Blatant discrimination can anger you. You can find watching movies or reading books that are heavy into prejudices on race, sex, sexual preference, so on and so forth to be maddening. It’s been said that discrimination is based on fear – you’re actually afraid of what you cannot understand. It also seems to be based on a heavy dose of ignorance — you don’t understand and you choose not to.

“Prejudice, not being founded on reason, cannot be removed by argument.”

—Samuel Johnson (English Poet, Critic & Writer. 1709-1784)

What happens then when you’re the one being discriminated against? Not just by some random stranger or a group of idiots, but by someone you considered a dear friend for many years? What people fail to realize a lot of the time, even one living with the disorder, is that you cannot blanket it with the title of being mentally ill. How we label mental health is how it becomes so stigmatized. You’re only mentally ill when you’re ill by the disorder — you go off treatment or when the treatment starts working less for you and you fail to notify the proper people who help you manage it. Being on the treatment that works for you brings mental stability and mental wellbeing. You cannot call yourself or let others call you mentally ill. In my book, the mentally ill are ones that are untreatable. The ones who sadly have to live an institutionalized lifestyle. The ones you cannot bring back to reality. The ones who cannot be cared for outside of a controlled environment.

I’m fine, but I’m bipolar. I’m on seven medications, and I  take medication three times a day. This constantly puts me in touch with the  illness I have. I’m never quite allowed to be free of that for a day. It’s like  being a diabetic.

— Carrie Fisher

 

The nature of the beast. You’re Bipolar, you have to know that you’re going to face discrimination. OK fine, let’s all just get complacent. You’re black, you should just accept a lot of whites will discriminate against you. You’re mexican, get ready to be discriminated against by the blacks. You’re gay, well that’s the lifestyle you chose and you decided to come out of the closet so you should be prepared for the bullying and crude comments; and don’t think your own family won’t participate in that. You’re a woman, be prepared to get your ass smacked. And dare you come out after dark and you are alone, silly you for thinking you could be safe walking to your car. What were you wearing when this supposed incident took place? A miniskirt and some fishnets, you were totally asking for it.

I was told by a friend yesterday that the falling out I had with a mutual friend last year was due to the fact that I have Bipolar disorder and she doesn’t want me around her child. It doesn’t help that the person I had a falling out with was a consistent friend and this mutual friend of ours happens to be more flighty. It also doesn’t help that when I have a falling out that is that negative, unbeknownst to me until yesterday, that I am friends with a friend of theirs. I don’t like the feeling. Especially when Miss Flighty talks a decent amount of smack about Miss Fallout to me. Need I not have to inform you that I don’t bring up Miss Fallout with Miss Flighty because it’s called respect and I don’t want to make Miss Flighty feel uncomfortable about being friends with Miss Fallout and me. Miss Flighty didn’t start hanging out or coming around until Miss Fallout recently (in the last few months) became less available due to a newish relationship.

I don’t trust Miss Flighty. I trust she is being truthful, I don’t trust her loyalties. This stems from the fact that she was the best friend I was with when the Incident happened. Yes, we were 14, but she never backed my story. When we saw one another the following fall when we first started high school, she was cold and just a few weeks ago when we were talking about seeing each other again she told me how this other girl would talk shit about me to Miss Flighty. Why would you feel the need to now tell me that some chick didn’t like me and would talk shit to you about me? Do you think I am ignorant to the fact that if she chose you and you liked her, you weren’t talking shit also?

So I guess it’s don’t shoot the messenger, but what are the messenger’s intentions? After high school she didn’t contact me again until Ivan tried to rape her.

I’m shutting down. I’ll maintain my friendship with her, but only by the way she maintains hers with me. Hang out because you need a friend until you find different ones.

 

 

Related articles

• How Psychology, Psychiatry Discriminate Against People with Mental Illness (psychcentral.com)
• Bipolar Disorder Debate: Myths of Mental Illness (psychologytoday.com)
• That Fork in the Road (combatbabe.com)
• It’s time to tackle mental health stigma in our classrooms (schoolsimprovement.net)
• Who is perpetuating the stigma? (onbeingmindful.wordpress.com)
• Mental illness at work: the last taboo (telegraph.co.uk)
• Mental Health community warns against Newtown stigma (timesunion.com)