Stamped with Mental Illness

It’s not something people often come out in the open with. In school it gives kids another reason to make fun of you, it doesn’t matter if you act strangely or not — the label is all it takes. The stigma that follows mental illness is many times much more harmful than the actual illness. Don’t let society decide how you should feel about your own mental health or anyone elses.

“Mental illness itself occurs from the interaction of multiple genes and other factors –such as stress, abuse, or a traumatic event — which can influence, or trigger, an illness in a person who has an inherited susceptibility to it.” – Web M.D. Worried about having kids? They may inherit a susceptibility to the mental illness but it’s really the environment and emotional factors that ensure having it. I’ve only been the child, never the parent. I know many mothers read this and it might be questionable whether I am child friendly due to the topics on this website. This website is not child friendly but when in the presence of children, I censor my discussions as anyone would.

I think it’s safe to assume that parenting is on of the hardest jobs on the earth. Having never been a parent but knowing many and seeing how their lives revolve around another human’s care, I cannot imagine the stress. It’s very easy to treat your children like they’re adults, to forget to censor. To assume they can do what you can do, understand what you can understand, hear what you can hear.. It’s naive. It creates trauma. I’ve met a lot of people who say negative things about others who obviously have some underlying issues, i.e. “She had great parents but she turned out to be a real asshole — selling drugs, breaking into houses.” In reality we have no idea what genes this person has inherited, if they’ve dealt with a traumatic experience in their life or really anything about their home life behind doors. Instead of assuming children will mature into what they will become no matter how great of a parent one may be, let’s assume they wont and prevent it. Things which appear like normal situations to adults can be very traumatic experiences for children.. experiences they remember into adulthood. I want the world to understand that everything matters, especially how you treat others. Especially how you treat others when their minds are developing.