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This is the perfect time to revive discussions (especially in Jamaica) about mental illness.
A thread...
A thread...
1. Having a mental illness does not mean you have been sentenced to death. It is possible to live a fruitful and happy life while being diagnosed as having a mental illness.
2. Bipolar Disorder andSchizophrenia are NOT the only mental disorders out there. There are currently over 200 classified forms of mental illnesses, each of varying degrees. Do yourself a favour. Do some research.
3. People with (some) mental illnesses find certain things more difficult to do, but it's not necessarily that they CAN'T do it. Stop looking down on them, on us, as if we're so disabled that you wonder how we survive. We're JUST as awesome
4. The stigma people with mental illness face is VERY much real. We say we have been diagnosed with something and SUDDENLY we're looked at as crazy. People don't want to be around us...and worse...they talk to us as if we're incapable of understanding them...as if we're less than
5. Not everyone who has a mental illness needs to be on medication, but everyone who has a mental illness MUST seek professional help. For me, I have see both a psychologist AND a psychiatrist...depending on what's going on with me and how...serious my symptoms get.
6. Therapy is IMPORTANT. Cant stress this enough. I encourage anyone with with mental illness to seek out a good psychologist. You'd be surprised the burden you carry around day to day. It's okay to find someone (a professional) to help you unpack all that weight
There are people with mental illnesses that are (generally) high functioning. I am one of those (on my good days) BUT even so, you can't always tell us apart. I say this to say... in every situation...treat us like human beings. We're not lab experiments. We're just like you.
