Last night I was sitting in the waiting room of my psychiatrist’s office. I am a people watcher so I checked out my surroundings to see with whom I was keeping company. I saw a middle-age man in a sort of mechanic work uniform. There was a woman dressed in black and white who looked like she would be a very nice mom or grandma. There was a couple who were in their fifties. In the corner bench sat a young lady who was college age. I smiled to myself because she had her head buried deep in her smart phone. I wondered what I did when I was in college. Read an actual book? With a spine and a title page? I sat there in jeans and a t-shirt, fidgeting, barely able to sit still.
All these people appeared to be normal – people who did not have to take medicine. People who did not have to go to their psychiatrist and therapist on a regular basis. People who had families and best friends and hobbies and children and jobs. But who cares if they have to take psychotropic medicine and see doctors and therapists? How is their life any different from a diabetic taking their oral medicine every day as well as going to a handful of doctors? Or a heart patient? Or a cancer patient?
The truth is people with mental illnesses are not that different from others who walk this planet. The thing that keeps us from being who we are and sharing our life including our mental illness at family get-to-gathers, social gatherings, church, work, social media or even intimate relationships, is the stigma that goes along with the mental illness. I have opened up to people before and had the door closed in my face. People act out when they feel uncomfortable in their lack of knowledge. I believe that with more education, people will be more accepting of the mentally ill. We are fairly normal and not like the mentally sick people you see on the news.
I will work and fight until my last breath to inform people about mental illnesses – whether they are a “normal” person or a person with a mental illness.
Here are some links for you to explore for more information.
http://www.dbsalliance.org/site/PageServer?pagename=home
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml
http://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/adhd-adults#1