trans_channel | No Way, No How

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No Way, No How

It's come to my attention that we now have these mandatory screenings? The health ones I understand, because hey, let's catch those alien parasites before they explode out of people, right? Very sound plan.

The psychological one, though, I'm not sure who I have to talk to about it, so I'm just talking about it here, since I figure they'll see it.

I'm claiming cultural...uh, exemption.

Talking about...things, and feelings, is not really a Viking thing to do. So I'm not doing it. Annnd you can't make me.

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But not everyone on this ship is qualified to discern someone's mental state. So doesn't it make sense that it has to be a psychiatrist?

But to discern it, I'd have to talk about stuff I'm not comfortable sharing with a stranger. If I did have a problem, how would that help me?

If you had a problem, them determining what it was could help them treat you. It's a very common procedure in my world, actually.

Their idea of treatment is not something I'm comfortable with.

That's the problem here. Them deciding what's best for everyone, when some of us don't deal with our problems that way, because it's different where we come from.

The problem is, though, that if someone has a problem and refuses treatment--it's not just theirself who's affected. Right? I've heard about problems that happened before I woke up...

Most of the problems I've read about had to do with aliens crawling into people's brains and controlling them.

That's a medical thing. I'm definitely, definitely okay with people being scanned for things that shouldn't be there.

Nobody's tossed an axe at somebody because they were having a bad day.

No, but most mental disorders can't be found with a physical evaluation. Only a psychiatrist or psychologist would be able to detect something like schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder.

There's... did you make those up?

There's sane and there's crazy. What do those words mean?

No, I didn't. They're real.

Schizophrenia is a kind of disorder where someone hears voices, and multiple personality disorder is when someone's personality is fractured into multiple pieces. And there are other disorders, too. It's not really as simple as sane and crazy, at least not recently.

Look whatever words you have for it, if people on the crew were really, truly, out of their minds to that degree, we'd all know it, wouldn't we? They'd be bustling around, muttering about birds in their clothes, wearing their boots on their hands.

Not always. People are very good at hiding it. You can't always tell the difference just by looking at someone.

Which means we have to disclose enough personal stuff to some strange guy for him to tell.

I'm not comfortable doing that. Where and when I'm from, you don't talk to some random guy about that kinda stuff. Maybe a friend, a family member, if that, but it's not really stuff you talk about in general.

I don't think that's very fair to everyone else, though.

Why not? What does everyone else to have to with what goes on in my head? If I do something wrong, Stacy's tentacles will stop me and I can be punished. Or locked up if I'm crazy.

It's not just you. It's all of us. If someone has a problem that would make them lash out at everyone else for no reason, they should be treated.

And that doesn't always require being locked up.

You're talking about this like people are secretly crazy on the inside and like you can predict and prevent them from hurting someone, but people aren't always that easy to predict.

As for "treating" people, the problem is when both your idea of "evaluation" and treatment are more harmful to someone than helpful because they work in a way that doesn't...match what works for them.

Vikings don't dwell. At least Berk Vikings don't dwell. My whole village was able to forgive and live with an enemy that'd plagued us for seven generations. Nobody agonized over the past, nobody obsessed over the trauma of having lost limbs to a dragon and blubbered in their beer to someone about it. Everyone just moved on and let the past go. That's healthy.

Having to talk about it to some stranger when it's gone and done isn't healthy. At least not for me.

Either this is a witch-hunt masquerading as helping people or it's about actually helping people, which means respecting their ways of life back home and individuals wants and needs.

So which is it?

I'm sorry, but maybe I should ask... what year was it for you?

[gives year he was from, which his mun can't nail down without consulting castmates but it's probably in the 800 - 900 AD area.]

Why?

Edited 2010-10-27 08:23 (UTC)

I see.

It's not harmful at all. I don't claim to be an expert, but it's a very exact science. And I don't think there's a high rate of false positives at all.

Harmful depends on the person.

But surely you understand that if one person is given an exception...

Anyone else asking for an exception is probably asking because the process makes them uncomfortable and isn't good for them.

I think the real people we'd have to worry about would be the ones that could lie their way through and no one would be the wiser.

It's not the sort of thing you can lie about, though. Professionals are trained to notice.

That's exactly my point. Anyone that's worth worrying about is someone they can't catch at all.

~~No, I~~

Never mind.

(no subject)

i-saw-myself.livejournal.com - 2010-10-27 08:45 (UTC) - Expand

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