Many of us spend our lives and energy looking to have the best experiences and own the best things. Many of us succeed. With the recent death of Robin Williams, a man who had access to anything most of us could dream of, perhaps we should consider our culture. As far as things have come, our culture does not accept mental illness as valid and often stigmatizes it. Even the phrase mental illness reminds me of being on the playground as a youth and hearing snide, scathing questions like are you mentally ill? This is the same group of kids who understood and tried to give a girl named Candy the best life someone with muscular dystrophy could have. Candy was in a wheelchair and that made us understand. She had a disability. Mental illness isnt always as obvious but it can be just as debilitating and deadly as physical illness. Not unlike physical challenges and disabilities, mental health has a full spectrum of challenges and disability. Some of us can get depressed more than others. Some of us have a constant internal desire to kill ourselves on an ongoing, day to day, minute by minute basis. The system of supports we have for physical health is not perfect, but at least there exists a culture of empathy, understanding and acceptance for those seeking help for physical ailments. With this culture, we can seek treatment and can recover. We are all responsible for the culture we live in and what we expose each other to. If there is one thing I hope we can learn from this recent tragedy, it is to never say the phrase mentally ill in a scathing tone. Nobody would ever say cancer with that tone today, though there was once a time when they would. People with physical illnesses have dignity and we owe people with mental health problems dignity too. RIP Robin Williams.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 02:27:13 +0000
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