Hi, thanks for dropping by.
One moment, while I get on my soapbox... OK, here goes:
This website's creation is motivated by my outrage at the intolerance and insensitivity that I have seen various "normal" people (I use the term loosely!) display toward persons with mental illness. A number of people close to me have been afflicted with major mood disorders, and the challenges and outright tragedies they have experienced constitute more hardship than anyone should have to endure. Yet they must also cope with the mockery, apathy, and lack of understanding directed at them by a society that tends to deny them basic human dignity and treat them as less than fully human.
From professors making tasteless lobotomy jokes in class, to a major television network continually referring to a character with obsessive-compulsive disorder as "defective," I have witnessed much shocking callousness. Persons with AIDS or cancer or even physical disabilities would never be so openly belittled, yet it is somehow "okay" for the mentally ill (who simply suffer from another form of **medical** disorder) to be stigmatized and marginalized by individuals and entities who wield great influence over other people.
The mentally ill are as human as anyone else, and many have brilliant minds and generous hearts that fail to receive proper appreciation. A number of renowned artists, writers, composers, and scholars have had various mental illnesses, particularly mood disorders. Increasingly, with advances in medicine, mentally ill persons are able to live very functional and productive lives. They may be all around you (estimates place the percentage of mentally ill at 20% of the U.S. population) without your even knowing it.
My goal is to spread information about various illnesses, particularly mood disorders, with which I am most familiar. Through raising awareness, I hope to combat prejudice and hard-heartedness in whatever small way I can. It may prove futile, but at least I can make the effort to get people to rethink their words and (re)actions. It is about time that the mentally ill gained the respect that they deserve -- and that the Americans with Disabilities Act mandates they receive.
Links
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill StigmaBusters campaign
National Institute of Mental Health
Depressive and Bipolar Support Alliance
Information about various disorders
Information about depression
Information about bipolar disorder (manic-depression)
Diary of a young person with bipolar disorder
Wonderful site on the barbaric operation that my professor found so darn funny
Suicide: The ultimate consequence of callousness?
Pendulum Resources
"Mental Health Options"
