Just because a person needs extra assistance in order to cope with life people or stress, does not mean that they are not “normal”… Even if a person needs temporary hospitalisation, they should still not be defined as being “not normal” or “crazy”.
What is “normal” anyhow…?
If you show signs of symptoms of any mental or personality instability at all that can be defined as “abnormal” for your life circumstance, then you are looked at with stigma and judgement. I have personally been told several times by non-professionals phrases and theories regarding the length of time grief, stress and sadness that was normal according to my life situations.
What does all this mean? It appears in a general sense that society reacts and judges people according to exactly how they talk, walk and react to their life situations and to other people they interact with. If you are seen to act differently then everyone else in society, you are considered “abnormal”.
If you are unlucky enough to have the right emotional and behavioural symptoms for long enough, you might actually be “diagnosed” with a Mental Illness.
God forbid that should happen to anyone…!
Well, it does!
While it’s certainly fortunate for the sufferer that their problem can be diagnosed so they can get the help they need to manage it. It’s the worst thing that can happen to a person socially. Some sufferer’s decide that it’s a relief and they feel they want to let everyone know that there’s a perfectly normal explanation for their behaviour. Only to find that no one else agrees with the theory that the diagnoses therefore the reason for their problems is good or normal…
Letting people know that you are diagnosed with a Mental Illness may feel like you’re reaching out to more people for emotional support. You may feel a sense of relief, until you are hit with the proverbial brick wall of misconception and miscommunication… As soon as you inform anyone that you are diagnosed with a Mental Illness, unless they are themselves a sufferer, they will pretty much shut you out.
There is only a small margin of non-suffering people out there who will genuinely be happy to help people suffering from Mental Illness without being judgemental.
What we need to do is find the small percentage of people that are willing to give us a go at whatever we want to accomplish and not let go! That includes people to help us with anything we are unable to get done on our own, no matter what the reason! If you ask someone for help and they let you know they would only be interested in helping you according to their own judgement what’s the use of asking?
If people only help each other as long only if the requests are not connected to any reason related to emotional weakness or mental illness or symptoms, what will happen to the few of us that are diagnosed?
Are we supposed to just simply disappear or just all stay in the one place so that no “normal” people need to deal with us? I’m still trying to figure out or learn how famous and successful people with mental illnesses become so good at fooling other people into believing in them. How do successful people with mental illness, become successful??
It’s hard finding something to do to earn an income if you’re having trouble finding anything you’re actually good at doing…
If you have a hard time communicating, concentrating, prioritising and delegating, how can you possibly keep a normal stable job working for other people?
This inevitably leads me to a few of my favourite topics. How should we deal with people that react negatively to our diagnosis? How can we find help and support for ourselves if people we know refuse to accept or believe our diagnosis?
If you stick around, I will add my input and research on these topics and a lot more…!
Crafting for Bipolar Aus 