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-= abuse in set-up. situations and in public -=
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Strangers. in the street have recognized me on sight many times, and shown
awareness of the current thread of abuse.. To give you one example, in 1992
I was seriously ill, and a manager. at work somewhat humorously said that
"it wasn't fair" that people were bullying me.. A few days later, I attended
for the first time a. clinic in London as an outpatient, and on my way out
was. accosted by someone who asked if "they had paid my fare", with emphasis
on the word. "fare". He repeated the word several times in this different
context; that they should. have paid my "fare", each time emphasizing the
word.
For. two and a half years from the time their harassment started until
November 1992. I refused to see a psychiatrist, because I reasoned that I
was. not ill of my own action or fault, but through the stress caused by
harassment, and that a. lessening of the illness would have to be consequent
to a removal of its. immediate cause, in other words a cessation of
harassment. I also. reasoned that since they were taunting me with jokes
about mental illness, if I were to seek treatment then the. abusers would
think that they had "won" and been proved "right".. Remember, the constant
theme of any persecution. is, "we must destroy you because you're X",
whether X is a racial or other attribute. In this case the. X was "we
persecute you because you have brain disease". The similarity of this. logic
to Nazi attitudes to the mentally ill is. striking.
The same manager who'd said "it wasn't fair" asked me in. winter 1992 why I
didn't seek help from a psychiatrist;. was it, he asked, because "they would
think they had won" if I sought treatment? That was something. I'd never
said at work... again, taken separately it proves nothing, but many. such
things. over a period of months proves conclusively that people in the
company knew what was going on, and in quite a. lot of detail.
Usually. harassment in public lacks the level of fines