You’re Not Entitled to Your Stupid Opinion

Last week, I wrote an article called “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year — Unless You’re Mentally Ill, in Which Case, Not So Much.” The central conceit of the piece is simply that holidays can be a challenge to those who live with mental illness. I’ll grant you that it’s not the most original point I’ve ever made. But it is a point that needs to be made every year, as this country does little more than pay lip service to the mental health needs of this country.

It’s been a well-received piece. People have been nice enough to highlight things (which I love) and post comments (which I love) and leave some claps (which I really love). But there’s always that one comment that leaves you seething…

Anytime you write about either mental health or psychology, you run the risk of attracting the anti-psychiatry crowd. They’ve read some things online, you see, so they have opinions. It doesn’t matter that said opinions are divorced from reality. There’s strong emotion behind them, so they must be true.