Homage to Liz

Posted on December 8, 2002 in Appeals and Goodwill Pointers

Blu Iguana wrote an appeal for support of Liz Bateman. After reading what she’s going through, I sent her this email:

I suffer with major depression. It’s fucking confusing to exist in that state sometimes when the meds the doctor has you on have stopped
working. I’m very thankful that, for the moment, my current drug
(effexor) seems to be working because this last Wednesday, my wife
was abruptly laid off from her job.

I make people angry, too, with my remarks about their shallow
understandings about mental illness and the lack of sufficient resources
for those of us who suffer from it. I’m in the position that if my wife
does not find a job by April, gone goes my Effexor, my medications for
diabetes, etc.

Selling stuff off is something people have suggested to me. OK, all this
computer equipment that I have might fetch me, say, $1000 — which will
last a month. At the end of that month, if Lynn doesn’t have a job, it
will be gone. So will my websites and my computers. It will be years
before I am able to afford them again. My creative outlet — my activity
which makes me feel a part of the human race — will have been
stomped out. Imagine what that will do to my depression.

I know you love your child. I can see you pulling hairs out of your head.
And I know full well the stupidity of people.

I read your blog. It’s honest, to the point. No one who goes through a
tough time sounds entirely sensible. That’s OK. The insane ones are
those who think that there are no insurmountable problems in life, that
we can do it all alone. Maybe if we inherited a few million dollars, this
might be so. But for you, me, and tens of thousands like us, it just
ain’t so.

I hope this email helps you lift your head a bit. Just to show the
bastards, I am adding you to my blogroll.