When you think of mental illness what do you think about? Do you think of the homeless man you pass every day who murmurs of strange worlds only he can see? Do you think of a woman in cleaning gloves trying to scrub every surface to assuage her OCD? Or do you leave behind stereotypes and stigmas and think about suffering from substance abuse? Does an image of a loved one crippled by depression or mutilated by eating disorders come to mind? Or does a mirror appear and you see yourself?

20% of people in jail have some sort of mental illness

40% of the chronically homeless are mentally ill

1 in 3 college students are struggling with mental illness

1 in 4 Americans are mentally ill

The topic of mental illness stigmas and unfair treatment might seem overdone. People have heard the arguments about how no one would judge someone who takes a day off because of a broken leg or because of a reaction to their Chemotherapy, yet they do for those silently suffering from mental illness, a silence they did not ask for. That’s the key to it all! Understanding that it’s not a choice, that they don’t want this heavy, so very heavy, burden. That their lives would be so much easier if they could trust their minds to tell them the reality, and could count on stable dopamine levels. So if it’s not a choice, why does it seem like society punishes those suffering adding to the pain and struggle the disease itself brings?

I have seen examples in those very close to me how mental illness pervades all aspects of life. It can make getting a job harder, it can put a strain on relationships, and of course it affects how they view themselves. Depression is the third leading cause of disability in the country, and yet, most employers who would receive a call from an employee claiming that they just can’t get out of bed that day would just account it to laziness.

I know just how hard it is to remember that the things someone does or says are because of an illness that they would do anything not to have. They have this burden that they didn’t ask for, but even when telling myself that it’s still hard to remember that the scars they inflect on others, it doesn’t compare to the ones they’ve inflicted on themselves. It’s easy to just focus on someone’s actions and not think about the extenuating circumstances. It’s easy to pity those with mental illness on a vague scale, but when it comes to interpersonal interactions, it is so much harder to pity them when you just face the consequences of the actions. I’ve been told to think after a bad interaction, would I be as mad if this person had Down syndrome or something more visible and obvious? I’m definitely not saying that struggling with mental illness is a get out of jail free card. People with mental illness are still capable of being mean and insensitive like all people are. What I need to work on, and probably many others is understanding that they are trying to play the same game as everyone else but they were handed all different equipment and a rule book printed a bit differently.

It’s hard on both sides, but it’s something we can all work on.