Mental illness is always an elephant in the room. No one ever wants to address it, not even the person with the illness! The fact of the matter is, mental illness is just as serious as any other illness yet it is treated like something a person can “snap out of." It’s not just someone being “sad” or acting “erratic."

It’s a real illness that puts people’s lives at risk, sometimes needs to be regulated with medication, and puts a tremendous amount of suffering on the person who is dealing with it. After learning all of this, how can mental illness still be stigmatized?

Well, for starters, most people who aren’t mentally ill don’t actually know all the facts about it. I’m speaking from my own experience when I admit that I have witnessed the stigma firsthand, whether people realize they are participating in it or not. In fact, I’ve even participated in the stigma without even meaning to.

Whenever I’m in New York City and I see a person talking to themselves, I immediately get worried and avoid eye contact. I absolutely do this without even thinking even if the person is completely harmless.

Why?

Because society has painted mentally ill people out to be dangerous and to have your guard up around them at all times. It’s just common knowledge that news broadcasters always deem mass shooters as “mentally deranged killers” thus giving them the universal title of an irrational psychopath.

Of course, I’m not at all saying that any criminal act is justified, but I can’t help but wonder that if these troubled people had the opportunity to receive help for their illness, would these incidents have happened? It’s hard to tell, especially because those in bad living conditions can’t even recognize if they have an illness, nor do they usually have people to guide them towards seeking professional help. If you put yourself in their shoes you probably wouldn’t know what to do with yourself either, but it unfortunately often ends in either self-harm or harm to others.

I am so lucky to have people around me that care enough to force me into getting the help that I needed. Who knows where I would be now if they didn’t? However, still to this day, I have an extremely hard time talking about my struggles with mental illness even with people who are mentally ill themselves.

I’ve determined that I have this problem because I don’t want people to see me as a different person, nor to see me as a weak person. Then I think, why does it matter what people think of me? Why should people see me this way because of something that is completely out of my control? Mental illness does not make a person weak, in fact, it makes them strong for having to deal with all of the bullshit that both mental illness AND society puts them through.

I know most people won’t leave this stream of consciousness of mine with a transformed point of view, but I am asking you to at least consider viewing mental illness with more attentiveness and less criticism than you did before. The only way society can end the stigma is if we, the people, are willing to change the way we think.