Translated…
“The rise of police officer suicides” (the police units are getting tenser by the minute), “the number of middle school dropouts are on the rise (the alarms sounding off in the systems of education), “a mental patient attacked a pedestrian on the roads” (the Department of Health and Safety on high alert)…………as the media passed these sorts of topics, I would usually show up, using the status of a mental health professional. Other than dissecting the causes, it would be better, if I can, come up with solutions to prevent these events from occurring again and again.
“Of the cases, there are a couple who are diagnosed mental patients”, the officer who’d set up this conference, started putting on the slideshows as he’d told me.
“The students who became unstable in school are mostly from single-parent homes.”, the manager of the unit started explaining the statistics to me.
“Because of the lacking in social workers and medical treatment networks, it is, very difficult, keeping track of all of these, patients.” The workers of the Department of Sanitations held this small press conference, to explain to the public.
The related units, other than needing to explain how the events had happened, it’s required, that it also, gives a sound explanation of why the tragedies had occurred too, to soothe the scare that the news media reports had caused. But, it’s, not the least bit easy, to find out exactly what had happened in the specific incidents (and there are always those who don’t believe the facts), let alone, we’d needed to find the blames and assign them, in the limited amount of time we have. And so, if someone is seemingly responsible for something, then, s/he or the units gets the blames, and, so, the blames goes to those who are “mental patients” “from single-parent households”, and “medical staff”. But, slapping these labels on, would often cause this “taintedness” in reputation.
“I’m already an outcast of the society, so, I’ll just, hide myself inside that deep, dark abyss, and so what if, I start to get worse?”, this was, from a case who thought that s/he was overcome with bad fortunes.
After You’re the Scapegoat for Too Long, You’d Start Thinking in “It’s All My Fault”, and “Why Won’t You Save Me Then” Modes
“A student who’d been bullied long-term, he’d originally wanted to just find solace in establishing interpersonal relationships with others, but, he’d become, someone who was constantly in need of saving by others”, the teacher’s voice trembled, because of the pressures that s/he felt the student was enduring.
Turns out, the parents of the student had multiple times talked to the instructor about their son’s interpersonal relations with the rest of his class and had gotten NO effective results, and now, the parents turned toward the school counselors for help. “After a semester, although there had been, many mediations between the student and the rest of his classmates, it’d made the student who was bullied, run to the counselor’s offices whenever he felt awful, and even the parents had called the offices, to ask us to help their son. I have to admit, I’d, had enough of it already!”, the young counselor finally couldn’t stop himself from feeling angered by this.
“Do you know about the Karpman Drama Triangle? Everybody has a mental skit, with the three roles of the victim, the rescuer, the persecutor?”, a lot of the counselors all nodded, so I’d continued, “the victim, in order to show that s/he is capable, would always use demeaning language as s/he talks to others, and the ‘rescuer’ always stands high up, trying to save others, as for the victims being stuck for a long time, s/he would come to believe, ‘I can’t ever resolve all of these difficulties on my own’. What’s worse is, if the ‘victim’ only constantly wanted to pour her/his heart out to someone, s/he would unknowingly become, the persecutors.”, all of these theoretical stuff, is only wanting to make the teachers understand, why sometimes, when you try to help the cases, it would seem that you’re actually helping them out at the very beginning, but the effects wear off after some time.
“But, as teachers, can we just, turn a blind eye?”, the instructor who’d initiated this discussion looked at me with doubt.
After I’d lost in thought for a short while, I’d asked, “Hmmmmmmmmmm, so, do you want me, who is the supervisor, to help you out of your trouble? Could it be, that when I worked my hardest to help you out, in the end, we’d become, the ‘victims’ of this helpful profession ourselves?”
The teacher standing by stated, “All of these role switches are real-life experiences of our daily counseling work!”
Rather than Being Condemned as the “Scapegoat”, Why Not See What Else You Can Do
“Whenever the news had, a X University student did this or that, and after being counseled, he’d offended repeatedly, I knew, that I’d gotten, a ton of questions coming my way again.”, a counselor who works in X University stated. “Although it wasn’t me who’d taken the case, but, hearing my superiors telling the public that there’s a ‘failure in counseling’, I can’t help, but get depressed.”
I’d thought silently, how is the success in counseling defined, by the cases? The therapists? Or, by how well the cases are behaving afterwards, based off of societal expectations? Then, what would constitute as “failure in counseling”? Allowing the progression of the illnesses to slow down, would that be considered as an achievement in treatment? Or maybe, we all carried that ruler, that even the trained professionals, as they evaluate whether or not they’re successful in treating someone, they may not agree on the specifics entirely.
The general public needs a “scapegoat”, to explain some of the situations that are hard to explain, but the best way to not trap oneself in the Karpman Drama Triangle, is not by ignoring the opinions outside of you, but, working even harder to think about: did I do everything I can? What else, can I do to make the situations better?
Just work hard, to do the best you possibly can in your separate professions. And maybe, this, is the best way, to reduce scapegoating on someone else, when one’s own life became faulted.
So, it all worlds down to the self, did you do everything you can, within your powers, to make the world better? Instead of worrying about how your actions or words or whatever is perceived by the rest of the external environments, you should just, do what’s right based off of you, that is, if you already have a strong sense of morality and everything that’s needed, for you, to become, a good person.