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Date:
May 18, 2009
to May 27, 2009
Location:
School
Description
McCarus
Hello viewer, this page is about my view on the discrimination against those who have mental illnesses. I believe that to discriminate against those who have to live every day pretending to be the same as everyone else around them and having to try twice as hard as an illness-free person just to do what we take for granted is completely and utterly despicable!
These people who have illnesses, such as Schizophrenia or Cerebral Palsy, are told everyday that they are not up to par with “normal” people. They are stereotyped in the worst ways so people see them as these horrible things, not people like you and me who have feelings and emotions just the same. But finally we are trying to integrate those who want in on our society and all of its benefits.
People with mental illnesses are told, again and again, that what they need most is to be drugged up and live in an institution and leave society to itself and those that belong to it. These people have suffered hardships you and I can’t imagine, yet we push them down, degrade them, and treat them like invalids just because of medical terms defining them as too far gone, too different to fix, hopeless. Do we really expect that to be the cure? We tell them they’re worthless and all is fixed?
And also, there is no one stereotype for people with mental illnesses, as is usually the case. What some people don't understand is that even famous people like Sylvia Plath can be inflicted with mental illnesses; she ended up killing herself by sticking her head in the oven. Anyone can be the subject of a mental disease and just because they're having difficulties in their everyday life, do we have any room for harsh judgment? We all have our faults, we all have to struggle to make it through our daily lives, the only difference is what those struggles are and I believe we should not discriminate for those reasons alone.
We’ve really begun to push, finally, for equality through books that explain to us how we discriminate, what we should do to prevent it, and how to properly interact with these estranged souls. One of these books is Shunned by Graham Thornicroft. He tells about how society once isolated these people as freaks and how, even though we want to right our wrongs, forcing integration on them all is bad too. What we need to do is try to help those who want to come back to society’s warm grasp and leave those who actually wish for isolation to those who know how to help and care for them.
Also, we have tried to bridge the gap and connect with people, to get them to understand the reality, and to give scenarios to which they can relate with through short stories such as these two; Short stories: Understanding mental illness by Bradley Orsted and Matthew Pedro.
It's slow but our understanding of past mistakes is helping us learn that the discrimination we had towards these people is unjust and has to stop. The NAMI or National Alliance on Mental Illness agrees with my view because they believe that this discrimination is founded on old, close minded views from the past based little on facts and more on stereotypes formed unjustly against this group of individuals. Also our own State Mental Health Agency here in West Virginia thinks that discrimination against individuals who suffer from various mental illnesses should not be tolerated any longer and that we need to take steps in teaching people the truth about how mental illnesses affect these people and those around them, how to make sure you're not unjustly discriminating against them, and how to stop others from discriminating in the future.
Sources:
Schizophrenia- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia
Cerebral Palsy- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
Sylvia Plath- http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/sylvia_plath/poems/18900
Shunned by Graham Thornicroft- http://www.amazon.ca/Shunned-Discrimination-against-people-illness/dp/0198570988
Bradley Orsted- http://www.helium.com/items/744033-short-stories-understanding-mental-illness
Matthew Pedro- http://www.helium.com/items/983857-short-stories-understanding-mental-illness
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