"There is a stigma in this country about mental illness. I mean, depression, anxiety, OCD, bipolar, they're hard to diagnose, so...people don't always appreciate that they're serious problems, but they are." That's a quote from Glee that I love, you know, before Glee went downhill and became the fastest show to tumble down the steep hill of showbiz. Mental illness is such a difficult and underrated thing, and I find it ridiculous that people still have to sneak around to take their pills or saying they're going to 'the library' when they actually mean 'my therapist'.
Let's get to it:
When some of my best friends confided in me that they were diagnosed with depression, bipolar, and anxiety respectively, I knew that mental illness wasn't a teenage 'phase'. Each of them met with a doctor or a shrink, and some were prescribed medication. Then at the end of their confession, they all said to me, "don't tell anyone about this."
There's a myriad of mental illnesses and disorders ranging from the common ones like OCD to the rarer ones like multiple personality disorder. Some of them affect daily functioning, some don't. But most people think that if you have a mental disorder, it's just a little phase or you're just being dramatic. But that's rarely ever true. Mental illness is like having diabetes. You need constant medical attention and make sure it doesn't get any worse. It's like walking on a tightrope and falling every few meters. It's an impossible journey.
Personality disorders are also seen as a first-world privilege. A woman once said, "rich people go to therapy, poor people got shit to do." Having a mental illness seem like a privilege to some because they're so secure in everything else that their only problems are within themselves. So it's no surprise that teenage kids refuse to tell their parents or friends about their suicidal thoughts or eating disorder, because they will respond with a, "Suck it up! Just be happy! You're so ungrateful!"
Personality disorders are also seen as a first-world privilege. A woman once said, "rich people go to therapy, poor people got shit to do." Having a mental illness seem like a privilege to some because they're so secure in everything else that their only problems are within themselves. So it's no surprise that teenage kids refuse to tell their parents or friends about their suicidal thoughts or eating disorder, because they will respond with a, "Suck it up! Just be happy! You're so ungrateful!"
It doesn't work like that. Telling someone to shake away the voices in their heads and telling them to put the knife down because, "life is beautiful!" is not going to work. Telling them to think positively is like telling a near-sighted person to, "just open your eyes more!" There are chemical imbalances in the brain that you can't control yourself. You need pills or CBT or whatever else that can turn that crazy little mind into one that's socially acceptable. Do you think people want to feel like jumping off a building everyday? Or want to stab themselves in the jugular with a pen every chance they get? It's not really their choice. As if you would go to your local cancer ward and tell a leukemic patient to, "get over it."
You think cancer isn't the same as schizophrenia or anxiety or sex addiction? You think that just because physical cells aren't eating away parts of your body that mental illness is less important? Tell that to the boy having a panic attack in the middle of the train, unable to breathe and the walls are caving in. Tell that to the girl throwing up after a small meal. Tell that to the man scrubbing his hands until they bleed because he can feel the germs dig into his skin. Tell that to the woman slamming her head on the wall to get rid of the screaming voices in her head. This is a disease of the mind and it can eat you slowly like any other disease would.
No one is normal. Everyone's a little nuts, but it comes down to how much it hinders your daily life. If you could function as a relatively sane citizen, then you are not in a position to patronize people who find it difficult to leave the room without turning the light switch on and off 18 times. People are delicate. Like how your mind may be made of titanium, but mine is made of glass. If you think mental illness is something to "get over" then I hope you'll never have to go through what millions have to go through.
This isn't Girl Interrupted or One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Sometimes crazy doesn't look like what you expect it to be. Remember that you are who you are when no one's looking. Don't be fooled by your friend's laughter, because they could swap their smiles for tears when the night beckons. After all, you can't run away from what's inside you.
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