Psych-out Santa

I am Santa Clause

I came down your

Imaginary chimney last night

And filled your dirty sock

With more dirt,

Just to emphasise the dirty facts

That are your present condition.

I have your neighbours

Gossiping under the tree

About you and your mistletoe!

You know, you know, you know…

You can hear them can’t you?

If you can’t, well then,

You haven’t learnt how to

Listen in properly, haven’t

Trained your ears to be

Able to hear through walls

Like so many people can.

Even my reindeers can do it!

You don’t want to know?

Oh come on! They’re talking

About YOU and how YOU

Could be better if you listened

And learned to be more

Like THEM and what THEY do.

If you don’t listen,

You’ll never get better,

And you’ll spend another

Christmas all alone!

The only way you’ll improve

And make more friends

Is by listening into what

Society really wants.

Got to understand how

They need you to change!

Or all you’ll get is more dirt

In your dirty sock, sorry to say.

Hark! Here them now!

They’re saying how you’re

Stupid to pour yourself a whisky

As it’s only ten o’clock!

Don’t you get it? Don’t you?

I’m Santa Clause, I came

Down your imaginary chimney

Last night and I know

All about the terrible mess

You are in… Ho Ho Ho

Nightmarey cry must ass!

And a herpies ignore veer!

Ho ho ho jingle bells

Think back… think back…

You could be in the psych ward

Like last year, eating shit

For breakfast, lunch and tea,

Not able to escape,

Feeling sick on psych drugs,

Being told to your face how

Horrible you are and being given

Those labels that condemn you.

That’s what you deserve.

That’s how you should be treated.

That’s what happens to people

Who can’t listen in properly

And learn how to behave!

You need to be told and told

To your face in psych-out sessions

Until you have insight

Into your sick state of mind!

I’m Santa Clause, I came

Down your imaginary chimney

Last night and filled your dirty

Sock with more dirt, so you’d

Understand, you have to

Clean up your act in the New Year.

‘Fuck off’ you say? Well, that’s

All you’ll get from others if you

Say that to jolly old Santa!

No wonder you are all alone…

Hark! Listen to what others

Are saying about YOU and how

YOU need to make a change.

Listen damn you, you can’t

Afford to just enjoy yourself.

You’ve got to work this out

Or all you’ll get is dirt in your

Dirty sock year after year

And nothing will ever change…

You do want to get better,

Don’t you? Don’t you? Don’t

Forget that any time soon

They could come and get you

Even though it is Christmas

They could come into your home

And take you to their psych ward

To psych you out and fill you,

Like the dirty sock you are,

With their filthy ugly-face pills…

I’m Santa Clause and yes

You are seeing red, because

I’m wearing you down with it.

Oh? You’re going to call a friend…

Oh… didn’t know you had friends…

What you’re calling Lifeline?

Oh… oh… oh… don’t you want to

Listen to the neighbours gossiping

About you under their tree instead?
alien santa T

Chipmunka… publishing first-hand experiences

Chipmunka has just recently published a memoir of mine called, Naked ladies about two psychotic episodes following the death of my father. It’s in ebook at this stage, but will be in paperback in a few months’ time. http://chipmunkapublishing.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2264

 

            So wonderful it is to find a publisher that wants first-hand experiences of people diagnosed with psychiatric conditions. In Australia, people have some fears regarding attempting to understand people who have delved into the symbolic world of waking-dreams. They seem to worry that it might somehow ‘get them’ too. That the schizophrenia ‘disease’ is contagious by hypnotic suggestions of art from these 'deranged' people.

I studied Professional Writing and Editing at Melbourne’s RMIT University. I got into this course on the strength of something I’d written when I was 22, before I’d experienced what psychosis meant. I knew somehow that what I was writing at age 32, wasn’t going to fit with consensual reality. And, it didn’t.

            I had burning things to say, but I had to think about how to say them, so that the public could be able to read them. Tutors and students really helped me get to this point. I really got a lot out of my time at RMIT.  I realised there is so much ignorance around what happens in psychiatric facilities. There was so much prejudice and that belief that there is no market for is regarded as a ‘dirty tissue.’

            In Naked ladies I was able to take raw material I wrote while in an episode and write it in a way that can be comprehended. This book allows people to understand how I was able to be lured into the fantasy world of waking-dreams that lead to waking-nightmares, not just once, but again, with the same science-fiction themes.

            If you want to understand what it is like to hear voices, or have other sensory ‘hallucinations’ and strange ‘delusional’ belief systems, this book takes you through my journey of this. It’s a fast-paced book. Lots of things happen all at once. Very much what psychiatrists would term, ‘mania’, ‘paranoia’, ‘conspiracy theories’, ‘florid psychosis’, and ‘positive symptoms of schizophrenia.’ There are also breaks in between the ‘psychotic episodes’, where I resume a ‘normal state of being.’

The book also includes illustrations and paintings I did at the time, but it is a decent sized book. I like books to be at least 70,000 words, when they’re not poetry books or novellas.

I hope Australia will start publishing more first-hand experiences about altered states of consciousness that get labelled ‘diseased’ by psychiatrists. There is a growing market for these books. It is peer support. And books like this help people realise that people with lived-experience are not ‘consumers’ and ‘useless eaters’, we are people who have had unusual experiences. These experiences are our coping mechanisms. Yes they are flawed, but how nightmarish they become has to do with how these symbolic manifestations are treated by society. Treat unusual experiences with fear and prejudice and psychiatric torture and what does society expect will happen? A cure? Apparently that is the current belief… But that is not the truth of what’s happening. The truth will be found in books by those who have experienced psychiatric conditions first-hand.

Chipmunka has just recently published a memoir of mine called, Naked ladies about two psychotic episodes following the death of my father. It’s in ebook at this stage, but will be in paperback in a few months’ time. http://chipmunkapublishing.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2264