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Am pretty sure you all know Chris Brown has
been serving jail time for a while now . Now the question is do you know
that Chris Breezy is suffering from a mental illness called "Bipolar 1" ? And should be hospitalized as opposed to being in jail. Spoken Word
specialist and Mental health activist ( Also Founder of the mental health NGO "The Siwe Project ") Bassey Ikpi has expressed her concerns and is of the
opinion that Chris should be in the Hospital. Read her write up below ..
Exclusive to DDCMPR ..
Around the time Chris Brown was arrested for beating,
off-again, on-again, girlfriend Rihanna, I was teaching spoken word at an
all-girls Primary school in Washington, DC.
It was the talk of the class and as an adult, I was shocked to hear some
of the comments that were being made. The girls put the blame on ‘something RiRi
did’ and even went as far as to say that they too would ‘deserve to be beat’ by
boyfriends if they stepped out of line.
These girls were 11.
After pictures of Rihanna’s bruised and swollen face were
leaked to the public, I was disgusted by
Chris Brown’s seeming lack of remorse or contrition about the brutal beating.
In fact, he seemed almost pissed off that we were still talking about it a
whole week after it occurred. As time went on and incident after incident
increased, he came across arrogant,
rage-filled, distracted, impulsive, manic, out of control, depressed, confused,
exhausted.... the list goes on. I was one of his many detractors pissed off
that he couldn’t seem to grasp the severity of his past and continued actions.
I was angry that young girls didn’t seem to understand the problem with his
behaviour. It struck me a few times that something else was ‘wrong’ with Chris
but my dislike of him allowed no empathy. I just added coke head to his list of
faults and kept it moving.
I’d pretty much kept up with that silent dislike and
dismissal for years until a few weeks ago, news outlets were reporting that
after a hearing held to discuss whether Chris should remain in Anger Rehab or be released, it was discovered that Chris
Brown had been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and PTSD. Now the Post traumatic
stress was predictable because of the trauma he went through at the hands of
his stepfather. Chris had mentioned in
interviews that he watched the man beat his mother on several occasions and he
was so affected by it that he was a chronic bed wetter until he was 13 years
old. Now let’s do the math for a bit. Chris Brown’s first single, ‘Run It’ was
released when he was only 16 years old. Factoring the time it takes to get
signed to a label and then begin production on an album, between his trauma
induced bedwetting and his sudden skyrocket to fame, only less than 2 years had
transpired. He was a child and never received the proper medical attention to
deal with his emotional upheaval. Not to mention the trappings of fame and
being in the limelight with mental health and emotional issues. His family, especially his mother, shrugged
off that trauma as inconsequential.
Which is interesting since Chris himself was the one that said it
affected him negatively. But you can’t
knock PR spin even if emotional well being is at stake.
So with PTSD and now adding bipolar disorder into the mix, a
disease with which I am intimately familiar, and you have a perfect
psychological storm brewing in this young man’s head. It began to make his past behaviours make a
bit more sense within context. (BP-I;
pronounced "type one bipolar disorder") is a bipolar spectrum disorder
characterized by at least one manic or mixed episode. Bipolar I disorder
sometimes occurs along with episodes of hypomania or major depression
as well.[1]
It is a type of bipolar disorder, and conforms to the classic concept
of manic-depressive illness, which can include psychosis during mood
episodes. )
Now let me say for the record, mental illness is not an
excuse for behaviour it is a reason. What I mean by that is, that this by no
means indicates that his behaviour is excused or proper or okay only that his
behaviour now has a context for why it existed and then exploded and continued
to explode.
Last week, it was reported that due to violations in rehab,
allegedly having sex with a female worker (let me add here that hypersexuality
is also a known symptom of bipolar disorder as is lack of impulse control)
Chris Brown is now in jail. I’m disturbed by this. Witnesses say that he has
fallen into a depression and is crying and talking to himself (Read Here). I was appalled and saddened when I read this
story. Chris Brown should not be in anger rehab, he should not be in jail, he
should not be at home. Chris Brown should be in the behavioural health unit of
a hospital. He should be dealing with his new diagnosis and learning about
treatments and medications that can help him manage his illness. He is not a
lost cause. He is a person with an illness and for those with bipolar disorder
being trapped in a jail cell will only trigger worse episodes. The judge is
doing him no favors. Imagine if he was
diagnosed with cancer or a broken limb and then thrown in jail with no proper
treatment. It’s the same thing. He has an illness.
Where is his mother? Where is his team? Where are his
attorneys? Where are all the people who supported him after beating Rihanna but
are now strangely silent when he is diagnosed with a mental illness? These
people letting him languish in a jail cell while he slowly falls apart mentally
are part of the problem. Mental illness
when properly diagnosed can be treated. People who have been diagnosed live
perfectly healthy and normal lives with the assistance of medication, therapy
and the support and understanding of friends and family. It isn’t easy. And
changes need to be made in lifestyle in order to make life easier but it is
doable. I am living and proud proof of that. Chris Brown does not need to worry
about being an advocate or a martyr, his only job is to get healthy and he can
not do that from a jail cell. It is my hope that someone realizes this quickly
before it is too late.
Bassey Ikpi
Do we agree with her? because I think I totally concur , Share your opinions and comments below
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