Mental Illness

These past two weeks we have been concentrating on mental illness and its affect on how a person lives. In our performance driven society, it can be hard to understand why a person can’t seem to muster up enough strength to just succeed. It can be easy for people to look down on those who have to take days off work or can’t make it to every social function. We automatically think it’s because they aren’t working hard enough or they just weren’t born with the brain power to succeed. This is so twisted. Mental illness is real, and it has a real impact on how a person can function in all environments.

I have heard so many times people talking about someone with a mental illness in a negative way, as if the person can just “snap out of it.” I think the pressures we put on people as a society makes it difficult for individuals with mental illnesses to cope with this difference.

There’s no wonder people want to commit suicide because our society offers no grace. I would love to be able to advocate for people with mental illness. I have a heart for people dealing with depression/anxiety and eating disorders. People relieve grace for physical illness, why can we not give them grace for mental illness as well? I would love to see a change in perspective in how people see mental illness. People with mental illness need to get medication, proper care, and services just as the physically ill do.

Written by Lizzie Arington
<aringter@miamioh.edu>