Well, its officially #breakthestigma [1] Mental Health Awareness Month (May 2023). I hope that by sharing my experiences, people have been able to open themselves more with awareness of how one another feels so that no one feels judged. I think upon meeting someone who has experienced the worst of it, reminds you that you are not that bad, and that is what I hope others have experienced having met me, that they don’t have it that bad, that things get better, and at least they don’t have schizophrenia, and on heavy medications to treat the disorder. Hopefully, no one else has had to campaign and blog just to get a job, and to prove themselves either, we hope that most things can be solved in private, especially when it comes to mental health issues and victimization, no one expects anyone to be victimized who has a mental health issue, so hopefully moving forward people are easier on each other, people are less exposed, and no one is prosecuted for what they think or how they look online or in private, this is hope is the lesson that is learned having met me in life. That although your reality may not be the same, that doesn’t mean that my reality is wrong, or indifferent to others.

What causes indifference? When people don’t have the same problems as you they become indifferent and feel threatened by you, and that’s part stigma, and part making people take responsibility for what they look like and sound like, and to not be accepted by others, makes it seem like you have said something or are something that threatens others, and that’s how mental health issues are misunderstood, its that the person with mental health issues feels threatened by others, it’s the other way around, and upon rejections, that’s rubbing things in, to make the person rejected feel sick, and that’s how a person is treated who they think has a big head or sees themselves as better than others, is brought down in life, to make others feel better, and further convince people that they or others have been wronged by the person with disability. If you don’t have disability, its not you that’s being wronged by the person with disability, its that you think that the person with “disability” thinks wrong.

So what can we learn from my experiences. For people to not jump to conclusions, to not expose people in a way that brings them down or others. To not prosecute people in public and ruin the reputations of people who mean well and do good work online and speak well. Don’t not make people compete with people on the basis of disability, set people to a disadvantage on life, based on diagnosis, and to not discriminate people on the basis of disability, who you think “brings others down” when they are the ones lifting others up. Its on the basis that you are either in the life of another or not, is the basis from which people fight, and sometimes people need to understand that a person who writes online is inviting everyone into their life and is excluding no one, therefore it’s a delusion to think that anyone is not allowed into my life, or that anyone is sheltered from my thinking about things or who I am. I think in a perfect world there would be this “family story” about cases, and that people would feel wholesome and feel benefited from knowing one another, but unfortunately based on diagnosis and money people are viewed as more beneficial to the health of others than other people from a story, so that’s the difference that people can’t keep up with, who is bringing who down and over what reasons. And so the rumors get going, denouncing people, or putting people down to lift others up, and that’s not what Im for, that’s not what others are for, and that’s not what there is to giggle about, its about who is being hurt and who is being sued, and who has it better, and why that’s being done to people who don’t harm others but who helps others. Whats the purpose for creating an opposite view of a person, who presents and is something completely different than the person is being portrayed by others as why is that happening. I don’t portray people as the opposite of who they are and everyone connected to me who knows me, is valued looks better than me, and is able to present to the world accepted by most.

Reference:

[1] https://www.tn.gov/behavioral-health/stigma.html#:~:text=Easy%20Ways%20You%20Can%20Reduce%20Stigma,-The%20National%20Alliance&text=Talk%20openly%20about%20mental%20health,remind%20people%20that%20words%20matter.