We Acknowledge Mental Illness, But We Don’t Accept It
Don’t drop your ice coffee and say that you’re going to kill yourself.
We like to think we’ve come far, that progress has been made and so the job is done. We applaud ourselves, smug about the small steps that we’ve completed. This goes for sexism, racism, and also how we consider mental illness. One hundred years ago we didn’t even recognise mental illnesses, fifty years ago depression would lead you to electro-shock therapy or an over-prescription to medication. But that doesn’t mean we’re far enough, that doesn’t mean the work is done.
Because while we will now acknowledge mental illness, we still do not accept it.
Cause
Mental illness is permitted when you have a clear reason for it, a cause and effect. We’ll recognise PTSD in people who went to war or experienced a highly traumatic event. We’ll allow depression if someone died. But if you don’t have that reason to circle, to point to and say “This is why!”, then you’re undermined in your mental illness. You’re made to believe that you don’t deserve it, that you should feel ashamed for claiming to have something that people who really struggle have.
We refuse to accept that mental illness can be an accumulation of things, can be buried in our DNA…
