“…because it’s a fact, well enshrined in folklore, that if we are to kill the demon, then first we have to say its name.”
Terry Pratchett
In the above quote, Terry Pratchett is talking about dementia. The author Terry Pratchett championed dementia until his last days. Like he highlights repeatedly in A Slip of The Keyboard (a wonderful read, by the way), he had the advantage of having a well-established reader base; he had people who wanted to read his articles and listen to his speeches. Me? I’m far from a well-established anything.
But I’m not going to stop talking about mental health and illness.
The stigma on mental illness is something that I have carried on my shoulders for many years. I was first diagnosed around the age of 13 or 14, and that was a dozen years ago. I have been called brave for speaking so openly about my mental illness, but it was not out of bravery that I spoke about my mental illness – it was fear. I was upfront about my mental illness because I would rather people reject me from the start than risk losing a friend after deciding to open up. On my social media profile, I described myself as an “insane insomniac” because I wanted to label myself as insane before anyone else did.
And when I was applying for jobs, I went through all my old blog posts and removed all my blog posts about my mental illness. So much for being an advocate, right?
I write about mental illness and I am an advocate because I don’t want people to live in shame anymore. There used to be a stigma on dementia – it was a bad word; a curse. Today, we talk about dementia openly. If someone with dementia gets lost or if you find someone who is lost, head to one of the many dementia go-to points around Singapore. If only we had the same acceptance and understanding of other mental health conditions.
When mental illness is talked about in the media, however, we see it mentioned in the same article as crimes, like as if people with depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder are all maid abusers.
Mental illness doesn’t just need to be talked about more; they need to be talked about properly. They need to be talked about in a way that doesn’t link mental illness to crimes and poor behaviour.
I am now late for work, so with this, I conclude my session of ramblings. Thank you, my very few readers.