Please stop romanticizing mental illnesses and disabilities. I beg of you as a person who is diagnosed with a mental illness. I am asking you this, because you do not know how truly hard it is to struggle with your illness and disability. You are only adding to a stigma. You do not know what it is like to feel alone and ostracized. Growing up you realize that you are different than your peers, your behaviors and interests are not the same. You often feel that it is hard to communicate with kids you want to make your friends. In the classroom you have a hard time writing your name as you watch all the other kids in your class write notes to one another.
Growing up you realize that you do not have control over your thoughts, words and actions. Words resonate with you and play on a loop in your head. You wish you were as resilient as your peers. Sticks and stones may break your bones, but names will haunt you forever.
As a girl suffering from depression: please do not tell me that you are depressed because you had a bad day. I would kindly take your bad day over the fact that I cannot pick myself up out of bed to go about my day to day life. Please do not tell me you are depressed because one thing set you off, because if I let one bad thought enter my mind, I am stuck there for days, a one way ticket, no return.
From a boy suffering from ADHD: please do no tell me that you have ADHD because you are not as immersed in your school work as you would like to be. I cannot concentrate on subjects like history, which I used to adore in middle school. I now have so many thoughts swirling my head when it comes down to a time where I should sit and do homework. Teachers have labeled me as a child who just does not care about school. Its not that I do not care, it is that I cannot regulate my thoughts. I have lost my autonomy.
From a girl suffering with bi-polar disorder. Please do not tell me that you have bi-polar disorder because you are moody and do not know why. You do not know what it is like to say one thing and mean another. To lash out on your friends for no reason at all, and for them to question your friendship. You have no idea how it feels to never feel perfectly balanced, but rather on a tipping scale.
From a boy suffering from dyslexia: please do not say that you have dyslexia because you are having a hard time spelling a word. When I was in elementary school I was consistently teased and tormented over the fact that I had trouble spelling my own name. I had to constantly be puled out on my recess and free time to work with a specialized. I missed out on making friends, because all they ever saw was the things I could not do, they did not know that I was brilliant at math.
Mental illnesses and learning disabilities are not beautiful, they do not make you mysterious, they are not to be glorified. Mental illnesses and learning disabilities cast a shadow that will follow you for years to come.
