I Despise People Who Mock Mental Illness

It is a tough thing for your brain chemistry to betray you. You do your best every day to keep it together but on the inside you are one step from totally breaking down. You want to feel happy but the moment that you do your brain starts to go into overdrive and you overthink yourself right out of the happiness. It feels like you are trying to breathe under water. You are gasping for breath but no matter how many breaths you take you can't seem to take in enough air to slow your racing heart. Your stomach is constantly in knots and that makes you not want to eat, because the thought of eating with your stomach like that is enough to make you want to throw up. As a result of your appetite being all kinds of messed up you lose weight. The weight loss makes you hate your body even more than you did before, which further continues to push you farther down into that pit of depression...until eventually you get to the place where you really just don't even want to get out of bed because even just the thought of doing that is enough to make you feel exhausted. That is what having a mental illness will do to you. So mental illness is not a laughing matter. It is not to be taken lightly. It is not to be joked about. My battle with mental illness almost cost me my life. But that's a story for another time.

Danez · M

As a father of a child with learning disabilities I couldn't agree more although not quite the same my child faces similar struggles as we try to help him feel he fits in the world just as much as anyone else has a right to. He cannot help how he is but he is trying very hard to do as well as his abilities allow him.

EmmyG1205 · 31-35, F

Absolutely, there is a stigma that comes with mental illness and there is a very similar stigma that goes along with learning disabilities.

Danez · M

@EmmyG1205: he has been bullied and made fun of for reasons he doesn't understand when all he wants is to have friends and join in. It's difficult to see him quietly hurting. If only others would put themselves in the shoes of those struggling with mental illnesses. You don't have to do much more than be considerate, understanding and a little kind.