You walk inside a room of five adults somewhere in the United States. Chances are, one of those five adults has a mental illness.You may never know which person, because it might be an outgoing social person, or it might be a down to earth hipster. Any person can have a mental illness. No one is a mental illness.
“Yes, my daughter is bipolar.”
I have a problem with this because your daughter is a nerd who loves to game. Your daughter loves to read and she loves to eat tacos. She is a very sweet and understanding person. She is not bipolar. She is so much more than that. Now, she is a human.
It can be very useful to be able to identify a mental illness, because one can address it and practice self help. It is useful to be informed on mental illness and it helps to feel as though one is not alone.
However, we are all human and as humans, we go through challenges and obstacles that are necessary to grow. My obstacle may be getting to the top of the mountain and yours may be making it to tomorrow.
I am not trying to belittle mental illness. I am simply trying to say that someone is not their struggle or their mistakes. Humans are very complex beings, and stamping one label on them and using that as a way to identify them as a whole, can do a whole lot of damage.
Mental illness is a real struggle and as a society, we should talk about it.
However, we should also be careful with the way in which we label.
