This sharepost is inspired by Christina's post about the Arizona mass murderer. She asked for my comment. I thought a few days about this.

I post a lot about my life, mental health diagnosis (MHD) and things in general.

One topic that I haven't posted much about lately is stigma. Stigma. That's a word that doesn't get used much here. Is it because its gone? Is it something that just stopped?

I don't think I ever felt "stigmatized" too much. I know stigma is present, reeling its dark influence on us from people who have no idea what it means to live with a MHD.

I retired from a place after having been admitted 2x's to a "behaviorial unit" in less than a month. When I went back to work after the first admission, I thought everyone was against me. I don't know if that's true or not. They did act differently. Or did I act different?

In recent days that young man that shot those people in Arizona was reported to have had schizophrenia. Did he? HMMM.

There was a massacre here a couple of years ago. A man shot and killed several people, then himself. The press went ballistic. In the ensuing days after it was reported that the guy had a mental illness. Did he? HMMMM.

The Virginia Tech killer was reported to have a mental health diagnosis. Did he? HMMM.

Maybe these three people did, I don't know. I am not justifying their actions, but why should that be the primary focus. Those men shot and killed people!! There is no justifying that.

That seems to be a common theme..if someone goes out and kills people they do it because they have a MHD.

The fact of the matter is that more crimes are committed against people with a mental health diagnosis than crimes committed by them.

So what do we do? We should band together and stand up and say "we will NOT accept your judgements against us!!! We have successfully overcome more obstacles in our lives than people without a MHD. Sitting on our hands and letting things roll off of our backs is not going to solve anything.

I am not willing to be "grouped" with people that go out and kill others.

I cringe when the media uses derogatory words to describe us. I cringe when a violent crime is committed and blamed on us.

"One bad apple spoils the whole batch" is a myth. One should never be ALLl!

Fight this. Fight with all your might.

If we fail to stand for our rights then we will always be the "bad apple."

"Today is the beginning of the rest of your life." It is indeed the beginning, let's use this day to stop the stigmas. We can and MUST do this!!

David