Mental Health Humor and Cartoons

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Mental Health Humor: Dr Bob Bob - Jailed in your Mind

From time to time the cartoons I draw can really hit close to home, and we get flooded with great comments for all of you… I want to say thank you for that and to tell you to keep up all the comments… Don’t forget, every one that comments on this week’s post will get a link and commented replied to on the weekly review (of course that is at/within my discretion.)

Well, Sunday’s cartoon got a lot of hits and some great comments that I did not want to wait till the week-end to highlight, in particular one of them. You have mostly seen his comments in the past, he has a flair for writing and quite frankly I don’t think I have ever had him comment here with less then 500 words… But, I love his passion and his zeal and I respect his goals and the way he has dealt and lived/survived with Bipolar Disorder. I’m talking about Ken Jensen, the Bipolar Eradicator!

I was told by many great writers and cartoonist the same thing over and over again… Write and Draw what you know! Well, the subject of jail, and run in with the police because of the Mental Disorders I live with have been limited… And I want to keep it that way.

To help us with that Ken will be our Guest Blogger:

Ken Jensen ittakesgutstobeme.com

Great post Chato! (state penitentiary, jail, prison, and mental illness )

I’ve been in jail for overnighters about 5 times. I’ve had more run-ins with the cops than I can recall both in and out of the Marines, and I’ve worn dozens of sets of cuffs. As a fellow ne’er do well told once me, “You know? For what I paid for these things you’d think they’d make them more comfortable!” LOL So true.

I’ve been sent to dryout shelters, and detained in backs of cars, stuck in cells, but all just one to two day events.

I’ve had both my arms torn out of their sockets by pulling my hands, cuffed behind my back, over my head until I was looking at the backs of them.

I’ve been choked out, knocked out, and beaten pretty good by cops here and there over the years. I was always drunk but my drunks were based in my bipolar disorder. And in the most recent years (over 4 years ago now), I was completely psychotic. Completely, totally, and powered by violence, psychotic.

The point to why I shared all this is that nobody could help fix me and address what the actual crap was that was driving all this inside me until I did it myself. I’ll stay generalized in my tale but you know it. Nobody could help me but me in the long run.

The way I repaired myself would NOT be granted to me in prison. That is one of my quiet horrors of potentiality. The way I healed has nothing to do with drugs but all they’ll do for me in jail would be to give me drugs. I already have 6 years of solid experience, and a foot thick record of doctor’s visits showing that I am 100% meds-resistant. The methods I use now worked and still work fantastically well but would not be allowed in prison.

And once that situation ever saw the light of day, I would be dead. I can’t go back in any way, shape, or form to how I used to be. The doctors would probably kill me in their attempts to “heal” or “control” me but probably, I would flip out along the way and say just the right thing to “Tiny” and he’d end my pain for me. I have no doubt. It’s how I always knew I’d die before I ultimately got better.

I am totally fine now and have been for years but I know that if I ever relaxed on how I take care of myself, it would all come rushing back.

This means no jail for me, ever.

Of course, barring the unforeseen, there should never be a reason why that would ever happen, but I’m just sayin’.

As I grow with what I do professionally, I want to address the severe lack of nutrition in jails and how that massively helps propel mental illnesses. Most jails spend as little as possible on food or anything else for the prisoners. Fact of life.

I saw examples of this end result while working in an all boys home. The kids all had mental problems and massive life problems, plus, they were boys. Young and full of energy. We (the system) controlled them through medication, massively restricted most of their freedoms, and gave them almost no chance to exercise as they were all disciplinary timebombs and mostly just fought with each other and us all the time. But it’s not a stretch to see how their environment and what we fed them helped that right along.

The food they ate (and me too, as a staff member as I was broke at the time) was total garbage. I sadly watched so many of my boys balloon 25, 50, to 100 pounds beyond their norm in less than 6 months. It was stunning to witness. I fattened up too.

I all but grieved for their position in life but mine was hardly better then. But working there gave me a clear idea of how much worse prison would be for health purposes.

Ok. I’m done. See ya next time!

Ken

Thank You Ken for helping us with understanding what many people have gone through and are dealing with when it comes to bipolar and the legal troubles.

Permission granted for non-profit use by artist: Chato B. Stewart.

^^^ When using this cartoon on your non-profit blog you must link us.^^^

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The art work / Cartoons series Mental Health Humor cartoons are not to be edited or
modified and when used a tag line “used with permission of Chato B. Stewart” or
“reprinted with permission by Chato B. Stewart” and link to
http://www.mentalhealthhumor.com should appear with each cartoon when used online or in any type of non-profit print.

Thanks for dropping by:

Chato B. Stewart
Mental Health Advocate - Cartoonist - and a few other things!
http://www.mentalhealthhumor.com

“Using Humor to Heal and Educate with badly drawn cartoons.”

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