Quote:
Originally Posted by bpcyclist
I am so sorry you are lonely, Beth. I am, too. I reached out to a "friend" to tell him my phone was hacked and not to open anything from me and he texted back and asked me to dinner, which was quite sweet. I haven't been out to eat in a year. With this upcoming dinner, I will have seen a total of 2 friends in the past 12 months. Enough about me!!!!!
My point is not about me. My point is about us!! So many of us forced to live this way, abandoned and excommunicated for the crime of getting sick. It's shameful. Shameful. What if we did that to all the cardiac patients who smoked too much and didn't exercise? Or the diabetics who really struggle with weight issues? People would rightly be outraged.
Some day, smart people will look back on all this and be ashamed of what we did to all of us. Really wish we all could be there for that.
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The stigma of mental illness in Western culture is appalling. Anyone would be so considered soulless if they told a cancer patient to just "get over it." No one tells a person with a broken leg to "just shake it off, it's all in your leg." Yet we get told that something is all in our head. It isn't like this in all cultures. In some, especially those considered by arrogant Westerners as "primitive," it's considered a normal variant. those who hear voices from an early age or experience great physical and mental hardship from an early age are considered shamans, and are valued members of a community. They aren't treated as if they're sick, and they're taught to accept the voices as guides, or their suffering as a connection to something greater than common experience.