What do I love about the mental health community? Well, many things, really. But what I love most is their compassion to help others.
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What I love about the mental health community – updated Aug 11, 2022
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Over the last few decades, we as a society have become increasingly more divided. This is not a good thing. But despite this, there has been some good come out of it. One of the best examples I can think of is the fight for a fairer world for many disadvantaged people.
While the fight for equality is an amazing thing, there are so many groups that differences are bound to appear. Today, it’s not unusual to see one group get the recognition they deserve, while another’s voice will be stifled, even silenced. There is, after all, only so much airtime. Hello, mental health!
As if that weren’t enough, many areas of social concern have an element of “Mine’s worse than yours” attached to it. Furthermore, we seem to be trying to drown one another other out with this sentiment. Ironically, I feel this may be due in part to another disturbing trend, that of not being heard. We all need to be heard. Therefore, we all need to start listening.
How to listen to someone’s concerns.
Equally important is to never forget that everyone, regardless of who they are, not be dismissed. We are all living, feeling beings – therefore, are all worthy of kindness… In other words, the group I advocate for – mental health – does not give me license to systemically discount any other human. Nor does it give me a right to be hurtful and nasty.
On that front, I have only one more thing to say, “Compassion for all”.
“We can win the fight for equality but only if we unite round our common struggle.”
Jonathan Arenburg.
What I love about the Mental Health Community
So, here’s what I love about the mental-health community. In general, the advocates in the area of mental illness are more empathic of not only their cause, but also the plight of others. For example, I have never heard someone say, “My PTSD is worse than yours.” Nor have I seen someone use their illness as justification to minimize other groups attempting to improve their circumstance. In fact. in many cases, I have seen the opposite. We, the mentally ill, like to be kind.
But why? We are, for the most part both underserved and a vulnerable brunch. I think the answer is because we are both underserved and a vulnerable bunch. All in all, our pain and place in society gives us the power to understand.
With that said, can this be the only reason? Of course not. This is true because we all have reasons for our conditions. For example, People in the LBGTQ+ community have for years, had to hide who they are. Therefore, it’s not uncommon for them to experience depression. So, in short, people with mental illness always belong to some other group. We also run up against the same old stigma, the famous one-liners and the isolation.
So, it makes sense to me that our illnesses can serve as our superpower to create a greater, more just world.
Ultimately, what I love about the mental-health community is the compassion we have for one another, and for people in general. For example, I have had so many people with PTSD, Depression, BDP and so on afford me the same empathy that they would people who have the same mental health condition… To them, I say thank you!
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