All too often, more and more, you see people making comments making fun of “worriers, downers, OCD, bipolar, nuts”.
It’s mental illness shaming. You can’t support making mental health awareness when we have made having mental illness shameful. Just like when someone is called stupid, “That’s gay”, etc. We continue to desensitize things not realizing that no, these aren’t just words, they’re hurtful.
We can’t teach our children to not be bullies when we ourselves shame those different than ourselves. 1 in 5 Americans suffer from mental illness. It could be your mother, your sister, your brother, a child, a friend. When these individuals face the above scrutiny from those around them, it makes it even harder to take the steps to find the help they need. Mental illness increase the risk of getting ill from other diseases such as HIV, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and vice-versa.
STOP SHAMING OTHERS. We are our own worst enemies.
We all need to think about our words, our actions.
