Facing the Public

Posted on October 24, 2006 in Courage & Activism Stigma

I almost went to a candidates’ night at the local school except that Lynn arrived home too late from a board meeting and I had the dread that someone would trigger me by talking about the danger the mentally ill posed to the community. I imagined myself standing up and tearfully revealing to my 5000 or so neighbors that I was bipolar and then unloading a pile of statistics that showed that the real danger was the so-called sane who promulgated myths about mental illness.

On a related note, after I wrote yesterday’s piece about challenging the use of mentally ill people as horror figures, I remembered that theaters across the nation will be hosting a two night extravaganza of the film Halloween. What better way to indoctrinate people in the idea that we walk around behind hockey masks and kill people? If I had more time and numbers, I might organize a demonstration outside the local theater on that night except it would trigger me.