The Stigma

Just last night, I was visiting with a friend about the stigma of mental illness. She is a teacher and teaches the "emotionally distubed cluster" at a junior high school. We talked about how different their illness is than other illness, because it can't be seen with our eyes. They are labeled "emotionally disturbed" and that, alone, makes them very vulnerable. If they had "pneumonia" or a "broken bone" or "cancer" then people would be very sympathetic, but because it is a behavioral or emotional illness, they are isolated and treated as outcasts.

I just read an article about athletes who suffer from depression. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/jon_wertheim/09/21/depression/index.html?xid=cnnbin&hpt=Sbin

It is very powerful. It really illustrates the fact that people with mental illness are not treated the same as someone with a physical illness. I can assure you, from experience, that people with mental illness are normal people, who are struggling. They are people who have parts of their brain that don't work properly for all sorts of reasons.

I hope that all of us will withhold judgement and will be just as sympathetic to those with emotional illnesses as we are to those with physical limitations or illnesses.