Using Technology to Break Taboos

Whenever I write articles with a disclosure about my mental health issues, I always receive two types of response; firstly, people will commend me for being ‘brave’ and then there will be a couple of people who ‘come out’ to me about their mental illness. I use the colloquialism carefully because there’s always a somewhat apologetic ‘confession’ where mental illness is concerned.  And a sense of fear that our relationship will now be forever tarnished because it isn’t ‘normal’.  Even though these reactions are ‘usual’, it still surprises me to be thought of as being courageous to say, ‘I have an anxiety disorder and I have had periods of clinical depression that have required pharmacotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy’. On reflection, however, I realize that it is usually accompanied by the phrase, ‘I’m sorry…’ and increasingly, I am making this statement in defence because I’ve been attacked. Which begs the question - when did it become acceptable to use someone’s illness as a beating stick? This is discrimination. We don’t attack someone with a chronic condition such as diabetes or cancer when their illness incapacitates them … we step closer and offer to help. However, when someone says ‘I have a mental illness’ … we edge that little bit further away. I’ve seen people hug their children closer. I’ve done this myself. Here’s the taboo; we treat mental illness as though it is an infectious disease or one which ...
Source: EyeForPharma - Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Source Type: news