As a young person that is going to vote this election season, it seriously floors me that a huge group of people are completely left out of the debates we all so seriously watch on our televisions. The candidates talk about the elderly, the rich, the poor, the young, the top one percent, the middle class….but what about those suffering from mental illness? Nothing about affordable therapy or inpatient programs, nothing about improving the lives of the millions of people suffering that could have a better quality of life with affordable and safe medications, and even more so, empathy and understanding. Absolutely nothing. It doesn't matter if you're young or old, it doesn't matter your race or ethnicity, it doesn't matter your gender- mental health effects all, and it affects millions of people in this nation every day and every night.
If anyone needs proof that mental health stigma and discrimination exist, I’ll provide you with example number one. A couple of weeks ago I was job searching online, and found a wonderful internship position that would have fit me perfectly. While filling out the resume and background section of the application, however, I came across one little survey buried cleverly in the text: Have you ever been diagnosed with a mental illness, such as OCD, depression, bipolar, etc?
Have I ever been diagnosed with a mental illness?
Why yes, company that remains to be named, yes I have. And guess what? My sever Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (which causes me to have spontaneous ticks, migraines, physical pain, and is an all around jerk), is also what happens to make me so, well, driven. And oh yeah, that little thing called depression? That makes me wake up every day and try even harder to get out of bed and make something of myself, because staying busy and producing good work keeps it at bay. I'm sorry unnamed company, but since when is it ok to discriminate against someone based on their biology, on how they were born?
Oh, right, it isn't.
Just because you don't want to pay extra insurance for an "invisible disease" or deal with someone's "eccentricities" (which actually may make them an even harder worker, just saying), doesn't give you the right to base your professional decision on anything other than job qualifications and experience. What would equal pay do for me as a woman if my own brain (a very intelligent and qualified brain), is seen as less than others? The entire situation makes me feel bad for every member of our society, because racism is still running rampant, sexism still exists, and now we can't even get the medical attention we need without being hindered for it.
So this is what I say to the current presidential candidates, and to anyone running their campaigns or funding them: please include the mentally ill in your long list of issues to talk about, because it’s not something that gets enough coverage or is understood as much as it could be. Millions of people get swept under the rug because it’s not seen as a cause worth focusing on yet, and people are suffering every day because the world isn’t ready to accept, understand, or include them. In closing, it seems to me that the candidates need to be reminded that mental illness is all in the head, and that's exactly why mental health awareness is so crucial. Our brains run our entire body, what organ could be more important?
