Support goes deeper than an occasional text, call, or visit. Support for someone who fights mental illness is more like running a triathlon. You don’t just decide one day you are going sign up and for a triathlon for the first time that is a week away. Oh! I suppose you could but I do not think you would get very far before your body would begin to protest. After the protest began, it would start screaming at you and begin to fight back. You would end up collapsing and calling it quits. No, indeed not the wisest choice. The best option would be setting a goal for one in the future where you would have the appropriate time to prepare and train for the grueling task you will be putting your body under. You train for what seems like years and put your body through pain and strain. When you’re ready the real work has only just begun. Next comes the real work. The true test of what you’ve been doing up to this point. You made a commitment and you intend to follow through with it.
Yep, support is very much like that. It’s not for the one who decided to sign up at the last minute. It’s for the one who decided well in advance they were going to commit to staying the course no matter what it took them through in order to achieve. It’s not easy to be a person who stands with mental ill people and carry them. Sometimes it’s hard to know what to do or say. But it’s the consistency that will make all the difference. It’s not easy for someone who is ready to end their life when they have people who care and won’t allow themselves to be pushed away. That’s why it’s so important to not just say you will be there for them but you also show it by, for a lack of better terminology, being pushy and annoying sometimes. They will hate it but I’m here to tell you it’s the ONLY reason I’m alive today!
It’s so very important that we crack the stigma on mental illness WIDE open. Only when it’s openly discussed and the person suffering feels like they will not be turned away, feel ashamed, avoided, or felt like the plague will things change. Those are some reasons why people who fight hide so much. When we begin to feel accepted and loved for who and where we are will we begin to feel comfortable opening ourselves up.
If we had a choice to not have these disabilities, for me at least, I wouldn’t. So please help us shatter the quiet and begin an open ongoing conversation! My latest video asks for just that.
Rescue Me (link)
As we work together educating ourselves is the first step. This is a GREAT read to help you understand how and what stigmas exist and how to break the cycle. It’s a longer read but please consider it part of the training and finish it!
Mental Health & Stigma (link)
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