Social media is a familiar place to try and contact favorite celebrities or authors. We’ve all done it at one point, hoping that against all odds that they will see the tweet or post. When they do see it, and maybe even like it, it’s like a small gift. It brightens up your whole day.
JK Rowling has a total following of 7.29 million on her twitter page, but that didn't stop her from seeing a fan’s plea for her support.
Kate, a person who has suffered trauma throughout her life, asked Rowling to write out a favorite Harry Potter spell, expecto patronum, so that she could get it on her wrist over her self harm scars. In less than 10 minutes, Rowling replied with kind words and a picture of her writing out the spell.
The interaction has gone viral on the internet, with everyone showing support for Kate and loving Rowling even more than they already do.
JK Rowling is not unfamiliar with mental health; she suffered through years of depression before she started writing the iconic Harry Potter series. She wrote creatures called Dementors to personify the feeling of having depression, and invented the spell expecto patronum to combat those feelings. The phrase roughly means “I await a protector” in Latin. When Rowling revealed this personal detail about herself, many of her fans took the spell as a meaning of combating moods of depression and self-harm.
There is a huge stigma around mental illness, many people claiming that someone who is suffering from a mental illness is faking it to try and just get attention. Despite studies showing that mental illnesses are sometimes created from an imbalance of hormones and can be treated by medication, the popular opinion is still that people should be ashamed of their own feelings.
In the note that Kate left for Rowling, she said that she is not proud of her past but she is not ashamed of it either. It is a part of her, and she chooses to try and accept it so that she can move forward with her healing. This sentiment, more than any other part of this tale, is the most important thought to hold onto.
We should all start to not only accept our own past, but also be kind to others who are ashamed of their past. If we can all accept ourselves and others, we can start to make steps towards chaining the stigma around mental illness.
