It's probably pretty obvious that I have mental health problems, and I use the plural because it would be wrong to place all my idiosyncrasies under one label. Here's my thing, why are people so freaked out when you tell them that you have mental illness. Sure it might be freaky if I told them everything, I'm an obsessive compulsive perfectionist with debilitating anxiety that also manifests it self in chronic depression that can go psychotic, and oh ya I'm also dyslexic too.(Do you think I can really can call my self dyslexic and be able to spell lysdexia?..We'll let the courts decide that.) Needless to say I'm highly medicated and happy about it. I'm betting that saying all of that didn't help to ease peoples piece of mind about me. Anyways, here's my beef about people's perception of mentally ill people, psychotic doesn't mean violent or dangerous it means reality challenged, okay. (Once again I'm going to bitch at the media, with all it's over sensationalizing of sociopaths.) Serial killers are always on the news, and in every second movie, even though there really isn't that many of them and they don't do most of the homicides. In fact they are the smallest of percentage of murders. (I'd give you a statistic, but who really gives a rats ass at the end of the day.) {Oh ya, did I say that I really like brackets, braces and parentheses} Ya, so here comes Hollywood with another cookie cutter, brain dead movie about how a paranoid schizophrenic has made a plan to terrorize the public with an elaborate overly complicated ironically detailed "plan"... Really?? Okay, have you ever tried to make a "paranoid schizophrenic" make their bed or take a shower??? It's an all day endeavour. If people really knew the reality of mentally ill people they would know that most of them are scared to leave their houses and have a pretty hard time planning how to get dressed in the morning.... Okay, I'm going off in one of my notorious tangents, but I have to say this while it's still in my medicated brain. I hate, and I mean I really hate, when people use the excuse of having a mental break down to do things like: rape their kids; or murder their spouse..Oh that pisses me off, when, really, a person who has a mental break down usually is found in a ball whimpering in a corner or curled up in their bed licking their elderly pet cat while covered in tinfoil. People who rape and murder may not be right in the head, but they have planned their crimes and do not want to be caught. Should the be called mentally ill? I say no. They should be called what they are, murders and rapists and treated that way. Calling them mentally ill is like calling a gun a dangerous preschool toy. Mental illness should have the same respect as diabetes( which if untreated shows symptoms of psychosis and intoxication) or epilepsy( which comes on without warning and freaks people out who don't understand the disease). Honestly where I am I going with this? I reality is I don't know, but that is one of the bonuses of being labelled mentally ill, you don't have to explain all your rants. So please don't judge someone because they are "mentally ill" judge them if they are an asshole. Some of the most famous people of all time were mentally ill, take for example Joan of Arch (She decided at the age of 14 she should lead the French army to defeat the English, ya that sounds like a "loving" god would want), etc. etc.
Have you ever wonder why Old JC hasn't come back to judge the living and the dead? Probably because if he told people that he was sent by god ( who is also him? don't get me started with this) to do his bidding he would be put on some serious anti-psychotics and made to wear pajamas all day and use finger painting to express is inner child.
This doesn't even make any sense to me right now and I'm writing this, but it a rant and you chose to read it and nobody was forcing you... I hope??
( Just as a side note to all you Christians out there, Jesus probably doesn't want to see another frecken crucifix for the rest of existence. He probably thinking, "why can't they remember when I made more booze after four days of partying?" Maybe, we should be wearing wine bottles around our neck rather than crosses)
I'm done with this rant, and I think I need a PRN...
Okay the main reason your mental illness scares people is because you don't break up your rants with white space. What's white space? it's little breaks in your paragraphs that make it easier to read. You should try it. Just write your big long rant then go back and hit return every now and then. Also purple and gray is hard on the eyes. Change the freaking font!
ReplyDeleteThanks m,your words of wisdom will turn my shitty grammar and overall crappy writing skills into rants the whole family can enjoy...
ReplyDeleteYou are a master ranter. (in my opinion, rants are just that rants and don't require proper punctuation...you go with it) I agree completely with your perception vs. reality of true mental illness. There's mental illess, mental disease and just plain sick minded. I believe you will break the perception mold my dear!
ReplyDeletePS...love the jesus comment...
Love this. Love it. you are right. totally.
ReplyDeletesomething that really bugs me is the stereotype that comes with term "mental illness". If I were to say that a patient I work with is: "mentally ill"- some people would be offended, just by the TERM! that's not ok. I think that people need to understand what that means, how can we help, if we're not even allowed to TALK about it... would someone be offended if I said they had diabetes, or MS? Illness is illness, and being sick sucks- but there should be NO shame in it. people should be ashamed if they act like assholes and hurt people and then blame their illness for it- that's not cool- and that's a piece of what gives mental illness the nasty stereotype.
People need to talk about this more. I think that people need to share their stories, I think that if people are having challenges with their perceptions of reality- that people need to know that, so they can perhaps help, or support that person. srsly. talk people.
you makin me rant now! I'm gettin all up in the caps lock...
PS- I heard that you like rainbows.
I don't just like rainbows I love them...and if that concerns people they really need to understand that I don't believe in labels or boundaries.
ReplyDelete