Like I wrote before in here I was attacked for speaking out in the Yahoo Health news article.
Elsewhere in the blog over the years I’ve written that the stigma carries no weight with me. In one online news article, I stated that I don’t experience stigma in my everyday life.
I’ve advocated in the blogs for taking action if you’re denied housing or a job or other things you’re entitled to. This is fighting against bigotry, prejudice, and discrimination like DJ Jaffe tells us to do.
My contention is that more people diagnosed with mental illnesses need to tell their stories and come forward to dispel the myths about people living with these brain disorders.
Silence truly equals shame.
Say what you want about her, Caitlyn Jenner’s story has made headline news. Why can’t a person with schizophrenia be given the same status in the world as a brave person who lives their life and has struggled against great odds to be happy in their skin?
DJ Jaffe is right: it’s time to stop internalizing stigma. It’s time to fight for our rights to have a normal life in society alongside others who do not have mental illnesses.
We do not have to accept subpar treatment from providers or anyone else. We do not have to buy into the myth that there’s nothing great we can do with our lives.
It’s our choice:
We’re free to sing our own song. We’re free to be happy even though we have a diagnosis.
We’re free to choose the kind of life we want to live.
The true reality that no one talks about is that most Americans in society tend to compete with each other and be jealous of successful people. They stand in judgment of others to get us to tow the line so we don’t make waves or threaten their insecurities about what they can do.
Seeing America as an apple pie or a kind of pie with limited slices to go around to everyone is what’s wrong in our fair country. When a person with a mental illness tries to claim our piece of the pie that’s when others in society institute actions to deny us our slices.
Anything that threatens their power–and threatens to take away their slice of the pie–is robustly squelched.
That’s OK: I advocate that individuals diagnosed with mental illness bake their own cakes because we CAN be successful living our lives with schizophrenia bipolar or another mental illness. We have this power to live our lives.
I’m the first person to state this now as clearly and directly as I have.
I don’t have a Harvard degree. I’m a humble librarian who got to be successful when she realized that the secret to success is helping others, and in helping others look good.
Make mine a Boston cream. I’ll share it, because there’s more than enough to go around.
Left of the Dial 