Escaping The Stigmas Of Mental Illness | The Odyssey Online
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Health and Wellness

Escaping The Stigmas Of Mental Illness

You are not your illness. You are loved.

Taylor Horton
Nov 20, 2016
Wittenberg University
49
Escaping The Stigmas Of Mental Illness
Healthy Place

You are not alone.

Anxiety affects more than 40 million adults, about 18% of the population.

Depression affects more than 15 million adults, about 7% of the population.

More than 2 million adults suffer from a bipolarity disorder, around 1% of the population.

Around 20% of children and adolescents are affected by mental illness in themselves.

You are not your illness.

You are not "crazy".

You are not weird.

You are human.

Mental illnesses are not adjectives.

We must eliminate the stigmas that go along with mental illness. Have you noticed that very few people admit out loud to having a mental illness or disorder? That's because those with these disorders are trained to believe that they are abnormal and weird because of their illness; less of a human, not able to be helped. Mental illness is not related to a person's intelligence. It is not related to their character. It does not mean you are broken and it does not mean you cannot be fixed. Suicide is not the answer. I have lost friends and loved ones to suicide and I can tell you; it is not the answer. Get help, talk to a loved one, calm yourself down from those negative thoughts telling you that you are not good enough, that you are weird or strange, that you are dumb.

You are not your illness.

You are loved. ♡


Suicide Hotline: 1-800-273-8255


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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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