Mental Health Awareness Week wraps up today, so it is a good time to talk about mental illnesses and the people who cope with them daily. There are so many misconceptions, but people with these medical conditions are just people who want to be treated like human beings.
There are three words that get thrown around when talking about people with mental illnesses which are unfair: lazy, violent, and unintelligent. The words arise out of the myths that surround mental illness.
I have been working and volunteering around people with mental illness since I took the Crisis Line training in 1983. I have coped with a mental illness since I was 11 years old, although no one including myself knew until I was 25. I have learned to manage my illness, controlling the illness and not letting it control me. Battling depression and anxiety is a difficult one, but one that can be won or at least managed to the point you can still have a meaningfully productive life. I still reached some of my goals. The one I am most proud of is a master’s degree in clinical psychology. I hope someone who reads this is given the courage to reach their goals. It is possible.
Now back to these three words. Many people believe that people with mental illnesses are lazy. I got my degree through distance learning, not by going to a university. This is not a lazy thing to do. In all my experience working with the mentally ill I have found that the hardest thing they may have to give up is work. If one cannot go back to work there is volunteer work, which is just as valuable, and may even keep some services afloat. Lazy is an unjust description of someone with a mental illness. If you have not been there you cannot know just how difficult it is to just get out of bed.
Violence has always been a misconception people have about mental illness. It is always the first thing asked when there is a violent crime, and is sensationalized by the media. Yes, some people who have a mental illness become violent, but these are usually people who have gone off their medication and become psychotic, or they have not been diagnosed yet. Some people do not find out they are ill until they get in trouble with the law. However, the percentage of mentally ill people who become violent is the same as those who do not have such an illness. In each population, three per cent become violent. The person with the mental illness is more likely to be the victim of violence, or harm themselves. Many people with mental illnesses would put others’ well being before their own. So drop the fear and treat them like human beings.
Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln would not be considered unintelligent, but they all coped and managed a mental illness. Some of the most creative people have mental illnesses. There are composers, artists, actors, actresses, comedians, athletes, writers and inventors who have contributed to the world. People with mental illnesses are not stupid! Do not treat us like children, as though we can’t comprehend our treatments and our illnesses.
I have lost count of how many times I have been talked down to or called a weirdo, and anyone who knows me knows I am not lazy, violent, or unintelligent.
