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Mental illness...Lets help put a stop to the Stigma |
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by cookclan  (January 2007) (rank 7th) |
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This is something I really wanted to write about as Mental illness touches our lives in more ways than one....... My son has Bipolar disorder......and my foster sister has borderline personality disorder...... Did you know mental illness of some form affects alot of people?......The SANE website says:
- that
about 1 in every 100 people will develop schizophrenia
- 2 in every 100 develop bi polar disorder
- about 25 in every 100 will experience some sort of mental health issue
Those are pretty big odds right.....A quarter of people will be affected by a mental health issue...... even more will have contact with some who has had or does have......So why is there such a stigma in this day and age?
Here is a little I have come in contact with....... My son has lost quite a few friends because their parents feel that he is going to lead them down the garden path I suppose.....that he is dangerous to their children in some way or another because he has a mental illness....... I also tried to enrol him in a non conforming school...... He had left school as he did not really fit into a normal school situation...... their reasoning behind not enrolling him in a flexi school was that they did not have the ability to cope with mental illness children......Well thats why I tried there because it was more flexible than a normal school......He is a great kid on his meds and you would not even know he has bipolar........so now my son with an IQ of 145 is out of school.....because he does not fit into mould of the normal child......He has a mental illness..... He applied for a job and told them he had a mental illness......he did not get that job so he had to hide his illness for his next interview.....and the list can go on.......
Mental illness is something that will probably touch eveyones lives at one time or another and something that alot of families live with in silence for fear of judgement.........
This is what I would like to see......I think that parents should teach their children about mental illness..... Give them the information they need to know it exists and to not be afraid of people with it..... We are doing that with our children now..... I never really thought about it before my foster sister was diagnosed...... But then we had to and I thought to myself why have I not told my kids about this before.......
I am not saying you have to teach your kids all about mental illnesses and all the different ones they can come across etc..... What I am saying is teach them to accept people with a mental illness as you do when you teach them about accepting the little bot in their class with glasses or the little girl with the cleft palette......
The stigma associated with Mental illness needs to be stopped and I think it can start with us as parents teaching our kids to accept one more thing about life and what is out there............
Just my thoughts about something that is very close to us.....thanks for taking the time to read this.............
People with a mental illness have enough trouble with day to day life without also having to deal with the stigma attached to it.
Have a great day
Cheers
Angie
