They say that it's time to retire Asylums in horror and halloween, but I disagree

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56RICywExfw And here is a very cool song from the 80s about mental facilities.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZa9UUQ0r_c&list=LL&index=4 (Remix ver is much better especially the beginning parts of the song before the guy starts to sing. I wish there was an instrumental version of it too.)

So earlier today I was doing some research on mental asylums as  usual seeing how I'm still trying to figure out how to get my story off the ground while deciding on whether or not 2023 will be the final year for me or retire somewhere in the middle of 2024....I never really talked about retiring.

Now before we begin let me also state that I too have plenty of mental health problems. I was diagnosed with schizophrenia, psychosis, chronic depression, and I have trouble with anger as well that's part of my disorder. Therefore, creating a story about mental health doesn't bother me, nor do I see anything offensive about what I wish to accomplish with Shadow Hill Escape From Echidna Asylum (Or Exodus Asylum), my upcoming Horror erotic graphic novel.

As a matter of fact, I believe that mental institutions have a lot to offer, they are unique places to study and learn about. I get to read up on various mental illnesses, what people were like when they were admitted, how the nurses handled the stress when patients became violent or aggressive. Exploring situations involving abuse, suicide, neglect, fear, pain, suffering, there's just so much I can do with this that I don't even see a reason not to want to invest in any of it.

I came across a few articles where sensitive types were saying that it's time to end using Asylums in horror and Halloween as scary fun houses because it's "offensive" to people with disabilities that spent time locked away in mental asylums. They also said that it's exploitive of the people's medical condition and vilifies them since Fun houses paint a negative view of individuals suffering from psychotic or behavioral issues. 

I've read at least two articles today criticizing anyone who "exploits" mental Asylums for horror reasons and me personally I didn't know whether to laugh at the articles or be offended by more excuses to turn people into victims just so, some moron could virtue signal on their behalf. The west have too much of that going on which is why I don't understand why anyone would want to imitate them at this point.

A few of these articles even accused people of dehumanizing the disabled and mentally ill. Especially since mental asylums were very cruel places back in the day when they would use all these cruel and inhumane methods to experiment on forgotten people isolated to live in these environments. Some patients suffered from neglect and other forms of abuse. Mental facilities were always often understaffed, but very crowded with patients that were difficult to deal with. At the same time people just weren't equipped or prepared. It's easy to get impatient with someone with behavioral problems. I know this from experience.

The difficulty dealing with mentally ill individuals or groups of people with health problems would then lead to severe frustration and so nurses, care providers, and even security would often use aggression and abusive methods to handle the patients. 

Sometimes they really had little to no choice if the person was extremely violent or just very difficult to get to follow orders. Now if you look at the problem today there are millions of homeless disabled and mentally ill individuals wandering the street all over America posing risk and danger to the general public. As for me and my condition I usually just avoid people because I have a difficult time being around the majority of them. 

Every country deals with mentally ill people differently. Regardless they are normally the people that society ignores. I'm also completely aware that not all mentally ill people are violent or extreme aggressors so it's not like I stereotyped them as such in my book. If someone told the creator of Arkham Asylum that it was offensive to the disabled and mentally ill. Would such a place not exist in Batman comics and movies anymore? Is the Joker a mockery of the criminally insane and should he be removed from comics or any other source using his likeness because he "offends" criminally insane people?

These articles never for a moment take into consideration why people use Asylums for horror elements. I don't see these establishments that use the settings as a way to exploit or to dehumanize the mentally ill. It's because stories involving abuse, violent people, psychotics, and cruelty are normally interesting tales when they are told from someone who understands detailed story telling especially if any of it is based on a true story. 

I mean why do people especially certain type of women in the United States find serial killers appealing? Should stories about serial killers be forbidden? If Fun houses centered around mentally ill people were to be banned because they are considered a "mockery" of the disabled. Then wouldn't the same hold true for people who "exploit" serial killers that often suffer from some form of mental health problem that contributes to why they became a serial killer in the first place? Most serial killers suffer from abuse, neglect, have a history of being bullied by others, anger toward rejection, and so on.

                      Some people preparing for a mental Asylum Fun House Scare Event. 

People are drawn to dark stories real or fiction. This doesn't mean that people who are interested in  stories about psychotic individuals are condoning the act of real torture, abuse, neglect. I'm sure people find a lot of things we do from a fictional standpoint "offensive" and "repulsive." I find specific things repulsive and flat out irritating myself.

When it comes down to these horror elements I never looked at any of this from a negative standpoint, I always considered mental health facilities and prisons very fascinating environments to create fiction around. Last month I looked at images of mentally ill patients from the olden days. I saw a photograph of what appeared to be a shy young woman that appeared withdrawn from the others around her. She was in a corner with a look of sadness in her eyes and I just felt like I wanted to reach through the screen and hold her. 

I was fascinated by what I seen and continued to read about the places, and the experiences the people had living within the buildings. There were stories about patients that attacked other patients, gruesome murder stories, and sexual assault happened a few times as well which is part of the reason they kept men and women facilities separate in some of those places. But the nurses and staff at times were also targeted by violent patients. They say crazy person strength requires multiple people to hold down one person even if they happen to be a small woman. Which I don't believe, most of the hospitals didn't have well built staff members or large men or even very large women either. Most of the time the nurses had to hold down a patient, the nurses were usually average in size and weight, and that's why it required multiple staff members to deal with one individual.

However! I don't believe that haunted asylums should be banned or removed just because some people want to be easily offended by the concept of turning such attractions into scary environments or fun houses. That's why we call them FUN HOUSES. They are created to give people an experience from a fictional standpoint, none of this is done to make people with disabilities feel like terrible people that should be avoided just because they have a condition that is out of their own control. 

I lived with someone who was bipolar, and it was hard. I honestly hated the guy. When my issues come out, I'm hardly around other people so I suffer all alone. Anyway I'm always on the hunt for interesting fiction that takes place in prison and asylums, there aren't that many comics about those environments but when I do stumble upon them, I'm always expected to be treated to something excitingly good. I can admit that what happened to people in mental facilities was horrible, but from a fictional stand point I find such incidents fascinating and entertaining to depict in fictional works of art. As a person that lives a very unpleasant life and have battled with illnesses since I was 8 years old. Well it's easier for me to come up with fictional works of art about such places.

 As for the fun house scenario, I think it's a cool place to use as a haunting environment. No matter what anyone says, mental hospitals are always going to strike people as interesting locations for ghost stories, hauntings, and yes, even fun houses. Mental Asylums will never go out of style. So no I don't think they should be abolished. I've always wanted to visit one of those places to see for myself what they are like at least before they were changed...Today they are less interesting than what they use to be, they don't use those cruel looking devices anymore to keep patients from hurting themselves or other people....

 https://nursingclio.org/2015/10/29/ghosts-are-scary-disabled-people-are-not-the-troubling-rise-of-the-haunted-asylum/  

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/10/31/scary-asylums-are-halloween-classic-its-time-retire-trope/