The Mental Illness Rights Movement [View all]
starts right here and right now.
I am dual diagnosis. I dislike guns and violence although I'll huff and puff to attempt to keep them away from me. I am not a danger to myself and others (although you'll certainly hear about it from me if you're a danger to others).
People more eloquent than myself, including mental health workers, have been posting here in regards to the tragedy in Newtown, on behalf of the mentally ill due to ill-considered and -conceived comments and suggestions regarding the "mentally ill" en mass or even "just the violent ones". A care worker posted that the paranoid schizophrenic is the only type who is violent (perhaps as a rule, I don't know). There are many, many "types" and degrees of mental illness, some of which come and go due to situations, some of which may be tamed or negated through medication, and some which incapacitate us to varying degrees. Most folks have no concept of the suffering and stigmatism which is involved even for the most mildly affected.
It's time everyone learned. If you feel so driven, please identify yourself and even share your story or even just a shout-out in support so that people may "get" that we are first and foremost, people. Another world is possible!
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