Blogging for the Rights of the Mentally Ill

Posted on December 7, 2005 in Social Justice Stigma

Locks and Keys reminds us that Saturday, December 10, is International Human Rights Day. The World Health Organization is putting its focus on the Rights of the Mentally Ill, people like me and many of my regular readers. L&K asks us to tell our stories, to affirm our humanity and our right to participate in Society:

This is a day to present ourselves as human beings, worthy of dignity. We, too, contribute and we can be proud of what we have to offer. Our personal struggles against mental illness are more than just alleviating our symptoms. Society — including, tragically, close friends and family — often seems to want to keep us sick. They deny us opportunity and respect. They use our diseases to mock us and others. Police officers mistake us for meth addicts and beat us. (They shouldn’t be beating the meth addicts, either) Judges sentence us to jail rather than treatment centers. And what treatment centers exist are often ineffective. Once out of them, medical support disappears. Here in the United States, we are 12 times more likely to be the victims of violence than the average person yet the average American believes that we are a threat to them. Regardless of our color or our religion or our politics, we must endure hatred and misunderstanding.

If you suffer from mental illness or have a family member who does, I hope you will follow L&K’s lead and dedicate your Saturday to blogging about your disease. Spread the word today or tomorrow. Let your readers know that you, too, will be participating in this.

As for me, I’m going to do the Mental Health Week meme that I launched and never got around to doing myself. Plus I have some other stuff. Believe me, I am looking forward to this.