As If Anyone Reads this....

I have decided to start writing. For myself, but to get it out there would feel good. I do not wish mental illness or psychosis on my worst enemy. It succeeded in dismantling my life at the same time as showing me what is really important in life. So long to being a slave to the corporate world...I am a slave to another world. But what I do now is much more valuable than I once did. One single smile now means so much more than it did in years past. I am humble. On my knees, even. I even found a greater love than I have ever had before. I gained a larger responsibility to myself and others on the planet. I care about the planet. I care about animals in captivity. I truly believe that our world needs serious reform in many arenas, but especially care about the mental health movement. Had I had education on what belies a person with my diagnosis, it would have been easier for me to deal with some horrendous things that I have endured. I know people wonder and that is okay, and I hope it gains me some followers so that I can out a community that is under served and under represented in all facets of society besides art as far as I can tell. And even those ideations are skewed. It's time for us really to take a look at how we treat one another...especially those different than us. Be it the lgbt movement, the African American fight against brutality, or disabled persons as a whole, I have come to painfully observe that we treat each other pretty terribly. It is only when we educate ourselves and learn to really listen that we will be free from so much inequality. I believe change is necessary from what I've witnessed firsthand both towards myself and others with psychiatric diagnoses. Only when we begin to really discuss these things out in the open are we really going to change it. People with mental illness are our friends, family members and other important people in the life of the world. The reason I know that is because it still exists. There are many reasons and many causes and contributing factors to each diagnosis and it is necessary that people start to reevaluate how they judge other people. Substance use is just one of these many complicated topics to name one. Homelessness is another. But who are we, as humans, to determine who is better than another? I seek to prove that we can't and I've decided to write so that people realize that I am just like them but with a few little differences that in some ways make me very special.  I seek to identify what these are and explain, if that's possible, the paradox of being a "high-functioning" person living with serious mental illness.