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Psychiatric labels and the bigotry/prejudice attached to them http://wp.me/p5nnb-7WY


GiaK

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a little editorial piece from the blog:

 

 

I get really tired of the stickiness of psychiatric labels. In spite of the fact that they are used inappropriately all the time, once people are labeled it’s very hard to lose the label and the bigotry and prejudice that accompanies the label.

 

This is true in medical files, but it’s also true in life. It’s true on this blog.

 

I’ve never owned the label bipolar on this blog. In fact I explicitly disown it in the early life of this blog.See: Undiagnosing Myself

 

Still, to this day, I’m referred to as mentally ill and bipolar all over the internet in routine fashion. I generally try to ignore it, but I really can’t. It sucks. I had a crisis as a young woman. That crisis led me to being inappropriately heavily drugged for many years. I am no longer on psychiatric drugs.

 

That crisis and the experiences that followed due to the psychiatric machine,  still mars the way people perceive me today in spite of the fact my mind is crystal clear.

 

I think this is true for everyone with psychiatric labels whether people embrace the label or not. Assumptions start being attached to us, for the rest of our lives. Whether people agree with their labels or not the bigotry and prejudice is ugly and it too often disallows truly seeing people for who they are.

 

I wrote most of this little post about a year ago. I just found it in my drafts file. It remains true so I’m posting it.

 

Bigotry and prejudice of all kinds suck.

 

 Once you label me you negate me. – Kierkegaard

 

 

More articles on the prejudice against those who are labeled.

Everything Matters: Beyond Meds 

https://beyondmeds.com/

withdrawn from a cocktail of 6 psychiatric drugs that included every class of psych drug.
 

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It must be quite hard being a bit of a public figure doing activist work in mental health.  I am sorry people don't see the real you.  Those labels are so treacherously sticky it seems, though, I have read your blog for years and never think of you as bipolar.  When you said you undiagnosed yourself I thought it was great.  I also remember thinking, "Really?  We can do that?" It was a pretty liberating day for me as well.

 

However, I do still have trouble ditching the labels that were applied to myself and others I know personally, where the labels were applied a very long time ago.  Even though I know damn well depression isn't a disease, and even though I now know what its causes were, I STILL think I was depressed or have a history of depression.  A large part of that is lingering cognitive problems from drugs --I don't have much in the way of a presence of mind most of the time to be able to reroute myself away from thinking these things--but I think another part is simply that it's just so ingrained now.  It bothers me a lot.

 

And another really frustrating reality is how the words now are self-perpetuating because of the internet.  Try to talk about "mental illness" without using any of the terminology and people can't relate most of the time.

 

Anyway I hope people will listen to what you wrote above.

I am not a medical professional and nothing I say is a medical opinion or meant to be medical advice, please seek a competent and trusted medical professional to consult for all medical decisions.

 

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