Emily Rachelle Writes

When it comes to mental illness, I like to be the champion. The advocate. The information bank just waiting to enlighten and educate you. A source of awareness, a spark for understanding. But the whole world of mental illness and living with one is just as new to me as it is to many of the people I'm trying to help understand. I'm still learning, and now that I'm back at school, it feels like a crash course. And I think a lot of people with mental illnesses can relate.

Recently I discussed mental illness with a good friend. She compared mental illness to a broken bone, gesturing to her leg. "You can see the broken bone, there's something that needs to be fixed." But think about internal bleeding. Can you see that? Or lung cancer. Is that outwardly visible? Not until scans or tests are done are many illnesses and injuries visually noticeable. We first notice symptoms, then seek out the cause, and treat from there to alleviate symptoms and prevent further problems. Why is mental illness any different? As research and technology in this area improve, we see more and more proof that brains affected by mental illness are physically and chemically different from healthy brains. There are plenty of symptoms of mental illness. Why don't we look for them? Notice them? Mental illness, untreated, can lead to complications as bad as the inability to complete basic daily tasks or even death. Why don't we seek out treatment before these...

Until your friend stands and looks you in the eye explaining why mental illness isn't the same as physical illness... Until your professor refuses to let you make up an exam and get full credit after missing a medicine dose caused a missed class session... Until your school requires you to get a three-page sheet on disability filled out in order to accept that your mental illness is real... You don't understand. Not until it happens to you.

Good evening, my lovely readers. Or morning, depending on where you are in the world. I wrote this earlier this week with a plan to post it once the Twilight  review series was over, but I think I need to share it now. I'm writing a follow-up post, too; make sure to subscribe so you don't miss it if you're interested. I'm a writer. And I'm a blogger. As such, I do a lot of reading and a lot of blog-following, because you can't write something until you've read a lot of that something by other people. As often happens when I read book blogs, I ended up following rabbit trails on and off GoodReads one night. Somehow, I ended up reading a lot of reviews of books and a lot of articles about the same topic: the evils and lies of psychiatry.