George Floyd – DSM (Defeating Stigma Mindfully)

June 3, 2020July 1, 2020

Don’t Allow Racism To Stir Up Hate

People wearing gas masks in city streets rioting

Life’s Challenges In The Mix

Racism is nothing new; it’s been around since the beginning of time. Racism is not just white against black; everyone is racist against everyone, even if the mainstream media rarely reports on it. Racism will not go away anytime soon; don’t count on it. So why allow these terrible murders to stir up so much anger, negative energy and hate in our society? Why allow riots and looting to go on? These things will not solve racism and will only worsen our mental health.

You have to understand that this murder of George Floyd was not by accident when you look at the big picture. This is how life works; it introduces a powerful event in society which often ignites a wildfire of anger, frustration and anger in the masses. This is to see how the world reacts to such events and guess what? We are still failing in our reaction! Rather than remaining cool, calm and collected, we are allowing the weak side of our psyche to prevail.

This weak side of our psyche is based on anger, poor judgment such as looting and burning buildings and even violence. As a whole, society is failing in the solution to the problem. We need to be constructive in our solutions to racism and this is done by protesting in peace, carrying on with our daily objectives and not allowing anger to become our dominant emotion. The day that we will start to implement this solution towards racism, will be the day that we will no longer feel defeated and overwhelmed when another innocent person has their life robbed from them.

Honestly, do you really believe that there will not be another black man who will be killed by a police officer in the future just because we are having large demonstrations in public in 2020? There will be hundreds of more deaths and this is the sad reality of the world that we live in. Even if your grandiose goal of driving out President Trump from office ever comes true, do you believe that racism will end the day after?

Racism runs through the blood of millions of individuals worldwide; this is not something that can be stopped. So rather than igniting anger and frustration, we need to continue to live our lives in love and dignity and pray to God to help guide us. You can put the most “liberal” person in office as president and racism will still flourish; this is human nature and as I’ve said many times, human nature does not always carry the best traits in a population.

We are doing more damage to our mental health by living in pain and anger. Yes, it hurts to see George Floyd die a tragic death. Yes, those police officers deserve a grave punishment. Yes, we are in pain. No, racism will not end tomorrow or in ten years. So we must devise a new solution because the current one is failing terribly. You cannot extinguish fire with fire and that’s what we’re currently trying to do.

Let’s come together and remain cool, calm and collected. The DSM Ready Community is about uniting all races, ethnicities, religions and political affiliations, but we are not a community based on anger, protests, looting and other counterproductive emotions and behaviors. We are based on love, purity and intelligent solutions.

Are you Ready? (This is Defeating Stigma Mindfully)

May 31, 2020

The Enemy Loves Chaos

Close-up photography of beige demonic concrete decor

Riots: A Losing Position

You would think that people would never have to resort to rioting in 2020, but this is the sixth consecutive night of rioting in America. It’s so sad to see so many people who are lost because many who are rioting are not personally affected by racism. They just happen to be lost in the cause by rioting because their friends are doing it or are angry themselves at baseline. Rather than focusing their energy on bettering themselves, they prefer to put our officers in harm’s way and loot department stores.

How many more lives lost and years passed must we experience in order to learn that rioting will never end racism? Do rioters believe that if they make a point by burning buildings, destroying cop cars and looting expensive stores, that “the system” will suddenly change? The system will not change by enacting violence and anger in the streets; if anything, this will only motivate the system to continue racism and inequality.

Watching these riots on television makes me upset personally and as a psychiatrist, because this is not how human beings should be solving problems. This reminds me of mental health patients who arrive in the emergency department agitated and psychotic, yelling at the psychiatrist and refusing to cooperate. But after a solution like therapy, medications and talking are offered, the patient drastically improves and is no longer angry.

It disappoints me to see people marching in the streets and committing acts of violence and looting because I know that it won’t solve anything. The system is too advanced, sophisticated and stuck in its ways to be dented by rioting. If anything, this situation only promotes the creation of a police state or a totalitarian state controlled by a political police force that secretly supervises the citizens’ activities.

With President Trump in power, this country has never had a better opportunity to be given a reason to instill a political police force into play. These riots are only reinforcing this idea and breathing life into it at the same time that George Floyd yelled, “I can’t breath.” Riots were never the solution in the past and never will be in the future. The solution is peacefully marching and showing “the system” that through strength and dignity, we will continue to stand united for what we believe in.

The solution is never replacing violence for violence; this chaos is exactly what the enemy loves and gets a kick out of. Let’s stop checkmating ourselves through immature and dangerous rioting and looting and let’s start being powerful and mature individuals while standing proudly together during times of adversity.

Are you Ready? (This is Defeating Stigma Mindfully)

May 30, 2020

Riots Don’t Solve Problems

Black boy reading holy bible under white covers in bed

Energy Diverted Elsewhere

With any great problem comes the desire for a better solution. If historically speaking, this problem has persisted for over one hundred years, then the solution should not resemble the problem. What I am getting at is that the problem of racism has exited for a very long time and will not stop anytime soon, so the solution that has not worked over the last one hundred years is rioting in the streets. There are more negatives than positives with this solution and it does nothing but hurt us more than we can realize.

You don’t solve violence with violence; this is like a chess match that never ends up earning the king’s reward. To become victorious in this fight against racism and hatred, you might demonstrate love and kindness towards evilness. The bible teaches us to treat our enemies with love and allow them to humiliate us in public for The Lord is keeping track until judgement day.

Riots are exactly what the enemy wants you to be doing; this is feeding into their fire. Stop being so naive and hot-headed and use your heated hearts to radiate love in return; this is the sure-fire way to become victorious and place evilness into its place. You cannot defeat evilness if you rely on violence, anger, looting and riots.

How many more lives must be lost until you wake up and properly learn how to defeat racism? Screaming and demonstrating in the streets does not solve problems; this is exactly what the elite want us to be doing and this has to do with the old agenda of achieving a race war around the world. Why continue allowing them to win just because you can’t control your anger and pain?

Jesus Christ has taught us that God is not of this world; therefore, don’t live for it. He also taught us to put God before our family, including our parents, sons and daughters and to live for God through our heart, mind and soul. When our focus and faith are rested upon God, He teaches and guides us on how to handle problems and create solutions that will help us prosper.

All of the energy wasted on the riots can be made much greater by harnessing it within us and focusing it on God and ourselves. When rioting, we give up our energy into flames and we all know where flames lead us. As children of God, we are of the light, beauty and peacefulness of God’s kingdom; our painful arrows of love are intended to heal and strengthen the spirit.

So let’s use this gift that God provides to every human born from day one of life; this gift is called love. This is how we defeat hatred, mental health stigma, racism and much more. The more we shine with love and do not allow the enemy’s bullets to penetrate our hearts, the sooner this world will turn into our favor. So wake up if you are reading this and share it with your fellow humans!

Are you Ready? (This is Defeating Stigma Mindfully)

May 29, 2020

Hatred In Our Hearts

White man against black background with hand diving face in half

Racism Has No Boundaries

Not only is the mental health sigma up and running throughout the world, but racism as well. Stigma and racism should not even be separated; they’re both different forms of hatred but with a common goal of dividing the masses. Stigma focuses on preventing people who suffer from a mental illness from getting treatment and making them feel ashamed and insecure, while racism focuses on physically and mentally destroying others based on their skin color.

But where does stigma and racism stem from? The answer is more simple than we like to think and one does not have to go to school to find out; our hearts! Just based on numbers alone, the 7.8 billion worldwide population is going to have many bad batches of rotten fruit that will promote and approve stigma and racism. These people are either uneducated, educated but evil or simply full of hatred.

Is someone born with hatred in their heart? Absolutely not. There is no known genetic makeup that will inform parents that your child is born with a characteristic trait known as hatred. Hatred is taught and learned through human behavior and experience. If a child gets beat up by two white kids or vice versa, he or she will learn through their own experience to hate that child, along with what they hear in the mainstream media or on the internet in relation to racism.

Stigma and racism are also taught by parents and family members who promote such ideologies to their children. When children are raised in such households, they observe from a young age the thought process, content and perception of viewing others in a negative light. Racism is not only white against black; it has no boundaries and goes all ways. Do not make the mistake of believing that racism is only white against black.

How can we actually end racism rather than turning on the news and witnessing more protests in the streets? Everything stems from our hearts. What will help is establishing a global platform that will bring people to stand together against mental health stigma and racism in a peaceful way. This platform has to start somewhere but without consistent support, it will become very difficult to establish.

I started The DSM Ready Community with the vision of creating this platform, but I cannot do this on my own. That is why I am thankful to meet many of you who support this blog and comment on my daily posts. Together, we can continue to help grow this really small community so that we can one day stand on a world stage and celebrate the progression towards the end of mental health stigma and racism.

Are you Ready? (This is Defeating Stigma Mindfully)