What If We Treated Every Illness the Way We Treat Mental Illness?

(CLICK ON IMAGE ABOVE TO ENLARGE IT)

I need to have stacks of this graphic to hand out to people when they blurt out misinformed views of mental health conditions. If I had enough money I'd submit this image to the local newspaper as an advertisement for mental health awareness. This image exposes in stark contrast the level of abuse, misunderstanding and torment that the psychologically disabled must endure versus the acceptance, patience and understanding freely granted to people with conventional diseases, such as cancer or heart disease.

To add insult to injury, people who say such things as mentioned above honestly think they are actually helping you!! They think that those of us with psychological disorders are simply being "dramatic." There are some who even say that we should be thanking them for telling us what "everyone else is thinking" but won't say. This is usually when they'll also say, "Everyone has problems" or "We're all a little 'crazy' so snap out of it." In other words, you're just exaggerating the normal stresses of life that everyone endures, so stop being such a, "whiner."

The tragedy, of course, is that they are not helping, but are instead actually making things worse!! It further isolates people who are vulnerable because rather than receive the acceptance, compassion and support that they need and deserve, they are shunned, shamed and blamed. This often just fuels the self-hate and suicidal thinking that is already common among those with psychological diseases. These people who think psychological disorders are just behavioral weaknesses and therefore deserving of some good old fashioned shaming might as well being handing the mentally disordered a load pistol.

-hbw