Video: I Don ’ t Have to Apologize; I ’ m Mentally Ill!

Transcript For “No Apology, I’m Mentally Ill” Video Q: Why do I have to apologize for things that I did when I was really symptomatic? I was sick, it’s not my fault! People bring this up to me a lot. For some reason they think if you have a symptom of an illness, that you have, I don’t know, immunity. I kind of look at it like this: if you’re driving your car and you pass out because of low blood sugar, and you ram into the back of somebody else’s car, the explanation for why you did that isn’t because you’re a bad person or even a bad driver. It’s because you were sick and that’s why you rammed the back of their car. But see here’s the thing — you still have to fix their car! Living with mental illness is a bit like that. You know when I was first diagnosed I was like, “Oh, I have depression!” Or, “I have mania and that outburst was because I was sick and it’s not my fault!” It’s true it wasn’t my fault; it was a symptom of bipolar disorder. But then I learned that it wasn’t their fault either. I think lots of people don’t want to apologize because they think that it’s not their fault, or they think that by apologizing it will somehow retroactively become their fault. The truth of the matter is that something happened. Something happened that has left you feeling bad and has left somebody else feeling bad. Somebody has to move the scale on that. I...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: General Peer Support Relationships Self-Help Stigma Video acceptance Apology Bipolar Disorder Blame destigmatization Mental Illness Responsibility Self-Esteem Shame trust Source Type: blogs