meveen - Tumblr blog

[meveen]

Once in awhile, you can get one over on The Man. Finally, after all these years of toiling under his rule, doing his dirty work, begging for his praise, he has well and truly fucked up. And, it turns out, your entire life has been building up to the moment that you can milk him for all he's worth.

Have you ever seen a Dodge Caliber? They're getting sort of uncommon now, but when they were new, they were pretty hateful cars. Cheap, buzzy, surprisingly uneconomical, steering that felt like telling a funeral home operator how to sign a birthday card over the phone by long distance. And they fell apart all the time. Most cars get repaired, but these things got gleefully shovelled into the junkyard at the first chance the owners got.

Not all of them, though. This is a story about one very special Dodge Caliber. You see, my aunt needed a car. And my aunt is very nervous about owning a car. The skills of shitbox repair never made it into her genes, you see, possibly because she is not related to me by blood. So, in order to get that car, she went to the Dodge dealership, and she asked them: can you do a lifetime warranty, unlimited mileage, no questions asked, cover everything? And they said: for you, ma'am, we absolutely can charge you an obscene, eye-watering amount of money.

Once I found out about this, I was mad. And then I figured it out. You see, what my aunt did have was being insanely cheap. That's why she was a part of my degenerate family. She still is, even though my Uncle Larry exploded that one night at Arecibo. Unlimited mileage. There has never been a sweeter phrase uttered in the English language.

Now, whenever anyone we know needs to go for a long trip, we tell them: take the Caliber. Rack those miles up. Punish those stupid motherfuckers for writing such a terrible, open-ended contract. My aunt runs a taxi service consisting entirely of this vehicle, a fleet of drivers constantly rotating in and out, the thing rolling virtually 24/7. I love driving this car, because every single mile that ticks up on the odometer is more salty tears from the low-wattage pig who thought he was a big-time wheeler and dealer down at Old Time Country Dodge.

To their credit, they figured out the enormous error that they had made fairly quickly. When Aunt Hilda rolled in the thing, smoking and wheezing, for its sixth transmission replacement at eight-hundred-and-fifty-thousand kilometers, they offered to buy it from her and give her a brand new luxury SUV, just for being such a great customer. She laughed, and told them to get started overhauling the Caliber, and don't forget to take a look at the squeaking sound it started making in the back.

When things got real bad during the recession, they tried to go bankrupt, thinking that might get them out from having to maintain this economy car until the sun burns out. Ha! Death won't save you, my friend. My attorney Max picked that one up pro bono, despite hating warranty law, just for the pleasure of watching their attorney read the purchase contract. Her eyes got so big that they stuck that way. The paramedics had to use the jaws of life on her eyelids so she could blink again.

If you see me in the Caliber, make sure to honk. I probably won't stop to say hi, because we gotta keep this odometer rollin'. Rest assured, however, that I will honk back, maybe ten or fifteen times. Really get my money's worth out of that horn.

[meveen]

Parasite and Girl

[meveen]

when they stopped putting cd drives in laptops we ALL lost

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this is the audio version of this picture

[meveen]

genuine question. what else are you supposed to do with people who WILL kill themselves the second they’re given free reign?

So this is always the question that comes up when I discuss the fact that psych wards are a form of incarceration. It can be really difficult to imagine alternatives for how to care for suicidal people when we've only ever seen psych wards, but I think that it is super important for us to do!

I think it's important to acknowledge that getting rid of psych wards would require a fundamental reshaping of the psychiatric system. So much of mental healthcare is connected to a fucked up, carceral system, where ableism is rampant. Mandatory reporting of self-harm laws, bullshit restrictions on medication, crisis hotlines that call the police--the psychiatric system is connected in a lot of big and small ways that all enable psych incarceration and mistreatment to happen. so it's not enough to just get rid of psych wards, we also have to change the wider landscape of mental healthcare.

secondly, I think we also need to look at factors that drive people into crisis in the first place. no matter what we change about society, there are always going to be people who are mentally ill and neurodivergent, and people are always going to be experiencing mental distress. so while getting rid of capitalism and fighting against oppression to create a better society won't change the fact that there are people in crisis, i think it might help to reduce the numbers of people. if our mental healthcare system wasn't so fucked, that maybe some people would be able to get help before things get to a crisis point for them. If medication was more accessible, if therapy wasn't super expensive, if there is more acceptance and education and resources and communities were better informed about how to support mentally ill people, then maybe not as many people would end up in some types of crisis. We can't talk about getting rid of psych wards without also talking about fighting against racism, colonialism, capitalism, transphobia--the things that are contributing to a lot of people's experiences of crisis.

But to really answer your question: in terms of actual physical replacements for psych wards, i think peer respite houses are really promising. peer respite houses are something that already exist in dozens of states, and they are spaces that offer 24/7 short term crisis stabilization in a home like environment. they have a very specific code of ethics and principles that define peer respite that makes it different from a hospital. To classify as peer respite, it has to be staffed by a people who have lived experience with mental health, which means that all professionals and staff there are also going to be people who are mentally ill and neurodivergent. Peer respite can offer a place for someone to be in direct contact with support 24/7 without locking people up. They're focused on reducing power imbalance between staff and patients, and don't practice abusive treatments like strip-searching, solitary confinement, and forced medicalization. they allow you to bring in your own belongings, leave when you want to, and have vistors. they aren't a perfect solution, but I think they are a hell of a lot better than psych wards and offer a way for people to be under suicide watch without being incarcerated. Here's a great link to read more about the mission and structure of peer respite. Here's a link to a mostly current directory of peer respite in the USA.

I also think that we just need to accept the fact that psych wards do not work, that many people attempt suicide instantly after leaving psych wards, and that there is no justification for abusing people in the name of treatment. suicidal people deserve autonomy and respect, and we deserve to be able to have input about what's happening to us.

there's also a lot of things that I think can be used as alternatives to psych incarceration for suicidal people before we get to the point where crisis stablization is needing, like mad mapping/pod networks and Wellness Recovery Action Planning or a similiar type of recovery plan. I also think that thinking about how to support people who are suicidal requires a fundamental restructuring of how we think about suicide (I might make a post about this later). and that there's a lot of ways we can support suicidal people that don't require formal institutions. you can get a group of people together to do informal suicide watch for a friend, you can work to understand your own suicidal ideation in alternative frameworks (suicidal ideation as communication, resistance, tons of other ways), you can create skill sharing networks where you all work on therapy skills together and try to build up your own distress tolerance skills, you can visit people in the psych ward and sneak them in candy and a stuffed animal, you can pass out zines about harm reduction for self-harm in your friend group.

this got a little long but to sum it up: there are alternatives to psych wards, even when people are actively suicidal. peer respite is one option, and any alternative to psych incarceration also has to come along with societal changes, fighting oppression, and mindset shifts.

[meveen]

Ahh, it’s back

[meveen]

i could understand being a car guy 30 or 40 years ago, but all cars are so fucking ugly now. i'll take anything that has wheels bro you're fucking insane if you're salivating over the clean lines on the mitsubishi wind tunnel penetrator or the robust size of the ford cunt 2-60

[meveen]

So like… is she tokyo cyberpunk or seattle cyberpunk?

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I feel this animism deeply threading through my practice.

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feminine urge to Know Everything and speak 12 languages

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Mentally combining the "bees are unionized and will leave if they don't like their working conditions" post with the various "humans stow away on alien spaceships and do the jobs that are too dangerous for more fragile species" posts

[meveen]

Removing my garlic bread from the oven with tongs like a blacksmith forging a legendary sword

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This is so important to me..

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How…?

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babe wake up new AU just dropped