She was the first-born of triplet girls and weighed only 2 pounds. Her parents wanted to prepare her for marriage...not a career. They refused to support her decision to attend university...She chose to go anyways....without their support.
She became one of the most loved and respected psychiatrist of our time. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross...well known for her work on death and dying...practised psychiatry at a U.S. facility early in her career. It was there she tested her theory.....if you show compassion, kindness and respect to even the most disturbed patients.....they will respond positively. It worked. No drugs, no force, no punishment...
"Patients with even the most severe illnesses seemed to respond to Kübler-Ross's compassionate approach. The indifferent and even inhumane treatment of patients in psychiatric hospitals appalled the young doctor, and the more freedom she was allowed in treating patients, the more successful results she achieved......
When I think about the 'professionals' who used force.....tying me to a bed, locking me in a closet sized room, pumping me full of sedatives that gave me horrible side effects...I still get angry...I want to strike back at them....hurt them the way they hurt me. Why did they think it was acceptable to treat anyone like that? And that type of 'treatment' goes on all the time in government run homes and institutions.
The dictionary defines dignity as - a term used to signify that a human being has an inate right to respect and ethical treatment.
Some of those professionals claiming to 'help' me - stripped me of any shred of dignity I may have had. They said they were simply trying to stop me from hurting myself. Their force, their control...their methods only pushed me to lash out more....and intensified my self-hatred. What they did...was reinforce what I had already learned growing up in a violent home....
Dignity....He touched me....and showed me a different way. He showed me compassion, kindness....gentleness. He changed me like Kubler-Ross's kindness changed her patients. Dignity - I never want to take that from anybody....
