Last week I
realize that I have a new ally in the fight with depression and anxiety. It is
an unexpected friend that I thought would never understand my plight. Out of
respect for this person, I will not reveal who they are. I will say welcome and thank you for sharing
your personal thoughts with me.
I will never
gossip about anything. The only thing I will do is get you or someone help if
they need it. Only if you are homicidal or suicidal or even have intent.
There is a
stigma that will always follow us no matter what we do or where we go. We just
don’t tell parts of ourselves. It is something we carry around privately from
fear. It is the darkness in light.
It is in fear of what people may think. People
may think we are violent. Not true for the majority of us. There is only a
small handful of people that are violent who have mental illness. People often
do not know what to say. We are discriminated against. The media has polluted
people’s thoughts about mental illness. That is the source of the violence, not
the mentally ill.
Know this:
we are not below any normally healthy person. We are not violent. We eat,
breathe, and bleed like everyone else.
If we can’t
put down our fears and lose the misperceptions of mental illness, we will never
be able to overcome it. Never. It is in the same pot as racism and prejudice.
We can’t “get
over it” nor should we hear it. Try telling a cancer patient or other
physically ill to “get over it” and see what happens! You get over your
misconceptions about mental illness.
That is all.
