Letters to the Voices' Editors
Crying Help from Solitary
To the Editors:
I have been transferred and would like to continue receiving your periodical, which I find to possess a free spirit of its own.
I was transferred to [Attica State Correctional Facility] in order to be monitored by the Intermediate Care Program staff, but so far no one from mental health has come to see me…once I am off "keep-locked" status on January 24, 2005, [they will put me] out with the general population. But what if I become overwhelmed again while in the general population?
Can someone sort of adopt me…so that someone on the outside shows concern being that I have nobody else to do so….New York City Voices brings me hope that I am not alone, hope that my condition is treatable, hope that my illness is understood, hope that you'll be there for me to help me get appropriate treatment, hope that my cry for help will be heard, hope that this little bit of love will be shared with me….
Carlos Sabater from his solitary confinement cell at Attica Correctional Facility
This letter has been forwarded to lawyers at the Urban Justice Center's Mental Health Project. If you have suggestions to help Mr. Sabater or can advocate for him, please call or write to City Voices' Editors, (212) 491-1367, PO Box 310368, Brooklyn, NY 11231 or email editors@newyorkcityvoices.org.
We Are Not as Sick as We Think
To the Editors:
I found you while looking at an old (2002) internet site for depression. It appears you collect information and release articles on mental health.
I want you to know that I am intimately familiar with mental health. For many years I suffered so severely that it was easier to kill myself than get out of bed.
Over the years, I have fought the disease. Amazingly, I have had reasonable success. But it has been a very slow battle. I no longer find myself wishing to die, but wishing to learn how to live. But it is not all rosy either. I am learning many coping skills as I go. I hold a steady job (I went through 42 of them to learn how!). But, from starting out without any success, at least some has come. I even have a successful marriage-so far!
I am not a professional. I am just a regular person. I did work in the field for many years, which opened my eyes to so many things. I do not claim to have the answers. All I am saying is that I have found ways to improve over time-slowly, methodically, but improve. It does not go away. I will not pretend it does.
[We] are not as sick as [we] think…[We] are not as sick as the general public. You see, I have learned over time that the public is very sick. The better I get, the more I realize that…as sick as we are, we are not nearly as sad as many people. Because they think they are well. But they mistreat each other so bad. They think they are rich, but they are hiding in poverty of spirit.
At least [we] know our state. And God knows our state, and is willing to work with us right where we are. Most people only know life by whatever financial class they are raised in. But make no mistake-we are not as sick as they. It makes me pity them-the healthier I get.
The point is that [we] don't need to feel ashamed. I have learned that the people we think we want to feel like are in just as poor a shape, but in different ways. I guess that's what the bible means when it says "...no temptation has taken you but such as is common to man..." We truly are not as unique in our suffering as people/life tends to make us feel.
Joe Holt
Via the Web