A Thought on Mental Illness

Mental illness is often viewed in a negative light in today’s world. I find that this is partly because the media thrusts such a negative connotation on to the subject and partly because the world doesn’t understand mental illness or those it affects (and I’m not sure if we ever will). The social stigma associated with mental illness is a widespread problem and it is something I believe we, as a society, have control over.
The media often depicts those suffering from a mental illness as being incompetent, violent, and dangerous, and tends to leave out the accomplishments of those suffering from these illnesses. Movies like “As Good As It Gets” and television shows like “Monk” show people suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder but those sufferers are often the butt of jokes, and don’t truly depict the daily struggles one encounters and the impact an illness like that has on daily life. However, certain movies like “Sybil”, which introduced the world to the horrifying reality of dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder) and “Donnie Darko”, which shed light on the mental illness known as schizophrenia, do a fair job in animating the reality of such illnesses.
The societal impacts of revealing that one suffers from a mental illness are often too much for the sufferer to bear. The US Surgeon General stated in 1999 that: "Powerful and pervasive, stigma prevents people from acknowledging their own mental health problems, much less disclosing them to others.” With this being said, those brave enough to admit their illnesses to the public are often forced to pay for something that is out of their control. Employment discrimination is reported to play a significant part in the high rate of unemployment among those with a diagnosis of mental illness.
The idea that someone would be discriminated against for something they have little or no control over makes me disgusted, and I have come to see that people are not as open minded as they’d like to believe they are. With this being said the question I pose today is this: Have you ever, either advertantly or inadvertantly, discriminated against someone because they suffered from an illness be it mental or physical?

Imagine all the people, living life in peace…

XOXO - Maxine

For more information on mental illnesses:
http://www.nami.org/