The stigma pisses me off but I will never get tired of fighting against it. I may annoy some here at times, seeming "picky" in my responses about the way people toss around misconceptions about mental illness but I don't care- I really don't... I'm not going away and I'm not shutting up. Mental illness effects everyone in this society (Welfare, medicaid, social security, Medicare, addiction, suicide, taxes, schools, jails, etc) and if we hope to ever change that, our mid-set about mental illness must change or society is going to continue to get sicker.
My rhetorical question to the person who called me out on this in the first place (I don't recall the user-id) is what would you do if your child came to afraid and suicidal because he/she was hearing voices? Lock him/her up for the rest of his/her life or stand beside him/her and demand he/she gets the help he/she deserves in the least restrictive means possible so he/she could live a normal life? My guess is that your strong opinions regarding the mentally ill and what should become of them are already known by your child and he/she would probably simply not even come to you because he/she already knows how you would react.
It is very sad to see such a mind-set in this day and age. I have rapid cycling Bipolar disorder with mixed and psychotic episodes and was held in Psych wards against my will and drugged to oblivion. It was not then that I began to get well... it was when I met another woman with the same condition who also happened to be a successful practicing attorney. That was when I knew there was hope for me, I will remember her for the rest of my life! I speak up as my way of paying it forward, to tell all of you who are touched by mental illness that there is help, there is hope. Don't ever let anyone make you think otherwise!
I do realize that this is not the proper forum for this discussion so I won't continue to post about it here, turning this into the stigma of mental illness thread but I had to respond to that poster who questioned me to begin with.
Sorry JBean :blowkiss:
Very well said. Thank you one lost girl!