Mental Health: The New Weapon To Beat Others With

I’m starting to see a new trend for weaponizing mental health. In other words, using someone’s known (past or present) mental illness against them.

Typically I see this happening in women’s circles where mental health has become the new misogynistic stick to beat other women with (though I’m sure this is prevalent in some men’s circles too).

“Don’t listen to them, they’re bipolar.”

“They can’t be taken seriously because they’re ill.”

And then, of course, there’s general gas lighting and spiritual bypassing.

It’s taken a long time to start releasing shame and stigma and to get people talking about mental health. And for others, they still can’t talk about it. They’re still suffering on the inside while pretending to the world that they’re okay.

And it’s little wonder when those who do speak up have their credibility or suitability as a parent/business owner/leader/[insert blank] questioned and used against them.

Let’s be honest now…

We all, throughout our lives, experience some level of mental illness (if that’s how we choose to label it).

We all experience different levels of anxiety and trauma by the very nature of our brain and it doing what it was designed to do.

We are all human, which comes with every spectrum of thought, feeling, mood and emotion (and the subsequent manifested behavior).

We’re not going to feel good and happy all the time, and neither must we put unrelenting pressure on ourselves to be so.

I have days when I feel so low and in despair for no obvious reason.

I have days when I think my kids would be better off without me.

I have days when I feel so incredibly overwhelmed and riddled with anxiety that I become hypersensitive and struggle to function.

And although these days are few and far between, I still have them. It doesn’t matter how ‘conscious’ or ‘spiritual’ I am. It doesn’t matter how many years of personal development I have under my belt. I’m still and will always be human and no one is immune from the pull of their own ego.

To create a more accepting and compassionate world we must step into the most authentic version of our whole selves, the light, and the dark. The good, the bad and the downright ugly.

1. Humans are not infallible. We make mistakes. We learn. We grow (at least, we do if we choose to see and learn the lesson). To fear failure is to fear our own humanity and soul’s evolution.

2. We do not need to change our thoughts.  We do not need to bypass them. We do not need to turn a negative into a positive or repeat mantras and affirmations (unless we choose, of course). Thoughts come and go, much like the change in the weather. We have little control over many of the thoughts that pop into our head, even the most negative and harmful ones. The key is learning to observe them, recognizing them for what they are and not allowing ourselves to act on them. Even in the darkest of moments, we have the capacity for new insight and to spark the smallest glimmer of light.

3. Feeling is healing. Allow yourself to feel and you allow yourself to heal. When our thoughts send us in a downward spiral of emotion, it’s so easy to distract ourselves to avoid the feeling and numb the pain. Yet this only serves to put a band-aid over an emotion that needs to be expressed. Afterall emotion is energy in motion. Lean into the discomfort, allow the energy to pass through you like a wave. Only when you walk through the darkness do you step into the light.

4. There is no one-size-fits-all to being human. We are all unique, perfectly imperfect beings in all our quirky, nuanced glory. We are not perfect and neither must we pretend to be. We need not conform to another’s ideologies or expectations. We need not fit into the mold of social and cultural conditioning. We are here to walk our own unique path as our most authentic, fully expressed self. Inauthenticity is at the root of a lot of suffering and sickness in the world. We get to create a new narrative and unshackle ourselves from the stories and identities that have held us captive.

Let’s stop dehumanizing people. Let’s stop shaming people. Let’s start celebrating humanity for all our quirks and imperfections. For our HUMANness.

And let’s stop using mental health as a weapon to harm others, inflate our own ego and mask our own wounds.

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