Why don’t we listen more?

It is interesting how mental illness is perceived in our society. Basically there are a slew of misunderstandings surrounding what living with a mental illness really means. There are those who think having a mental illness means you are broken and you will struggle to contribute to the world in a meaningfully way. Others think that if people were braver or prayed more or stopped exaggerating their experience then they wouldn’t actually be mentally ill at all. Some say that no one has the right to complain — because it’s really not that bad. And others believe that if you just adhered to treatment you’d be fixed and thus if you’re not fixed it is your fault. But mental illness is so complicated. Mental illness is so personal. There are so many influential factors because you are not just a person with a mental illness. Maybe you are also a person of color or you’re a part of the queer community, you’re a woman, you’re from another country, you have another disability or medical need too, you’re religious or you’re not religious, you have experienced trauma in your life. People are complex. It is important to honor all aspects of a person and all of the things that inform how they view themselves, how they live their life, how they understand their mental illness, and how they relate to others. Judgment helps no one. Pity is not productive. Because there is so much richness to the human condition. Yes someone might have a mental illness but they might be a dancer or they might be a volunteer firefighter or they might have aced the SATs or they are a proud father or they play the accordion or they are a doctor or they are passionate about recycling or they were in the Peace Corps or they protest fracking. People are many many different things. They are not just mentally ill.