the even more awkward dance of mental health

***Man, I keep getting distracted. So I'll just put it here.

Society deals with mental illness by either trying to appropriate it completely--that is, finding it where it really isn't--or by completely alienating it--that is, sticking people who have it into their own little bubble. This is awkward, and we need to find a middle ground.



For starters, America is definitely ahead of the curve in mental disorder awareness. If you ever ride public transportation, you'll see signs for depression and manic depressive and a few other things, and oh how Americans love to treat their diseases.

Got public speaking anxiety? There's a pill for that, and an eagerly awaiting therapist, too. Or for any form of anxiety, or if you have occasional trouble sleeping at night (fuck you if "occasional" is the only kind of insomnia you get, and you're still bitching about it), or if sometimes you feel sad, or if in general things are not how you want them to be and maybe you're a little confused.

With the most trivial of woes now Rx-worthy, I suppose it's not entirely surprising that Americans completely freak out when they meet someone with, y'know, an actual serious disorder.

Granted, there's a certain level of apology that should be emanating from the people whose progenitors espoused years of stigma, isolation, and all sorts of exacerbations on the poor bastards who were just as intelligent as everyone else, albeit unable to express it.

But methinks you doth take it too far nowadays.

Yeah we all step carefully, don't want to offend and all that, but there is no reason to lower the expectation bar to zero for people with a disorder that they are dealing with gracefully. That sentence was a disaster, so: you know how no one wants to be put on a giant fuckin' pedestal? That should cover everyone. Concessions, yeah--putting an autistic kid in a discussion group would be nothing short of incredibly bitchy--but the hero worship is kind of strange, especially since so many people go undiagnosed, too. (I mean, if you're out in the projects or something, you're not actually getting the medical attention you need half the time--and those people have a harder time of it than a rich kid with manic depressive in the 'burbs, generally speaking.)

So the point to all this?

People with mental disorders are people too, and quite frankly the reverse is not always true! Yeah, shit goes wrong, but for the love of some god do not automatically assume that you have a disorder, it's rude.

Also, stop and think before dosing.


Also, how about the huge disparity of people on Medicaid getting way more drugs than people without.


P.S. For people who want to know what I am referring to. One: a whole lot of blogs whose taglines are like, 'living with ADD blah blah blah'--so identification as a person with a disorder being primary--the backs of books, which somehow I have not stopped reading yet, and also all sorts of Internet-grade comments on news articles, whatever.