Expose The Bastards (Discrimination Stinks)

I have taken the first steps this week in exposing the bastard Employers who still break the Law by keeping Health Tick Boxes in their Application forms. I will starve to death until I have done at least a little something to take these Fascists on. Let's face it....most HR departments force the most anal bullshit on Employee's with politically correctness coming out of their ears but they seem incapable of taking this form out of their application forms. Yes, you do not have to fill it in but the fact that it is still there will put you under pressure.

When you have a mental illness but wish to work your employer has the legal obligation to offer you 'reasonable adjustment' to your hours. Say for example, if like me, you need an appointment to go and see your Shrink or Therapist to get you better, the Employer is obliged to help you with this by adjusting your hours..the word reasonable comes into play...it has to suit both parties but their failure to do so is discrimination within the disability act.

I am, and have always been, a 100% honest and hard working Employee. But I now find I can not get a job doing anything at all and believe me I would do anything. I will go in the Sewers with the shit and rats if someone will give me a chance. I am being being wasted. I am a multi skilled handyman with 30 years experience and I have other skills that would suit many an Employer. But the door is closed and while it remains closed I will do all I can to expose the treatment of those with Mental Health issues. I am now a full time activist and I will carry on until I see what I think are the Human Rights of us being granted. Employers get away with far too much in the UK and now some pretty major Mental Health organisations are up their ass. We are watching you...and we will expose you in the media....

T A Roberts (London April 2011)

Nail The Employers Who Break The Law/Human Rights

Below is a pasted part of an email I received from the amazing Rethink....Do NOT accept Employers who still have Health Questions on Application Forms....read on and act. Do not accept the BULLY tactics of Employers anymore...It is time we got militant and outraged! This is the 2011 and we no longer live in Caves. Face your truth for it is your truth that will save you. Own your depression or mental illness and shout about it for the roof tops. You are Human...You Have Rights

If you are finding application forms that are asking questions that are not permitted, (including health questions when this is not of key importance to the job role), then individuals cannot bring a claim against these employers. However, the Equality and Human Rights Commission can do so.

 

Previously it was difficult to show discrimination when a disabled person lost out on a job. However, now, under section 60 of the Equality Act, an employer who asks unlawful health questions will be assumed to have discriminated against an unsuccessful disabled candidate. It would be up to the employer to prove that disability did not play a part in their decision.

 

You could bring any application forms asking unlawful questions to the attention of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). If you have applied for any of these roles and been unsuccessful, then you could also contact the EHRC for advice;
englandhelpline@equalityhumanrights.com 
0845 604 6610 - England main number
It does also say that the Mind legal unit would be interested to be kept informed of application forms with unlawful health questions. The details for this team are:0300 466 6463
legal@mind.org.uk


Love is the blog dog called Boris Danski....fight on and rise up against the law breakers. Tim xx The Militant Depressive.

April 2011 London
  

Comments can Kill...

Mirrors reflect; mirrors can be your worst enemy but it tends to be other people who leave you with a fucked up reflection of the real you. Yes, what's inside really matters but a comment made about your appearance can mess you up for life and can, in many cases, lead to eating disorders, OCD's and Body Dismorphic Disorder.

The above can lead to suicide or a life of hell and not ever being able to accept yourself. I am a 46 year old man and I suffer with BDD. During the hard core therapy I have had over the past 15 months it has become blindingly obvious that the bullying I experienced at School went a very long way to causing me some of the mental hell I have been through since. It is a sum of the parts but an important one.

The next time you think of commenting on how someone looks(in the negative) do consider this; it passed from your lips in a micro second but could live with that person for many years. Who really gives a fuck what shape people are or how small they are or how large?...Disorders come to people from all back grounds...Women, Men, Boys, Girls, rich, poor...the effects of mental hell do not discriminate.

My mirror checking is nowhere near as bad as it was. I have stopped self harm. But when I do look in a mirror and when I do feel bad, the comments that were made about me over the years start ringing in my head. Bullying caused a defective schema to trigger off a life of self loathing...this was planted in me at 8 years old and stayed with me. I have been on an acute Psychiatric ward and nearly killed myself twice....funny isn't it?

These days there is the most ridiculous and vile need to 'look good'. Who says? Some cheap throw away trash magazines and fucked up red top Tabloids. It is not real..none of it. Is it ok for the Daily Mail to name a whole generation of kids Chavs?...no its Fascist. Yet this one word is used to abuse a whole section of society and mainly because of how they dress and look...I see them as our beautiful and beat up youth. Everyone brings colour to the world....no matter where you come from.

I promise you that no one will ever want to have BDD...but I fear the pressures being put on young women and men will have a pay back in 10 or 20 years time that we will all regret.

I would like to link you to this blog by Kate Nash, a talented and creative lady who is in the public eye. I read it and it was perfectly worded......it matters not who you are; the body image and what is said about you can hurt and have devastating effects. Be nice to people....click link below.

http://myignorantyouth.blogspot.com/2011/04/freaks-hold-hands.html

http://borisdanski.blogspot.com/2011/02/photographs-will-find-her.html A poem about the beauty of youth by me x

T A Roberts London 2011

Letter to Government Ministers..please do the same

Below is the email I have sent to the Government Ministers who are charged with Employment regulating. If you have experienced discrimination during the application process or think you have please feel free to paste this email or write your own to ministers@dwp.gsi.gov.uk; It is illegal for you to be asked any health questions prior to a job offer as of October 2010 and this is part of the discrimination act 2006.

Dear Sirs

I am looking for some advice as to how best to deal with a problem I keep coming up against.

As of October 2010 an applicant does not have to fill in the health questionnaire on a job application form. I have a health issue and I am trying to find a job so that I can work around my issue and continue my treatment. I am finding, on every occasion, that employers keep the health questionnaire in their application form.

When I do not fill the form in, because I am not obliged to, I am often asked why, yet the discrimination act clearly states that no questions regarding the applicants health can be asked until a job offer has been made.

There are also stealth ways that Employers use to get information that an applicant is not obliged to give; Age, Sexual Orientation and Health on the Equal Opportunities form.

This is all illegal practise yet every job I apply for still asks these questions on application forms.

Please advise me how I deal with this. I have faced positive discrimination because of this and it is difficult to prove. The idea of the act is supposed to support those who face discrimination but this is failing because these questions are asked during the pre interview stage, so many times I am not even getting through the door.

Kind Regards

Tim Roberts (London)

UK Employers In Breach of Discrimination Laws..EXPOSE THEM!

HR departments and Employers up and down the Country are breaking the law on several fronts and I am using this blog to expose it and ask you to spread this as far as you can and even write to your M.P and Government ministers. I have done so this morning. The UK is at the epicentre of Mental Health discrimination and Employers are getting away with it.

As of October 2010 it became Illegal for any Employer to ask you any health related questions prior to the offer of employment. As you can imagine I have had to fill in many forms in my quest to get a job. Every form I have seen still has the health tick box. The fact that it is still there could make you obliged to fill it in.

Age and sexual orientation does have to be revealed either yet Date of Birth question still exists.  If you fill in an Equal Opportunities’ form your age is asked as is your health and sexual orientation. This is not legal. Why do these forms get pushed under your nose prior to a job offer? Many employers will ask you to bring a Passport to the interview...well your date of birth is on there! This is a stealth way of finding out your age and the Equal Opportunities’ forms are a stealth way of finding out information you should not have to disclose until job offer.

Mental Health discrimination in the work place is rife. When you consider that HR departments tend to suffer anal retention to the max and push the PC regulations at every turn, it seems odd that they can not reprint their application forms to reflect current law.

Once a job offer has been made then the employee can disclose all. The idea of anti discrimination legislation is so that once the job offer is made the employer can not pull the carpet without looking like they are discriminating against your mental illness or any other health issue you have. Obviously there are caveats for certain positions but in the whole this information does not need to be collected.

To this end every high street employment agency is breaking the law; they ask all these questions on registration....it is time to expose the Employers who continue to break the law. I have faced positive discrimination in terms of my depression and dyslexia. I am not going to sit and take it and I am going to get someone to listen......please RT or link this blog for me. Act against discrimination by Employers.

T A Roberts London April 2011

Crashing and Burning Live on Air

I am NOT burning..I do not self harm anymore and have not for a few years! Crash and burn is my expression for what I am going through at the moment...hence my inconsistent ranting and all round odd behaviour. In terms of the mental health service they call it a crisis...I find crisis too melodramatic..Japan has a crisis, I am crashing and burning.....

When I do crash and burn it tends to be messy and not nice to see...I have a platform to do it in public via twitter...this is not good. Apart from a shrink or a psychologist no one would normally know I was hitting the wall. My method is to go to the proverbial dark room and hide until it passes. Doing it on twitter is making me look like cunt I am, to be frank...I do know my faults believe it or not....I also know when this is getting to me which is why I save myself...like a cat, I go off and sort it out and come back when it is better.

I am even pissed off that no one reads my poetry and I have never cared about that so things in my head are bad and dark.

I think I am angry with John at telling me that this that and the other is out there for me to interact with and will be telling him so on Friday...my accepting my isolation is better for me. So I shall go and sort myself out and then return and nicer person....well for a few weeks I will be nice at least. I have not had a black cloud moment this long for sometime so its time I sorted it this bad period.

T A Roberts ( London March 2011)

Leaving Twitter

Discussed this with John...Internet not doing me any favours.... so I am doing away with my account as soon as I can figure out how...I may come back anon in some other guise...but I am bored with it and frankly, it does nothing for me....I was kind of against this idea that John put into my head that the Internet can make you feel worse but he is the Psychologist and I have to accept what he says....I feel it is true. It increases my feelings of isolation and loneliness....don't think me sad..its just that I am not very well at the moment...and its for the best.. .its even ruined my writing....

Tim 2011

I have given up the hope...the hope is what kills you (spoken/written)

I will go and see John on Friday and tell him that his idea that I would find somewhere to socially interact has failed. I am not putting myself through this anymore because it is making me feel worse. I have tried and tried and tried again to find a group or something to join and it aint gonna happen. Any of the requests I have put on line have hit a brick wall...check this; I can not even get anyone to march with me on Saturday!!! So John is wrong and I am right. By accepting that I do the rest of my life in social isolation means I can move on. I have accepted that I will never be in a 1 to 1 relationship ever again so I can live with the other. I have done for 10 years and I am still here.

Giving me false hope is bullshit and does nothing but harm. I know no one and never will..end of.

I have also given up trying to look for a job; no one will give me a chance and I have broken my back trying. As soon as they know I have this appointment every Friday and what it is for the door is slammed in my face. I have a brilliant CV. I am a multi skilled Handyman with over 28 years experience. I have worked in some great places including 8 years in West End Theatre. It means fuck all when up against a illness that has me discriminated against as soon as I walk through the door. I can promise you that I do not care if I end up homeless because of it...I have been there before and I will go there again. I am not going to take the mental kicking I get at each rejection. I only know going to work..I have done since 16 but since I lost my job August I have not been given a sniff of a new role. I have nothing now so I am hardly going to be losing anything.

By accepting that I live this life and it is really happening will make move on. There is no light at the end of the tunnel and this tunnel has been going on since 1999.......I am on my own..message received. I will look forward to telling John this during my session on Friday.

T A Roberts ( London 2011)

Desolation, Isolation..Terror..a life in the day of me...

John, my psychologist, asked me to describe the exact feeling in words that my isolation causes me...to  articulate it. As you know, I did, scribble poetry so I am ok with words despite my dyslexia...but on the occasions he has asked me this I have struggled to do justice to the utter misery I can feel at times. Some people have reacted badly to my last blog so I will try and do better in giving you a clue of the emotions I go through quite a few times a week.

When I attempt to describe it to John he will scribble the words down...the ones that do it best justice are isolation, empty, desolate, fear, loneliness, terror, black, hell...silence which is violent..a violent silence.

I am quite sure few, if any, who read this have ever been on their own for long periods of time (best part of 10 years in my case) and I am sure many of you will have a good friend or family member that you can turn to. I have none of the above. So imagine a time when you have felt scared, lonely or you just need a fucking hug...none of that has come my way for years and years. I have tried..and tried and tried...until the point that I am frustrated that anger kicks in.....

I have never written these blogs for sympathy and I am sure they are not a comfortable read...I do not need violins playing...what I am saying is it is a vicious circle. If I do what I am asked and try to engage with other people I have to go through the process on your own...say something as simple as going to the pub; well you look an utter billy no mates cunt...and I am a billy no mates...I am the real deal. You then feel as though people are looking at you and when that happens to me the BDD kicks in and I will lock me away.

There is no one for me to talk to this stuff about apart from John once a week...I have gone a whole month of not talking to another adult...of not opening my mouth for words to come out....so that is as isolated as one can get and its fucking hell at times..I am quite smart, well read and knowledgeable...I am not stupid and I am not mad or crazy or dangerous....I am 5ft 8, bald, slim and not eye candy...that is me talking and not the BDD...so take the BDD away and I have little chance it certain areas of life....



T A Roberts (March 2011 London)

Staying on my own...and my failiure and hookers

I have so far failed in my quest to find some 'social' groups to join. I did do a blog on here asking if anyone knew of any groups that I could join but I go no replies. John, my psychologist, is very concerned at my social isolation. He has gone to lengths to tell me how 'friendship' is essential in our lives. But it is not something I can change over night. It is very frustrating and I do not believe it will change. It makes me spit blood with rage when people who know fuck all keep saying..oh but there are loads of groups you can join. Well let me tell you something...I have bled trying to find all these groups...I am a 46 year old man for fuck sake and it is simply a myth that there is so much out there...it pisses me off beyond words.

He often talks to me about my non sex life...something that has been dead for coming up to 7 years. It will stay that way...ok he tells me I don't know that but I do. I will be single now until I turn to dust. I mean how can I even contemplate 'romance' ( ha ha don't make me laugh) when I can not even create a simple social life. I live a lonely life and it is fucking hard and at times almost impossible because the silence is so NOISY...the longer it goes on that I can not find anything to join the harder it gets and the more my social fear kicks in and my bdd takes over so its a vicious circle.....even my writing is starting not to matter to me...writing deluded poetry that hardly anyone reads is quite demoralizing.

There have been many nights when I have thought of downing the pills with a bottle of something because it is so fucking hard not having someone to just share things with. I hope it will not come to that....thoughts of suicide are not what they once were but I have my moments, at night, when I am down. Its a way out and the comfort in that thought keeps me alive when things get bad...its a perverse way to think but it is a survival mechanism...

I shall get me a hooker soon...it may help a bit. I need to feel a woman again and if that is what I have to do I will do it...yes its not right to think that way but you are not me and most who read my blogs have someone..have friends even.....so when I do hit it off with a hooker I shall blog about it. As far as romance is concerned that is just a misty memory from a past long gone....and anyway who is going to come near a man with bdd/depression and dyslexia......exactly....a hooker. (anyway I have never done that before so I will put it down to a life experience)

T A Roberts (March 2011 London)