I have schizoaffective disorder which makes life extremely hard. Socializing is a chore that takes out a lot of emotional energy. It's also taxing mentally.
For example every day I pass a group of people or a couple even an individual who laughs at some point as I pass by. My paranoid condition makes me feel like they were laughing at me. I know it's unlikely analytically but emotionally it feels true. And I don't always succeed in mentally overriding my emotional response. I feel laughed at and mocked daily.
And then there are the paranoid delusions. I'll listen to the radio or watch tv and the hosts will talk about someone negatively and I'll feel like they're really talking about me. On a good day I'll feel like I just happen to have all those negative traits.
These delusions always seem to amplify my insecurities and feelings of worthlessness and all my fears as well.
And when I admit to others that I have schizoaffective disorder people react with fear. I've lost friendships over my "friends" cracking jokes instead of getting me the help I needed, the help I would have gotten were I their brother or a different friend, a real friend.
I've had great relationships with coworkers until I tell them and then they barely speak to me but talk to everybody else about me.
What I've seen in the publics reaction to Robin Williams and Amanda Bynes is just has harsh, demeaning, condescending and total enjoyment of the misery of others is exactly what I've seen in how people react to me or my dad who is schizophrenic.
I've been told I'm fragile, that all people with a mental illness are fragile and just need to pull themselves together and deal with life like a normal person.
Here is some information from a medical website:"Bipolar disorder, with the second-highest risk of any mental disorder for suicide attempts (28.5%), proves to be very lethal when comorbid with schizophrenia. "The 70.6% lifetime suicide attempt rate found for this group is the highest we have seen," Judd said."(schizophrenia.com)
This illness is deadly and serious. It is no laughing matter, it is above mockery because all the people who have these conditions deserve respect, compassion and understanding because we are your coworkers, your cousins, your siblings your parents and no race, no gender, no nationality is immune to the illnesses. And every single person who has these illnesses is a child of God. We deserve compassion, respect and understanding not being the punchline of a joke, not being dismissed out of hand simply because we're crazy and can't be believed.Jesus didn't just associate with sinners, He called them His friends. He healed lepers no one else would touch. He healed a man born blind who everyone, even His Disciples, thought the mans blindness was due to someone's sin, which Jesus said it wasn't.Jesus showed love, compassion and understanding to all He met. He gave us one commandment:"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35And Jesus had this to say about the rest of the commandments: "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Matthew 22:36-40
Love is the basis of all the law and all the prophets, it is the foundation of all the commandments. It is the essence of the Gospel according to President Thonas S. Monson.
If Jesus said "32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." Matthew 25:32-46
As you have done it unto the least of my bretheren Ye have also done it unto me says Christ. So how can we treat those with any illness, mental illnesses included, with mockery, scorn, dismissive attitudes and even contempt and be anything like Christ?
