ETC. The Resistance
[Written on the inside of the napkin accompanying the dinner trays for psych unit patients admitted for ECT treatment. Located in the inpatient discharge folder thanks to a mental health worker double agent working for ETC. THE RESISTANCE. Placed behind the safety plan worksheet that is not safe.]
READ THIS IN PRIVATE. SHARE WITH OTHER INMATES CAREFUL TO NOT ALERT THE KEEPERS OR THE SHOCK BRIGADE
If you are receiving this note, you are in dire circumstances. Last ditch effort, any measures to keep you here. No doubt the “treatment” you are scheduled for has been touted as extremely effective with unbelievable success rates. They are unbelievable for a reason. Perhaps you watched the propaganda video with the soft colors & spa like ambience – more luxury vacation than let’s shoot kilowatts through your brain & hope for the best. No doubt they reassured you the memory loss is just around the time of treatment; the side effect of long term memory loss flashed on the screen for less than a second & not spoken out loud. You are told this is your best bet. Your loved ones, at a loss for what to do, jump on board because the ones with the white coats & MD by their names know best.
RUN. Get up out of the gurney & get the hell out. NOW. Slip your wristband off & make like a normate out of there. You may be like I was – indifferent, deathwish-ridden, an easy consent signature. Take my word. Take my body. Better, take my mind as amnesiac evidence. LEAVE. Tell them you ate food, which will buy you time. Retract your consent. If you are involuntary or a minor, we are coming to get you. At the bottom of this page is a contact. We are waiting for you. We are a tuned network nimble to alternative options, focused on thrive rather than survive, resourced & ready to receive you.
ETC. THE RESISTANCE
If you are receiving this note, you are in dire circumstances. Last ditch effort, any measures to keep you here. No doubt the “treatment” you are scheduled for has been touted as extremely effective with unbelievable success rates. They are unbelievable for a reason. Perhaps you watched the propaganda video with the soft colors & spa like ambience – more luxury vacation than let’s shoot kilowatts through your brain & hope for the best. No doubt they reassured you the memory loss is just around the time of treatment; the side effect of long term memory loss flashed on the screen for less than a second & not spoken out loud. You are told this is your best bet. Your loved ones, at a loss for what to do, jump on board because the ones with the white coats & MD by their names know best.
RUN. Get up out of the gurney & get the hell out. NOW. Slip your wristband off & make like a normate out of there. You may be like I was – indifferent, deathwish-ridden, an easy consent signature. Take my word. Take my body. Better, take my mind as amnesiac evidence. LEAVE. Tell them you ate food, which will buy you time. Retract your consent. If you are involuntary or a minor, we are coming to get you. At the bottom of this page is a contact. We are waiting for you. We are a tuned network nimble to alternative options, focused on thrive rather than survive, resourced & ready to receive you.
ETC. THE RESISTANCE
Stephanie Heit, "ETC. The Resistance" from Psych Murders. Copyright © 2022 by Stephanie Heit. Reprinted by permission of Wayne State University Press.
Source: Psych Murders (Wayne State University Press, 2022)