You want to hear something funny? When I was undergoing training the other day we were all getting to know one another a bit better over lunch - we were swapping horror stories of community nursing, most of which were stories that dealt with psychiatric clients - one nurse started talking about patients with Bipolar disorder & then everyone else contributed by adding their stories about BPD. I sat silent, in an attempt to include me, one nurse asked me where I had been working previously & I explained that I had been off work due to illness. They all looked intrigued & started asking questions, skirting around the one that they really wanted to know - what was wrong with me. And so I put them out of their misery & told them I'd been diagnosed with BPD - well you could have heard a pin drop. It's interesting how much social stigma there still is, how people with a psychiatric diagnosis are "typecast" - even by people in the health care industry (I think they may well be the worst offenders). At work we go to such great lengths to respect & protect the identity of clients with HIV/AIDS but we don't do the same for people with a mental illness....& why is that?
3 comments:
Love that image! This is sad but written with such wit.
...yes, why is that indeed?
I think any of your colleagues who discriminates or with any such tendency is completely ignorant and there is nothing better you can do than just feel sorry/pity for them.
A/n female friend of mine with what they term mental illness proved the ignorants wrong. She graduated (at 38) with a degree in psychology, with a distinction and a prize and is now a senior lecturer in a top English university.
I think one must be really special to be diagnosed with this sort of condition which I consider to be nothing but a higher level of intelligence.
On the subject of HIV/AIDS there are still those who do the same and I think its down to ignorance.
You are one of the very few good hearted ones.
Happy new year.
btw: just wait until you see their reaction by the time you start excelling at what you are doing. You can and will do it.
I LOVE this picture!
This post moved me and I can't help but wonder why some people act this way. Strange in deed :)
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