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 Dear Friend,
I have something to share with you. I have an illness. If I had diabetes or cancer, would you think less of me? I hope you read this with an open mind and heart.
I have a mental illness. Did you know? Does it show? I am the very same person I was before I revealed this to you. Most of us are afraid to tell. We are afraid our relationships will go to hell. There is a definite stigma associated with mental illness that is not found with physical illnesses.
Do you look at me differently now that you know? Are you afraid of what I might do? Does being my friend frighten you?
With that being said, there are a few myths I would like to dispel.
Mental illnesses are not character flaws. Those with mental illness have changes in the structure and function of the brain.
Mental illnesses are not untreatable. Today, with medication and/or therapy, most people with mental illness are able to lead relatively normal lives.
Most of us are not homeless, although a large percentage of the homeless do have a mental illness.
Most of us are not and never will be violent.
Most of us are not addicts.
We don't ask to be treated differently than anyone else.
Most of us are not criminals.
Criticizing us will not cause us to harm ourselves. You do not have to walk on eggshells around us.
We are no more different from you than if we had diabetes or cancer.
I hope we can still be friends. I am the same person you were friends with last week or last year. I have not changed. I have just decided to be honest with you.
Your Friend,
Debbie
P.S. I have had Major Depressive Disorder for nearly twenty years. There are very effective treatments today. By sharing this, I hope to help you learn more about and accept those with mental illness. DEJ
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Debbie,
ReplyDeleteIn this piece for a very, and not very well understood group of illnesses. I really like the direct address here. By using the word you, you are really making it hard for your audience to not reflect on themselves and their own behavior. It is well reasoned and you teach me something here. I will have to admit that I tend to want to walk around on eggshells as you put it, especially when I don't understand what might make someone uncomfortable or unhappy. I love this role that you are taking on, and I wonder if you couldn't keep working on this and then find a way to get it out there. How much of a difference it could make to some many people's views of mental illness. It seems almost at the end as if you are addressing one person in particular. If you want to continue with this, you might try making it to that person more specifically. It would also be powerful to have scene here- where you show these things happening in your own life, or for people you know. Vivid details of scene would make this resonate even more than it already does. Thank you so much again Debbie! Let me know if you have any questions about what I mean. I'm working on checking these every Sunday. This week I failed, but I hope to do better. Thanks for being patient with me.
Anna,
ReplyDeleteI am writing these and posting them on an online writing community where they are read by a number of people. My goal is to get them out there to advocate for people with disabilities. Any help you can give me towards that goal would be greatly appreciated.
Debbie