Stigma THIS.

Hey readers =) Thanks for checking in today. I've wanted to blog about this topic for quite awhile, so here is a hot button topic that I KNOW touches more than one person who reads this blog. (Myself included).

Mental health issues.

Anyone who knows me, knows I've had my share of experience with depression. And I probably have equal amounts of friends who have dealt with or know someone who has a mental illness, as I do friends who have no experience with it.

Let me be honest, though. I really doubt there are many people whose lives have not been touched in any way, shape, or form by a mental health issue.

For instance, if you saw anything about the kids who have been posting on YouTube for the It Gets Better videos, you are connected to someone who has been affected by someone with mental health issues. That is, to say, that the people who have been posting It Gets Better videos are addressing those videos to all the LGBT teens who have committed, are considering committing, or have known another LGBT teen who has committed suicide.

Maybe you have a cousin, or a niece, or a parent, or a friend, who has dealt with depression. Maybe you just know someone who knows someone. But regardless, you are affected.

So now my real point: stigmas.

One of my biggest pet peeves is someone who assumes they know another person because that person has admitted to fitting into a label.

Whether that label is of sexual preference, religion, political preference, or having a mental illness, no two people are alike. How would you like it if someone made assumptions about you because of something you admitted to?

It takes a lot of courage to admit you have a mental illness. More courage than it takes to pick a side on the political spectrum. And yet people who identify themselves as a Democrat, or Republican are not ridiculed for that choice. Which is, by the way, a choice. Having a mental illness is not. Would you make fun of someone for having pancreatic cancer? I didn't think so.

Have you ever been the recipient of, or witnessed someone being marginalized because of a mental illness?