I honestly didn’t plan this – launching my blog about feeling crazy on mental illness awareness week. I really don’t know much about mainstream support/advocacy for mental illness. Most of my experience has been personal – primarily friends who have struggled with “mental health issues.”
Hey, so I’d like to do a shout out to them for this week:
Love you!! Hopefully you won’t have to be more aware of being labeled mentally ill for a whole week.
One lovely woman I know went seeking to be diagnosed a couple of years ago. Over a four week period she went to several psychiatrists in a major Canadian city and each one provided a different diagnosis/label AND a different prescription. To me, that says it all.
It’s not that I don’t recognize the purpose labels have, where they fit into policy that protects people with “mental illness” from discrimination and how they contribute to organzing pharmaceutical and complimentary treatment – and even how people who get a label can feel relief to have a name for what is happening to them.
There’s a lot about the system that does work, sorta.
So today I’ll leave it there because, hey, it’s Mental Illness Awareness Week and I don’t want to start off on a total bummer note. Instead, another shout out:
Here’s to all the people who work hard supporting and treating those with mental health imbalances and do so with respect and compassion. YOU SO ROCK.
