People who have mental disorders and disabilities have always been dehumanized in one way or another. There are so many people who, because they don't have the same conditions, don't understand what it's like to have them and don't even think of the people with these disorders as human beings.
What people need to understand is that these people with mental disorders and disabilities, like anxiety or severe depression, are still just people. They are going through every day dealing with it and trying to function even though their disorders make it difficult. Some days, they can't even get out of bed. This doesn't make them any less than human than the rest of us. Their disorders aren't the only important thing about them and it's not their entire personality.
Sometimes, they can't function as well as other people can in everyday life, but at the end of the day, they are still themselves. For example, some people might not be able to make an important phone call without having a major anxiety attack. It definitely makes their life more difficult, but although they may not be able to complete some everyday tasks or they need more emotional support than some other people, it does not mean that they are not successful in other parts of life. Someone can have severe depression or have a bipolar disorder, but they are not the disorder itself.
I'm tired of hearing people refer to someone as "that depressed emo girl","that bipolar guy" or "that autistic person". It infers that they have no other qualities besides what they are describing, and along with that it's disgustingly rude and insulting towards them. They aren't talked about in the same way that people who don't deal with these things are. They're spoken about as if they are incapable of having other personality traits. That "depressed emo girl", the "bipolar guy", and whoever else with a disorder could be kind, caring, have strong talents and are their own individual. It undermines their individuality when they are only thought of as the mental illness they have.
People with mental disorders and disabilities are sometimes treated as if they are an annoying non-player character in a video game. They are often ignored and their problems tend to be dismissed. If they can't or don't want to do something, they are often told to just "get over it". They are typically dehumanized in general. People need to get rid of their stigma against mental illness and start looking at them as living people, not just their disorders. Part of the stigma comes from lack of knowledge about mental illness, which means that we need to educate ourselves about it more to get rid of that stigma.
