There. Do I feel better for having written that? Um, not really. It's still a hat that I don't feel completely comfortable wearing. (I don't, as usual, wear a hat anyways.) Nevertheless, it's important to get this out on the table.
I looked through this blog and discovered that I'd not said that I had a mental illness. I have certainly said that I deal with depression. (I am also careful not to say that I suffer from depression. Suffering is a difficult word to use.) To say that I have a mental illness adds a class of images and innuendos that aren't easy to handle. Nevertheless, that's what it is. Depression is a mental illness in the sense that it affects the brain and the mind. It can be argued that all illnesses are physical because they are represented by some pathology in the body, in this case, the brain.
The liberation movements have shown us how people can embrace their pejorative names as a way of defusing the words' power: queer, nigger, and alcoholic come to mind. Using the description of mentally ill helps to take back control. It doesn't define the whole of me, but it's an important part.
[In the too-weird-for-words dept., while writing this, I had iTunes set to shuffle through my library. Just up is Crazy by Gnarls Barkley.]
Where do we go from here? Pretty much the same track - keep on keeping on. [Next up on iTunes? U2 - I Still Havent Found What Im Looking For.]
I looked through this blog and discovered that I'd not said that I had a mental illness. I have certainly said that I deal with depression. (I am also careful not to say that I suffer from depression. Suffering is a difficult word to use.) To say that I have a mental illness adds a class of images and innuendos that aren't easy to handle. Nevertheless, that's what it is. Depression is a mental illness in the sense that it affects the brain and the mind. It can be argued that all illnesses are physical because they are represented by some pathology in the body, in this case, the brain.
The liberation movements have shown us how people can embrace their pejorative names as a way of defusing the words' power: queer, nigger, and alcoholic come to mind. Using the description of mentally ill helps to take back control. It doesn't define the whole of me, but it's an important part.
[In the too-weird-for-words dept., while writing this, I had iTunes set to shuffle through my library. Just up is Crazy by Gnarls Barkley.]
Where do we go from here? Pretty much the same track - keep on keeping on. [Next up on iTunes? U2 - I Still Havent Found What Im Looking For.]
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