Epiphany of the day...

Opening up about my mental illness was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life for a variety of reasons. Opening up about having a mental illness of any sort can be extremely hard as a result of the stigma attached to it.  Some illnesses have a worse stigma attached to them than others and those illnesses can be harder to open up about than others, bipolar disorder is one of those illnesses.  As hard as it was to do, I felt it to be so incredibly worth it afterwards. 

Why was this one of the best decisions I’ve ever made?

1. It was so liberating to have finally had the strength in me to be able to open up about this deep dark secret that I locked away in a closet when in reality it never needed to be hidden. 
2. I was truly surprised to see so many individuals in my life embrace it, accept it and respect me for all that I have accomplished despite it.  I never expected that.  Those are the individuals that deserve a place in my life.  Anyone who cannot look beyond the illness and see me for me really has no place in my life.
3. Having shared my “secret” that never really had to be a secret with everyone in my life has now provided me with a support system that I have never had before.  When your friends have no idea that you have Bipolar Disorder (or any other mental illness) then you can’t go to them for support when you need it.  Having opened up that channel for support is a great feeling.
4. Having opened up about my illness has given me the opportunity to help others with their illness.  It has given me the opportunity to show individuals living with a mental illness that they are not alone in this struggle.  It has now provided me with the opportunity to fight the stigma attached to mental illness.

Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of just as diabetes and cancer are nothing to be ashamed of! That is just something to think about if you are dealing with a mental illness or you have a loved one who is.

I seem to be bad at meeting my deadlines I provide for postings so I need to just stop giving a date for when I will post a certain topic. I’ve got so much going on in life with school and all that deadlines are not always easy to stick to when it comes to tasks outside of school or work. Blog postings like this current one are much easier and less time consuming to write than the blogs that require some degree of research such as the psychosis one. Soon, I promise, very soon you will be reading about the facts on psychosis and my personal experiences with psychosis! :-) 

Thanks for reading! Until next time...

-Kissing Stigma Goodbye-