I read something yesterday that made me contemplate mental illness. That’s how I started this blog. I wanted to write about how faith helped me deal with my OCD and anxiety. Lately, every time I see a mass shooting event, the people who want to protect gun rights immediately say that it isn’t an issue about guns instead it is a mental health issue.
People who have mental health disorders have been dealing with negative stereotypes as long as mental health disorders have been recognized as a medical condition. The worst part is that those negative stereotypes still exist even in today’s modern world. Just look at how politicians jump on the band wagon every time there’s a mass shooting.
I know that having a mental disorder doesn’t make me less than anyone else. It doesn’t mean that there is anything wrong with me. It is simply a medical condition. People don’t treat other medical conditions this way. Can you imagine what it would be like if every time there was a mass shooting, the politicians blamed it on the Corona virus? What would it be like if everyone treated cancer patients like second class citizens? For a while people tried to do that with AIDS patients, but that has mostly changed. Yet, when it comes to mental illness, most people think it is a joke. Go on the internet and you can find all kinds of jokes about what OCD really stands for. You would never find jokes like that about medical conditions like ALS, AIDS, and COPD.
The attitudes that existed over a hundred years ago have barely changed. No wonder why the people who suffer the most from mental illness are often the ones who slip through the cracks and don’t get the help that they need.
Even someone like me, who doesn’t have a severe mental disorder, didn’t get the proper help for a really long time. No one knew how to ask the right questions. No one saw my pain. I often told people I wished that I could have a broken leg or arm because at least then my condition would be visible and obvious. It would be easier to diagnose and treat.
I can’t change the whole attitude of society. I wish I could. The only thing I can do is set an example and hope that it will make a difference in some people’s lives. Mental illness is an illness. It is a disorder just like my having migraine headaches. I am not less than anyone else for having OCD or anxiety. There’s nothing wrong with me because I have these disorders. God’s grace tells me that He made me this way and He created me perfectly according to His plan. God doesn’t make mistakes. I don’t care what anyone thinks about me because I know me, and God knows me. I am exactly who God wants me to be and that will always be good enough.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
