Nie jest to mój tekst, ale zaczerpnięty ze strony/bloga Withoutidentity911

Nie tyczy się on także mnie w jakikolwiek sposób, ale myślę ze to dobry food for thought.

Mental Health Disparities

How come if I broke a leg, I would get more attention for it than for losing my sister? Not just one sister, but two. How come if I was diagnosed with cancer then I would be able to "Make a Wish" and go to Disney World but not if I was diagnosed with chronic depression, bipolar disorder, or any other debilitating mental illness? Just like cancer patients risk death, so do patients with severe mental illnesses that cause suicidal ideation. My friend who had cancer was in and out of the hospital a lot, but he didn't have to stay in inpatient care for weeks at a time. The longest he was in the hospital overnight was for four days at most. Yet, here I am, I spent over two weeks in a hospital because my illness made me feel so low that it led me to attempt suicide and my near-death experience was barely acknowledged. Not only did I spend over two weeks in a hospital, I have been making frequent visits to a doctor just like he did. I have to see my psychiatrist every week, except I have been seeing this doctor every week for over two years and more to come, yet my suffering is paid little attention.

I nearly cried when this friend of mine was telling me today about how our same teachers that we had in middle school brought him over $200 worth of stuff (giftcards, games, food) when he was diagnosed with cancer, plus a thick pile of get-well cards from all of our teachers. When my sister died in 7^th grade, none of these same teachers acknowledged it. No sorrys were said and no condolences were given. In 9^th grade, the year before my friend was diagnosed with cancer, my second sister died. Again, I was offered zero comfort or sympathy. I am deeply hurt by this. This upsetting revelation that I learned of today is what inspired me to write this lengthy piece.

My life has been severely impaired by my mental illness. I have suffered so much. I know what it feels like to hit rock bottom. I know how painful depression can be, and how alone it makes you feel. I know the suffocating restraints a mental illness can curse you with.

I speak on the behalf of all others suffering from a mental illness. The disparities are despicable. They are sickening. Society turns its backs on the mentally ill and opens its arms wide for the “poor,” “helpless” people who are physically ill. Aren’t we just as helpless? I don’t want to be restrained by my mental illness! It’s not my fault that God chose me to suffer! Does anybody hear me? Or is society deaf to the helpless pleas of the mentally ill? I don’t want to be this way, but it doesn’t matter what I want because the pain I feel is in my internal self. My scarred, torn, broken heart doesn’t seem to show like the surgery scars show on a physically ill patient and that is where the line is drawn, between the seen and unseen, the mentally ill and the physically ill. If you can’t see it, then society says it’s not there. My illness cannot be eye witnessed and because of this, disparities as despicably unjust as these will choose the mentally ill’s fate: whether or not large sums of money will be put forth for research regarding causes or treatments for mental illnesses, whether or not insurance companies will pay for psychotherapy or hospitalization in a psychward, whether or not laws will forgive the mentally ill for their disabilities, etc.

Because my illness is a battle against myself and no one else can see the war happening within my heart and my head, the blind eyes of society dismiss such an illness to be unworthy of love, attention, and care. I don’t want this! I need help! I can’t fight my inner demons alone; I need everything that a physically ill patient needs to get better! My heart won’t mend without stitches of love to help sew it back together. My mind won’t calm without the soothing words of a friend. My eyes will never see the sunshine without someone to help clear away the clouds. My problems will never cease without much needed support nor would a physically ill person’s.