Mental Illness and the Stigma

                                                  Photo by Cherry Laithang on Unsplash

I have known many individuals over the years who silently dealt with their mental illness and hid it from the masses. The shame, the guilt, the stigma of being marked as weak, all of these come along with saying I battle a mental illness. We make people suffering feel weak, we make them feel shameful and we do not support and lift up the ones battling depression like we would say someone dealing with cancer. No it is not the same thing,but both are an illness.

Each person you see is battling something. It could be a teenage child to a parent with dementia. We do not going around saying we are dealing with anything because we do not want to have pity. We do not want to have people value us less for having an issue to deal with, but we all have them. We all hide who we truly are sometimes so that others do not judge us, attach stigma's to us or anything else.

We are a whole person dealing with a piece of ourselves ALONE!

Wouldn't it be better to help each other then place blame, shame, and guilt upon a person?

I recently wrote my first article for  Coffee House Writers  and it was on this subject. It was part fiction and part personal issue for me as I am very close with someone in this situation. Mental health is nothing to be ashamed of and I suggest we form a tribe of encouragement instead of guilt around people, for whatever reason, who need us!

Please give a read and share with the people you know who would need it. Thank you and remember if you or someone you know is suffering please get them or you help. There are support groups all over the united states and if nothing else get their tribe of friends to be there for them.

Your story teller/poet
Debbie
xoxo