*enter rant*

I was thinking today about this. The worst part about having MI for me isn't living and dealing with the symptoms. It's the way the world sees me. I constantly feel like I'm being punished when I have done nothing wrong (I mean, obviously I've done some minor things wrong, I'm human after all) and I didn't choose to have a mental illness any more than anyone chose to have a physical illness. But anytime I point out the stereotypes and generalizations that are used against people with MI, even other sufferers have tried to justify it.

Someone once told me, "MI causes bizarre behavior". That's true, most of time one's illness is going to cause some sort of abnormal behavior. However, that behavior is going to be different for everyone, regardless of the diagnosis. It might even be harmless! But somehow we are de facto criminals. My room mate (who has schizophrenia) and I were watching the news the other day and an update about someone in our area who did something terrible (which I won't go into detail about) comes on. This person apparently had no known mental health history before his crime but now all of a sudden the defense is going on about his newly discovered MI. And making it well known to the public.

No one seems to be aware of the grave consequences of this. Because my room mate and I are just two people sitting at home, trying to live the normal lives we, just like any other human being, deserve. But now whenever said diagnosis comes up, people will automatically associate us with his brutal act. Even though some of them know us and know that it would be impossible for either of us to ever even consider doing anything of that sort.

The stigma isn't always that extreme, but nonetheless makes me feel like a second class citizen. For example, a friend of mine was once told that "people with MI shouldn't work in childcare." NOT "people who exhibit x type of behavior should not work in childcare." So the fact that I'm very good with babies and small children, am knowledgable in how to care for them, and love caring for them (one of the few jobs I can say I'd actually enjoy) is completely ignored in this judgment just because I have a mental illness.

Yes, I take meds. Yes, I've been hospitalized. Yes, I've heard voices in the past. Yes, I've overreacted emotionally and cried over stupid things. But instead of taking out a textbook or jumping to conclusions, why not actually have a conversation with me? Ask me about the circumstances, the details, or maybe just get to know me? But I honestly don't see this changing any time in the future. So long as people continue to generalize and justify the stereotypes and slap a MI label on every criminal out there without considering the effect it has on the rest of us who are just people trying to live our lives. You know, that man on the news sure has a lot of people defending his rights to this and that and even defending his horrific actions. It sure would be nice if someone would defend MY rights, the small (and some larger) things those without MI take for granted.

I was going to make a list of all the things I will never be allowed to do because of the blanket generalization of MI, but then I figured people would just give their reasons why they agree with those rules then there would be arguments. That is not the purpose of this thread.

*rant exits*