a yearly income of 48k after costs bit not including income tax.

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That’s not an excessive income at all after all your training and expenses.

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In the Red. All of the fees outlined for psychotherapy training are standard at about 25-28k training. Therapists do not make money until they are accredited. The clever guys like Tony leave priesthood after training or accreditation.

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Tony has done no wrong. He wasted his best years with the Redemptorists. I hope he helps lots of students and finds love.

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3:51 Phonsie got a temper on him allright. Few laid back or chilled Bishops in Ireland these days. Narky.

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He was well looked after as a student, and as a priest. His tuition was paid for which included psychotherapy training and two degrees. He was taken care of during his adjustment period

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4.35 and 1.48: What nonsense!! Utter shit! All clergy are Garda vetted for ministry and all counsellors and psychotherapists likewise. Don’t be such a gombeen. You’re a pitiable piece..

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Anyone who legitimately questions the Roman Catholic Church is mentally ill. We keep telling people this and we will keep telling them, mark our words.

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I don’t need to put £60 for a book in the pocket of some head quack when I already know that anyone who criticises our lovely church & our priests is a complete & utter head banger to be silenced by whatever means. The ends justify the means for our church.

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Very ignorant comment

The book is produced by the American Psychiatric Association.

You sound to me as if you need their help – if only for your ignorance.

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I suspect it’s a troll comment intended to make the blog look silly because nobody would believe it. The only trouble is they’ve said the bit they weren’t supposed to and it’s backfired because we’ve all met catlicks like them!

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I thought that was a satirist along the lines of the Holy Gid. There’s no need to canonise the APA outright, sharing of insightful critiques by anyone should always be welcomed. In my observation, people experiencing mania or hypomania mainly don’t have their professionals suggest help for it even when they wouldn’t be in denial, and some treatments are not well enough known to professionals.
Especially: do not disclose disabilities to “sodalities”. Better, drop out of them. Better: don’t join them.

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Do you have any mental health problems apart of stealing the other people identity for the interest of the roman catholic Coppola in London…
What did they promise to you in return Fr Wojciech Stachyra…???
As they were not enough English and Irish catholic priests in UK, they hired some Polish because they character is something “to admire”!!!

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8:06 the clergy & their cabal have been stealing peoples identities along with their dignity and peace of mind for decades.

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Celibacy within the Catholic tradition a trigger of mental illness – live isolated, lonely lives leads to promiscuity (primarily homosexual), alcoholism, and interpersonal dysfunction.
Oh and against that backdrop a Catholic couple have to suffer the indignity of marriage instruction from the least qualified and most dysfunctional person and v likely mentally I’ll person in the parish.
Oh and anger – Freud was right – repressed sexuality rears it’s ugly head in anger, bitterness, spite and malice – all of which reflect deep unhappiness and within the spectrum of, if not mental illness definitely mental instability and in need of help and counselling.
So many clergy are angry and hateful – it’s like a perk of the job – as instead of being called out or challenged we say, ‘Father is only human.’

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A psychiatrist told me that only two mental illness needed constant medication and that’s bi polar disorder and schizophrenia, all the rest can be managed through medication when necessary and talk therapy. That transformed how I thought about mental health and my own mental health and now I see the psychiatrist every six months, no medication necessary as I’m well but we track my progress as unfortunately when people are mentally ill they cannot tell they are so ill until they have hurt all they love around them.

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A lot of mental illness within the clergy
Alcoholism v common
Anger issues v common
Suicide – more common than we are led to believe.
Paedophilia – a mental illness
Kleptomania – v common
Sexual Paraphilia – v common
Depression – v common
Anxiety – v common
Clergy are not paragons of living life to the full but rather a profession in desperate need of therapy and help.

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8:28 they should appeal to their Bishops for help and support as a first line of inquiry.

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No shit, Jose ! It doesn’t take a genius to work that out. For too long clergy were able to have all these inadequacies and disabilities and yet to carry on as if there was nothing wrong because nobody was able to challenge them given their autocratic and institutionalised authority. I don’t think clergy for the most part start off when they enter seminary with these disabilities. I think the culture in which they are trained and the clerical environment in which they live eventually causes these things because of the toxicity and dysunction that is ingrained in that culture. That happens over years and decades, and leads to grave unhappiness for them and for those around them, also leads to criminality and abuse. So, the solution is not to be found per se in the individuals themselves, who would be no more inclined to such behaviours than anybody else in other settings, but in the culture and system they are educated and live in. Change that, make it more holistic, integrated, healthy, and you would cut this list drastically. Yes, and you know what the solutions in practice are ! Clergy who are able to live in marriages and relationships with family support and obligations; a more sensible and balanced way of life where they are paid adequately and have to manage their own economies; an oversight by outside agencies and people that is able to direct and challenge their ministry and work; inclusivity in ordained ministry including women and people of different lifestyle and sexuality; a dismantling of the authoritarian, autocratic, hierarchical clerical system with a much more democratic and lay involved management of the Church and parishes and pastoral life. You know it makes sense 1

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You can’t solely focus on the system because any job offering unquestionable power, a comfortable living and a certain amount of adulation attracts psychopaths, bullies and the inadequate. That’s why these people find their way to ministry and law enforcement. It particularly attracts the dishonest. Most young men, faced with the prospect of actually being celibate and not even masturbating, if honest, will say they can’t do it. It’s the ones who lie about it and think everyone else is lying about it who go into the clergy.
The observant will note that I’m delineating symptoms of psychopathy.

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These services are vital but the problem with counselling, psychotherapy etc is that they are beyond the means of many. And it’s arguable that many people in the lower income bracket need it more than those who have the means to afford it.

I know that’s a generalisation – having money dosen’t prevent mental health issues – but it’s a useful generalisation.

Another problem with these services is that it’s a lottery trying to find the right kind of therapy and THERAPIST. If you have the money to shop around and experiment that’s great but expensive. Even those on a decent income can’t afford that type of expenditure.

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10:11 Roman Catholic Church should be funding all of the public services worldwide in healthcare, police services etc., that their victims have to access as a consequence of church related abuse. It’s not like they cannot afford it given all of the outstanding claims it delays honouring.

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I think you need therapy for your extreme behaviour and your interaction with alcohol. Terry was given the € 200 for the painting and it is ready and he is willing to hand it over to you at the gate where he lives. Suggest a day and time and I will get Terry to meet you at the gate.

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11.12 oh no, not more Ennis crap 💩 is there nothing going on anywhere else in the world, surprised anyone would go near that priest, he’s no looker that’s for sure.

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The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense.

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Interesting re Frank lake cos of panic attacks.
I wonder is there any course or therapy in Ireland related to Frank Lake?

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I met Tony Rice as he was vocations director for the Reds. The day I met him he had his garb on with collar too. I didn’t realise he was gay but I felt on the day he wanted to have some fun with me in the monastery. He is another of those who use the church for their own personal gain . He left when he got all the training, what a waste for the Reds. I would not go to him for counselling as he is only in it for the status and the cash. Again he is a priest, once a priest always a priest. I wish him well.

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2:08 You are normally on here defending your in law Bishop who doesn’t like Tony Rice either. Meouw to the overprivileged Queenies in the RC.

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Tony is writing another book about the Redemptorists called Last Man Standing

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12.44pm

Same for Austin Ivereigh, CMOCs press man and now of Catholic Voices – paid for girlfriends abortion – double standards but the truth will out.

I’ve known a Catholic priest recommend an abortion as a solution to a distressed young woman.

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I fear that many people will self diagnose after looking through the DSM 5 it is a reference tool used by medical professionals to establish a code number for diagnostic purposes when billing or communicating with other professionals.A little knowledge is very dangerous.

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They say men are like buses, there will be another one along shortly. The 2 Killaloe Jerries appear to have experienced a breakdown along the way, current whereabouts a mystery despite apparently multiple enquiries to the not so fat controller. That’s what happens when lazy looking men like Fr Ger fail to understand their own limits & mistakenly opt for high maintenance models. Bet the controller wishes that the other Fr Jerry took the bus to Galway on the fateful (definitely not faithful) day.

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Ireland has one of the highest mental health issues in Europe, ranking joint third out of the 36 countries surveyed, (Health at a Glance report).4 May 2022
If you have not mental health disorder, it is likely you known someone who has had mental health problems, or, presently has, or, is being treated for mental health disorder.
Comparisons are available most recently for 2019 and show that in that year, Ireland’s suicide rate was;
• 24th highest for all ages (of 32 countries)
• 9th highest for ages 15 to 19 (of 30 countries)
• 16th highest for ages 50 to 54 (of 31 countries)
• Lowest for ages 85+ (of 28 countries)
HSE National Office for Suicide Prevention (NOSP)
Briefing on Eurostat Suicide Comparisons
June 2022
The above static’s are chilling and sobering
Now, the Irish Minister for Mental Health and Older People appears to recognized the need for reducing those figures by putting more money for treatment and, training into mental health improvement and has announces unprecedented €72.8 million in Mental Health funding in Budget 2023

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3:28 Sadly the HSE has a dismal record in allocating the massive public funding that it receives to the end user, the customer, the patient.

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“No one in Ireland should suffer from fuel poverty this Winter” – Irish Bishopshttps://www.catholicbishops.ie/2022/10/04/irish-bishops-welcome-pope-francis-message-to-world-leaders-ahead-of-cop27-urging-more-ambition-to-tackle-climate-crisis/

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We have a rogue nut job here in Glasgow – failed all the residential programmes: removed from ministry but in a nice flat & expenses all paid – and now peddling himself off as a “qualified therapist”! He’s a belter ! Dangerous and needs removed (again)

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Pat, have you seen this article by Dr Joseph Shaw, of the now closed St Benet’s Hall, Oxford, in which he reveals that Ampleforth used the college as a dumping ground for paedophile, alcoholic and difficult monks, who were sent to live among the students. Ampleforth has pocketed at least £15m from selling the college buildings to the secular St Hilda’s College.
https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/august-september-2022/farewell-to-st-benets-hall/

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