As you, my readers, might have noticed. I haven’t posted in a while. The reason for this is, I had a bit of a family crisis that I needed to attend to. Basically, my sister, who is schizophrenic, had a bit of a melt down and was committed to a mental hospital. Because of this, I am temporarily back in the United States. My sister was released from the hospital, but she needs her family there to support to make sure she gets her medications and all that.
With this in mind, I think I would like to dedicate this post to mental health awareness. Mental illness is something that most people have a hard time talking about. I know that for me it is. But, when it emerges in someone so close, it makes it impossible to ignore, and, to be honest, neither I nor anybody else in my family knows how to handle something like that. I think the best way to approach the subject is with compassionate objectivity. You have to have to actively avoid the stigma that is usually associated with mental illnesses. This is true for me at least. I had to consciously move from “This is strange and you are broken” to “You aren’t broken, rather, you just need a little more attention” with respect to my sister and other family members who suffer from mental illness. It is this shift in perspective that, I believe, helps create an atmosphere in which it’s ok to need help and ask for it.
So, I think that that’s what everyone should do. Shift your perspective beyond the stigmas in order to help people grow. While it is a struggle at first, it does get easier. And as for my family and me; we may not be normal, but at least we’ll never be average.
With this crisis winding down and my first semester abroad over, I will be getting caught up on posts, so stay tuned for more!