@Lindsay wrote:
I wonder why people can still pick on those suffereing a mental illness? This just doesn't make sense to me!
I think it's because we don't actually live in an Information Age; we live in an Opinion Age. And it directly affects MIs of all kinds, in my experience: everyone has an opinion about what you "need", or how you "should" be treated, and it rarely errs on the side of generosity. Those who are especially apathic (is that a word? it should be, opposite of empathic) resent extending any consideration, and behave like children envious of the "special treatment".
I've been diagnosed as a "chronic dysthymic", and even the shrink who pronounced it felt compelled to add "but it's probably just self-indulgence", as if I *wanted* to be this way. The most recent "friend" I thought I had allowed herself to become increasingly irate and abusive over time because she said it was a mark of "disrespect" to her and lack of genuine friendship that I still remained "mopey" when she was around. And I discovered I was a frequent subject of hers at dinner parties where I wasn't present (including revealing my name and the like), where I was discussed as if I were a pet with particularly difficult habits.
I think for many people we're curiosities and distinguishing talking-points. It's almost as if, once we become an MI, we cease to be fleshed-out people in our own right. In my case, I realised that if I was nothing more to her than a peculiarity she could chat about for cheap laughs with other people, then she really wasn't my friend.
