Hello all! I am a white, female, straight, not-particularly-religious, intelligent, educated-in-music, mentally ill, high-functioning, middle-class, right-handed, slightly short, relatively skinny American who doesn't really affiliate with any political party. Oh yeah, by the way, my name is Annie.
Do you know anyone who introduces themselves like that? I don't. Everyone I know introduces themselves with their name and usually nothing more. Labels, like the ones I used above to describe myself, undermine who we are as people. That's what every member of humanity is. We are all just people. I wish we could simply recognize it.
Labels don't affect me as strongly as they affect others, but that doesn't make me hate them any less. I want people to see me as a person and make their own judgments based on who I actually am as a person, not the superficial facts that can be used to describe me.
I'm luckier than most. The majority of my "label" is not perceived as negative. So, for the most part, I can't really talk about the negative effects of labeling. But, not everything on my list is positive, so I still can talk about it. I'm going to talk about being labeled as mentally ill.
Maybe a lot of you don't know it, or can't "see" it because I am "high-functioning", but I suffer from depression and anxiety. Though I think she is wrong, my psychiatrist here in Würzburg thinks that I am bipolar. In any case, I struggle with mental illness. I won't bore you with the details, but feel free to contact me with any (and all) questions you have.
Being labeled as "mentally ill" has a certain stigma that comes along with it. Mental illness is relatively taboo. It is not well known that approximately one out of five adults will experience mental illness in a given year. For more statistics, go here. Anyway, when one is labeled as mentally ill, he or she is perceived as weak, disgraceful, shameful. He or she probably feels embarrassed by his or her illness. Mental illness is normally thought of as a choice or at least depression is. As far as being sick goes, being mentally ill is just plain not acceptable and people will not support it.
So how does this affect me? I would say that most people are not aware of the fact that I struggle. I don't really publicize it. People would judge me, and find the need to tell me that I just need to choose to be happy and that I don't need to take medicine. Even some of my closest friends insist that I'm choosing to be unhappy. Believe me, if I could choose to be happy, I would. When people find out that I have this struggle, they are not supportive. They just take their preconceived beliefs of mental illness and apply them to me, forgetting that I am actually a person.
And this is why I don't publicize it.
This negative label isn't so bad for me. For the most part, I can hide it, although that doesn't help me heal at all... For those who cannot hide their labels-those based on skin color, socioeconomic status, or other things that can be easily perceived, life with labels is far more difficult.
I wish that we could see all people as people, and nothing more than people. If we could rid the world of these stereotyping labels, it would be a much better place.
