The Most Misunderstood Epidemic:
Mental Illness Affectng Overall Society In Our World!
Since I viewed a video on the Sick Not Weak website by Leanne Simpson a week ago, I really thought long and hard about the pros of disclosing my mental illness (depression and anxiety) with my managers and co-workers. And after viewing her video on this subject, I thought, why wouldn’t it be a good idea to discuss or share with co-workers and managers in the workplace?
We don’t disclose our mental illness(s) to say that we aren’t as capable as others or use it as an excuse. We are just sharing this important fact with them for our mental illness(s) will show up at one point in our future work shifts in the workplace. So it would be a good idea to clear the air to them to clarify why they’ll find us in panic, with anxiety, or act different (less unergtic, positive, etc). We aren’t gonna promise that we won’t experience our mental illness while working in the workplace in the future.
So many people like employers, parents, siblings and others don’t see the big picture of the whole world as it truly is. Why? Because they only see it the way they are. The world may be one thing but being what it should be is even better than it was in the past. Because everyday is an opportunity to do better, give more, love more, improve ourselves every second of every day. It may seem like a lot of work to maintain our own mental health but it’s just as important as our physical health. So why aren’t we all taking care of our mental health just like we are with our physical health?
Why are going for dental, and physical checkups but never openly and often or even at all going for mental health checkups. Why is this? If mental health was part of the educational curriculum in schools years ago for when our parents were in school, then maybe would that have made the stigma and discrimination around mental illness and health a huge portion less than what the stigma is visibly present in our current future?
Mental Illness stigma kills more humans than the rest of society has ever lead to believe. Their words are what triggers suicidal kids, teenagers to act on their suicidal thoughts using a gun or other props.
Our parents teach us to become responsible citizens of society yet I’ve noticed with my own experiences with my parents that their parenting logic isn’t as logical and wise as they may lead themselves to believe. Some are logical, fair and ethical but the rest of the parenting skills and lessons are harming their kids mental health. Let’s start with their high expectations. Another is expecting their kids to do regular daily house chores daily and without many attempts/asks from them to complete the tasks.
They don’t realise that their expectations are too high for they are too closed-minded to open their eyes enough to notice little hints that they are not okay adn that the ways they’ve treated them over the years have impacted their mental health negatively and have been taught by their own examples that it’s okay and not a bad thing to beat yourself up/being hard on yourself when you don’t do something or regret something you should’ve or shouldn’t have done. This kind of behaviour is not healthy nor positive.
Parents thinks they know what’s best for their kids, but for their lack of education on mental health, they think their logics, reasoning, and overall methods and reliable and experiences to prove the statement as accurate logics. Therefore with their lack of education on mental health, parents are blind to what’s harming and hurting them. No matter how many times and explained or memories in the past that you use for examples and references, they are the ones hurting their own kids without becoming aware. Being mindful of this is truly and crucially important to practice mental health wise. Words are one thing but actions are another thing which is important that whatever you say and promise, you live by them.
They inspire their kids with inspirational quotes, examples, their own childhood memories and life lessons but they don’t live up to them. They don’t set the example by using stress and organizational skills to manage these two life situations that all humans deal with everyday; as an example. They aren’t being mindful and aware of what harm they are doing and what they are missing when inspiring and parenting their kids until it’s too late…suicide.
To those parents viewing this blog post: please read the rest of this post and reread anything that you didn't quite understand the first time to make sure you are able to use the knowledge from this post and other educational resources online, in the library and other educational events to help speak openly about mental health in the house with everyone to help remove the stigma in their family; which also contributes to their part in breaking the stigma around mental illness and mental health.
Self care, meditations, mindfulness and all else that helps contribute to positive yet healthy mental health. Self care includes: personal hygiene, positive thinking using other people’s examples/methods with maintaining their emotions, (emotional intelligence), being hopeful, taking baby steps in recovery, education on mental illness(s), and mental health helpful tips, advice, insights, thoughts from others anyone looks up to or admires. Taking time out of our busy schedules to relax, mediate, do yoga, pilates, rest, reward ourselves with occasional treats, movie night, going out with friends, taking a break to help prevent burn out in stressful, anxious moments caused from school work in middle, high school and college/university. These helpful practices contributing to positive mental health is crucially important along with any others not mentioned.
I belive that parents and others in our society not viewing, treating, respecting, understanding and supporting mental health as real for one fact are not trying at all. Especially for those who aren’t and refuse to: being completely against the whole epidemic, in denial of anyone with mental illness and overall the importance of mental health also don’t belive in the subject as an epidemic and nor as important which only makes it harder and more challenging and more importantly life threatening for those who are affected by these kind of people whether its parents, other family members, friends, coworkers and other acquaintances.
Under any circumstances, we have to stay strong, try to stop yourself form defending yourself like your parents when the times you continue to try to force, demand or make them view mental health as an important subject and overall their parts they need to follow like the rest of society. We have to accept that we are at the point in our recovery and process with bringing them over onto our side for mental health and just focus mainly on your life: your job, mental health, caring for yourself, working on loving yourself regardless of how others like your parents treat you affecting or in other words taking away your self worth. Along with all other responsibilities, tasks you have promised yourself to work on whether its tagged to your mental health recovery, educational or any personal stuff like your values, beliefs & priorities.
Regardless of how powerful and life impacting the stigma and discrimination is around mental illness in our society, we have to continue having faith in our actions will help break the stigma around it and create better change for a better world we all as citizens call home!
Why is there still such stigma and discrimination around mental illness leading to suicide, substance abuse, and long term medical issues along with the silence being suffered by millions covering up their pain and illness for the impacts of all this stigma that prevents anyone from speaking openly about their own mental health? We may be taught by our parents or teachers to speak openly about our feelings but others not on top of the lack of mental health education in schools. We may be educated and taught on how to maintain our stress levels but never all the others in the mental health area. Why isn’t this being discussed in school to help remove the stigma in the school environment?
The government and overall society should do everything that can to bring light to mental health with educational classes, open discussions in health class but all classes encouraging this type of discussion, to show that it’s okay to talk about these things and that creating a school club to help contribute to breaking the stigma and also benefit many things in the mental health area of all students no matter what they are living or suffering with. These types of solutions this epidemic will help create better change for our society and world by giving all things in reality all that each individually deserves.
I think that there is only reasonable, ethical and logical sense with disclosing our mental health issues like anxiety, panic, depression, schizophrenia to our managers and other coworkers to continue with speaking openly about mental health overall Your own mental health conditions. Disclosing mental health on our resume nd in interviews and in the workplace is not an exhale or way that should be viewed as “attention seeking” or as an excuse for example. More facts on this are shared below.
Everyone will be affected by mental illness whether its loved ones, friends, family, coworkers, other acquaintances or even themselves. So be kind: you probably don’t know what they are going through so don’t judge a book by it’s cover.
I think I just bought a house so what I’m trying to say is that life has a lot of changes and if you happen to have mental illness it kind of feels like your insides are changing all of the time without you and you have no control.
So outside changes may not be so welcome. I deal with change first by freaking out second by relying on my friends and family to help me stop freaking out and third by just adapting.
Having mental illness means that you have to adapt to your body every second of every day. So adapting to outside situations isn’t really that different. The only differences is you have a little bit more control over the way you do it.
Sometimes when I apply for jobs I get sad because it like you need 3 to 5 levels of experience for the entry level job and I’m like man can I use my experience points in Pokémon go and they’re like no you can’t and I’m like but I have a Squirtle. So today I went for a job interview and I’m in communications, that’s what I do outside of mental health advocacy. So I went into my job interview and I told him that I had a mental illness.
This is probably a weird job interview tactic. If you want to sleep with someone, you don’t tell them that you snore but my policy on this is that mental illness is such an integral part of my life not only on my resume because a lot of people ask why did you get into mental health advocacy and the simple answer is because I am sick.
The other reason I tell them is because it’s likely to pop up in a job situation at some point during another. Can I promise that between the hours of 9 to 5 for the next 1 million years of my life I won’t have a panic attack? I can’t but I can promise that I will handle it in the most professional manner that I can.
And so if you’re an employer and one of your employees comes to you with mental illness, try to be understanding if someone has to take days off to see the psychiatrist try to think of it as someone try to take days off to see their diabetes doctor.
And you have to remember that it’s not a weakness to have something like guide to have to regulate yourself it’s actually a strength. You have to be a little bit tougher; you have to understand yourself a little bit better than everyone else.
Is if you’re struggling in your job and you’re struggling because of your mental illness, talk to your boss about it. Try to work around it, they want to work with you, they want you to succeed.
I actually had a boss that switched all of my shift afternoon shift so that I could switch medications without worrying about missing shifts in the morning and that was something really special because he cared and he understood that it was something that I had to do to better myself and hopefully they understand for you too.
Just wanted to share with you all: I accidentally without thinking logically of posting my link to my recent blog post from my Wordpress blog in a post on Facebook. Parents told me that they’d get rid of my iPad if I posted another post like the one I posted with the attached link to my mental health story that concerned some family members.
My mom said she won’t tell my dad for he’s on a plane to New Jersey for work today and tomorrow. But that doesn’t mean I’m gonna stop posting mental health related posts and mental health advocacy stuff on my Wordpress blog, Tumblr, or Happier.
It only means I won’t post anything around that subject (at least for a while, particularly once I move out) on Facebook. Need to just post regular posts of fun, exciting events, like my new job, xmas holidays coming up, etc.
My mental health advocacy and overall mental health is super important to me as it is to many others and I won’t stop advocating for it and other things that I value, believe in and prioritize greatly and won’t settle for anything that puts that at risk or changes my path with this whole thing on mental health and my advocacy for it. What do you think about this?
Mental health has become an important thing to focus, practice and overall take care of in healthy, positive ways for millions of people in our society. Yet still millions are still against the whole “mental health epidemic” thing. They just don’t understand all the important facts and statistics of this issue in our world that they created and we let it get this bad. What happened?
Why did we accept this doom in the world with this issue and others like bullying and suicide? Why did we just let this happen and get so bad? With how bad these issues have gotten, what matters is that we are tackling it one day, one baby step at a time to decrease the stigma, discrimination, hate, and silence around all important epidemics and issues in our world. Not one is less important than another.
Think of it like the human body can’t function nor be alive without the brain. So it would make sense and be healthy to treat the brain and all the important statistics and everything else in the mental health area just like any other body organ.
Like the heart is important, the lungs, our stomach is there for our digestive system; don’t forget about our 5 senses: ears, nose, mouth, eyes and hands. So in all reality with all the statistics to back up this statement, the brain’s health adn overall mental health issue should be treated, cared for, and all else to equal in healthy human being overall a healthier society of our whole universe.
How can society be so stubborn with responding, supporting such an equally important issue and epidemic? I just don’t get how so much of the world could be so stubborn, in denial, intend to misunderstand us with mental illnesses and everything else that goes with that. Mental illness is so big in our society and our world yet there’s still a big stigma and discrimination surrounding it. It’s not fair, logical, nor ethical in any way.
The government or school board may see (in the past years) mental health being not something that they see fit in the school curriculum. Just like the creative arts; what are their thoughts on both mental health and the creative arts? Are they gonna take the creative arts away and refuse to understand the real logic and ethics with adding mental health in the teaching curriculum? In what world, is that logical, ethical or smart in any way? How do these kinds of people believe how it affects all of society?
It may feel to them that it make sense in their own thinking and feel right but never consider what we wanted or what is the best for the teaching curriculum for the students. They are thinking more of their job responsibilities and such more than they ever has with others like those less fortunate, those suffering and living with mental illness with no education in school… explain that one.
How did we let society get this bad? Well for me being an optimist of my own: there are two wolves. They are always fighting. One is darkness and despair. The other is light and hope. Which wolf are you feeding?
And also: I get things are bad. But what are we doing to fix it? Nothing. We are just doing the daily, regular things in our lives but not doing anything about anything that actually should matter to all of society.
Yeah some great entrepreneurs are out there and role models like Craig & Marc Kielburger with We: Me To We Enterprise with all their success in their organization for child labour, bullying, mental health and more.
And also when we are just living our lives without any new changes or improvements, we are accepting the doom in the world, and in ourselves for those who are just letting themselves go. Those people are feeding the wrong wolf: darkness and despair. But the right, proper, logical and ethical choose here is to feed the right wolf: light and hope by not accepting the doom in our world and in ourselves and viewing each scenario, situation, issue, epidemic one by one with all important facts and supporting details of each one and start working on improving/solving these one baby step at a time.
But it all starts with one person and that chain has to continue, with no end. And when one dedicates or is motivated to start making changes with the world: If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make that change.” Inspired by Michael Jackson’s Man In The Mirror song lyric… So what are your thoughts on this huge debate or inspirational, motivational, educational speech?
I just wanted to start off by saying that I love and admire how many Happiers are here in the happier community suffering and living with mental illness. Seeing through happier moments of how happier has influenced and overall impacted our lives with coping with our mental illnesses. Having the happier community as part of our support system with no judgments, only relatable comments from others, supportive advice, tips, etc.
I truly love that whatever happened, I’m glad that it brought me to discovering Happier. Now I want to talk about how basically my parents and sister want me to prove or show them how sick I am and on top of that, don’t understand and refuse to understand mental illness. How when they say that it’s within myself to get better.
They don’t try to hear me out with no judgments, interruptions or such on the whole story that I’ve been doing that for so many months (1.5 years now) and they refuse to understand, respect, accept and support all that is the truth with me and my mental illness overall health. This part of the stigma sucks, making it hard to imagine or even have hope that how stubborn people like our own loved ones (family) refuse to understand mental illness.
But we just have to continue taking care of ourselves in recovery, and when God does his part and succeeds with having them change their beliefs, views on mental health, then we’ll be able to do our part at that point in the process in our part with breaking the stigma around mental illness. We are all in this fight/battle together!
I remember clearly enough of how about 2 years ago I was in so much pain, screaming on the inside, not being heard, not being taken seriously by my own parents, sister, professors and coordinator of the office admin program at Conestoga college.
And now looking back at how much I’ve accomplished in my recovery since then and after coming home from that first year of college: truly a huge yet important and valuable achievement to accomplishment myself!
Regardless of how my parents, sister and others view mental health and mental illness, I’m still gonna be proud of myself no matter what. And that is never easy: life is never easy. It’s only challenging which helps in change in our world and in ourselves. Thank you everyone, God and anyone else outside of the Happier community for being part of my supportive system with my important issues that many of you are suffering, living with. Keep it up, we all know living in our world with such stigma and discrimination around mental illness is never easy but always possible to cope with.
We can all stand strong together! No one is alone. Add anyone in your prayers for hope, courage, strength and many other things for those going through difficult times.
I found myself thinking about Bekah Miles post that went viral August 23rd last year and got me thinking about posting my own. Thinking about having it ready and most likely posted either before work tomorrow or (if I’m able to) during my break. I’m gonna get started as early as I can tomorrow morning.
I can’t wait to complete the post and spread the light on this epidemic but more towards my own mental illness. I’m feeling super confident about achieving this idea minus my parents & sisters reactions. What do you think?
Creativity is crucially important to me and so is overall mental health! Having creativity fitting nicely in with mental illness is so perfect. Being able to express ourselves creatively through art, writing or music is more then successful yet also benefits greatly. Don’t you think, Happiers? 🎭🎬🎼🎧🎨📓📝💻📱
Along with me posting a post on Facebook (which I will include in another Happier moment) on spreading light on my recent depression diagnosis and what kind of message I want to give to my friends and family mainly.
Doing something like this involves taking a risk. I’ve been taking a risk with my mental health for a few months now. And as for all the previous posts, links, pictures, quotes around mental illness, some of my family (that I have on Facebook) have token the hint that I have a mental illness. I never thought about that when I posted posts like that.
Also as for I wanted to plan out the whole action plan on sharing this diagnosis and action plan given from Dr. Shawn Kao with my friends and family on my own. But now that my parents told me that (how she gives access to my grandma to her Facebook account to check out posts from other family members) seeing the posts, getting the hint that I’m suffering with depression. Mom thought without consulting me that she was gonna tell her that after the previous posts hinting that.
That was what was a wake up call for me. But I now am still choosing to speak about this issue on facebook more openly like I’ve been wanting to since I came home from college (months before my official diagnosis). Wish me luck in my post…giving me the kind of results and attention that I particularly expect from my friends and family.
Regardless of how my parents and sister believe it’s wrong to be so open about my diagnosis: looking for attention and other reasons they believe… I’m willing to keep the post regardless of how they feel for it!
The purpose of posting my story on my wordpress blog was to influence the world: to inspire, encourage, uplift and relate to other stories and that positive change is possible. That it does get better regardless of what I’m still currently battling with my illness and my own family. And I’m not gonna apologize for that!
I’m not gonna apologize for standing up for what I believe in and saying so. This act of courage has been influenced/inspired from both Bekah Miles story that went vital August 23rd last year and The Fosters, Daughters & Lucky episodes of season 3! Where Callie stands up for what she believes in in front of the virtual world and the court room. And the results/outcomes of that encouraged & inspired me to follow the same idea/act to receive positive change in our world!
When I first watched The Fosters Daughters & Lucky episode, it really made me feel something really special and also made me have something in common with Callie’s character in the show. How inspiring, courageous she was with not being ashamed or regretful of her actions being viewed as a wrong doing from society but particarly the Judge and the system deciding on what gets dealt with and how.
I really do admire her character for what she inspired and courageously created from the episodes events and overall the impact on the viewers. And so I’d like to share a couple of my previous articles I’ve posted on Medium with quotes to my fan ship and admiration of Callie in The Fosters.
The Fosters
Every kid says mean things to their parents.
You can’t be afraid to speak up, we all mess up even. I get it, we’re all the same. Every foster kid think we’re not allowed to say what we need or to stand up for ourselves. But we have to.
(3 min 15 sec left) “Daughters”
We can’t be afraid to speak up, stand up for ourselves when things don’t go the right way. We need to speak up if we want to see better change in the world and in our lives.
Watching season 3 of “The Fosters” seeing Sophie with personality disorder, Chloe (Rita’s daughter) with bipolar Axis 1 disorder (also…
9 minutes ~ 4 minutes – “Lucky”
“When your lucky, it is your job to give something back. And when you see something wrong, to stand up and to say so. I’m not gonna apologize for standing up. Somebody has to.” – Callie
Don’t go blowing something up that could be great just because you’re scared. – Rita
Unfortunately, justice is not always served in this world. – that doesn’t mean nothing can be done about this. About justice being served in our world. Nothing is impossible and yeah: I get things are bad. But what are we doing to fix it? Quoted by Tomorrowland.
We can’t risk making things harder for ourselves. – so what. That shouldn’t be a good enough reason to not share our stories. Our stories is one way to inspire the world of great things that come from the negative and bad stories. No matter what risks it involves in taking or what someone could lose, tell your story. It will be worth it and you won’t lose anything, except for gaining so much more than you may even think.
“Parents don’t love you more because you’re biologically theirs. I mean, your moms – they don’t love you because your easy to deal with or because you keep your mouth shut. They love you because you’re you.” – Rita
I just always expect you to do the right thing because you just – you always do.
You’ve always been so warm and welcoming to all the kids that we’ve brought in this house, it just never occurred to me that you might not actually be okay.
I think we’re all capable of doing things that we never thought we’d do. – that doesn’t mean that we can’t prevent the things that we don’t think we’d be capable of. Nothing is impossible and never say never. It’s better to try than to never try at all.
“I wanted to take this opportunity to tell my story. So my little brother and I have been in seven different foster homes. And in one home, I was raped by an older foster brother, Liam Olmstead. And then there was this other home and we had his foster dad – Jim Pearson. And one day he was beating my little brother so bad, I had to take a baseball bat to his car to get him to stop. Nothing happened to him. I went to juvie. After that, I ended up in a safe, loving foster home. And my foster moms adopted my little brother, but the judges wouldn’t allow them to adopt me. And the same judge, Judge Jeffrey Ringer, continues to block my adoption without considering what I want. And that is what is wrong with the system.” – Callie
“We foster kids have no control of our own lives and it’s our time to speak up and we start calling people out by name. That is the only way that things will change. And we cannot be afraid. And that is why I’m telling my story and I really hope that you’ll tell yours.” – Callie
Judge Jeffrey Ringer: You said I was making these decisions about your life without any consideration of what you wanted.
Callie: Because that’s how it felt. The system is broken, sir, badly. And the only people who really understand just how bad are the ones without any say, without my voice. Somebody has got to speak up.
Judge Jeffrey Ringer: And that someone is going to be you, is it?
Callie: Yes. I’m one of the lucky ones. You know, I …found an amazing family, and I’m finally safe and loved, like, really, truly loved. And one of the things I’ve learned from my moms, from watching the way they’ve lived their lives, is that when your lucky, it is your job to give something back. And when you see something wrong, to stand up and to say so. So, I’m really sorry if I offended you. It was not my intention. I’m not gonna apologize for standing up. Somebody has to.
Judge Jeffrey Ringer: Well I wish it weren’t the case…but there’s a lot of truth in what your saying. It’s not secret the system is failing a lot of kids, and that someone needs to do something about it. I’m proud of you for being that person.
Love can drown every bad day.
It’s not where you come from, it’s where you belong/Nothing I would trade, I wouldn’t have it any other way. – Keri Kimmel
Here is an article on someone sharing their thoughts and moments with watching “The Fosters” and how they relate to their own experiences these characters have gone through in the show.
It’s Not Where You Come From, It’s Where You Belong – The Hairpin
by Rachel Giese It’s funny that we didn’t discover ABC Family drama The Fosters until this spring. Funny because our…
And The Fosters theme song is so calming yet so true:
“It’s not where you come from, it’s where you belong.”
Therefore, using the courage and risks along with achieving these kinds of things are never easy, only challenging and risky, but most importantly, possible and achievable for anyone who’s willing to try! My message from this and my story I hope it encourages and inspires others to do the same!
My own family seem to believe in no shame in mental illness yet they still seem to not believe that you live with your mental condition(s) forever. Regardless of how well u succeed in recovery, keeping up with self care and all else with mental health, you still have to continue working on your mental health. And you also have to work harder than others, that’s just part of living with mental illness.
But they still refuse to understand and accept all these kinds of facts that I’d shamed/attached with the stigma around this epidemic. It so harsh and stubborn that so many still refuse to understand important issues and epidemics like mental health regardless how hard the rest of society tries to educate, inspire and encourage mental health education and action.
Who here in the happier community has their own hardships or struggles with the stigma and discrimination around mental illness? Please share them below or tag me in a happier moment! Thanks!
