Mental Illness

As I sit here tonight writing this post, my heart is still heavy.  Heavy with emotions of anger, frustration, and sadness.  This time it’s not because of my pain journey.  That’s nothing compared to what certain school families have had to endure this past week as well as over the last several years.  Losing a loved one at a school.  A place where it’s supposed to be safe.  Once again, I’ve found myself speechless.

I’m far from being political.  I don’t know a thing about guns.  I don’t know much about policy and laws that are in place in individual states.   When it comes to arguments, I’m like a Switzerland. I don’t take sides unless I’ve researched and know something about the topic or if I’ve had personal experience with it.  I do not believe I can argue or write about things I know nothing about.

Right now, my mind is confused, muddled.  I hate the bickering back and forth about what needs to be done or who or what causes these tragedies.  It’s exhausting.  I’m a realist, though. I realize something needs to be done.  I’m just not sure what that something is.  I do; however, believe the negative dialogue of mental illness is a huge issue in our society.  You see, mental illness is just as much an invisible illness as CRPS, fibromyalgia, arthritis, diabetes, chronic pain, etc.  It’s real.  You don’t choose it.  It chooses you.  It’s not picky.  It doesn’t discriminate.  Some only experience minor effects of this illness.  Others more severe.  Either way, it can alter one’s mind, mood, and behavior.

Mental illness shouldn’t be a negative thing.  Yet some talk about it as if only the mentally ill are capable of doing horrific things.  That’s just not true.  One can have a mental illness and live a perfectly normal, non-violent life.  Not everyone walking around in our society with a mental illness has that much anger and rage.  Honestly, we probably all know and love someone with some form of mental illness. There are a number of things that can cause a person to develop mental health issues.  Genetics, environment, a chronic illness, cancer, CRPS, or the loss of a loved one.  The list could go on and on.  As I mentioned before, it’s not prejudiced against anyone.

My point is, if we as a society continue giving mental illness such a negative connotation, we can’t expect change.  We have to talk about it.  We need to identify it so we can help people.  Like many other diseases, having a mental illness sucks. We must continue researching and discovering new treatments that work for all different types of people.  Until we believe it is socially acceptable to talk about it, we aren’t going to be able to move forward.  Having a mental illness is NOT a bad thing.  It’s treatable and one shouldn’t be ashamed to say they have been impacted by this type of illness.

Finally, I pray for all who are suffering from a mental illness.  I pray they know they aren’t alone and that they matter.  I pray for their families.  That they know how to get their loved ones help.  I pray for our society to change the narrative of mental illness and to speak of it like we would a broken arm or leg.  If we continue saying only “bad” people have mental illness, we are setting our society up for failure.  No one will want to talk about it, everyone will avoid those who have been labeled with it, and we will continue losing loved ones because of what this horrible illness can do.