I saw this on Facebook and wanted to share it. As someone who both wears glasses and takes medication to keep my brain from trying to kill me, I feel it is an excellent analogy:
The text reads:
“I wear glasses. Can I manage without glasses? Well, yes, probably. I could squint a lot, constantly move up close to anything I want to see, take the bus or a taxi if I want to go anywhere. I could just accept that I’ll never be able to see eagles flying in the sky or whales jumping out of the ocean.
But why? Why try so hard to manage life when I could just put on a pair of glasses? No one would ever suggest a near-sighted person should just work harder. No one would say ‘Maybe that’s just your normal’ to someone who needs glasses. They would say ‘Let’s go to the eye doctor and get you a prescription so you’re able to see again.’ You shouldn’t have to try so hard.”
– My doctor (paraphrased), when I expressed doubts about going back on an anti-depressant. (via webreakthenwebuild)
(via squidilydink)
This is such a good analogy because nobody thinks about it like this. If you wear glasses, you literally need constant use of a medical aid to experience the world like most people do. If it were anything besides glasses, that would be considered a disability. But needing glasses is an extremely common, visible, and accepted form of disability to the point that we don’t even consider it one, we just accept that some people need glasses and that’s perfectly normal and there’s nothing wrong with needing to rely on them.
That is how all disabilities and illnesses should be seen, and how we should look at treatment for them. You have a problem, and you need help dealing with it, and there’s nothing wrong with either of those things. That’s perfectly normal and that’s okay.
(via ninjarobotclone)
And there are a couple more lines but forgive me I don’t feel like typing them out. The important parts are quoted above.
Putting aside the issues of for-profit pharmaceutical companies, our limited understanding of how certain drugs affect the brain, abuses in the mental illness management system, and that our society is so fucked up at least a quarter of us meet the criteria for mental health diagnoses while the rest are just plain miserable …
While we work on fixing that stuff: some of us need medication (and/or therapy) to function, just like some of us need glasses to see, and that’s okay. There should be no stigma associated with it, no shame in engaging in treatment, etc. When I finally get around to acquiring my next pair of glasses, I look forward to picking out frames I like and feel confident wearing. Similarly, it feels really good to own the work I’m doing in therapy and the medications I take: to be honest and unapologetic about what I need to not only live but (dare I say it?) thrive. It’s part of who I am, similar to how my glasses are part of my style (or look, hehe).
Of course I’m fortunate in that I have access to the care I need and communities where talking about one’s therapist, medication, and/or mental health is … if not normal, at least accepted. It’s understood that we’re all people and we all have our issues, we all struggle sometimes and we all need support. That shouldn’t be a matter of me being fortunate, though, it should be normal – like how acceptance of people wearing glasses is normal now, where once wearing glasses was stigmatized.
Learn more about being stigma free, and take the pledge.
Solidarity.
a day with depression 