“I believe if you are on medicine that can control your schizophrenia, you shouldn't be treated unequally; you're a person just like everyone else” - Anonymous
Someone wrote this to one of my comments on reddit. And boy do I wish this was the case. Today, I was in a meeting for this group who are mental health advocates here in Lebanon. Now as I excepted from the get go, most people there were university psychology students trying to help their future by getting involved in this NGO. The NGO wanted to setup a suicide hotline in Lebanon which was a noble cause.
At the start of the meeting they asked everyone of us to introduce himself and tell the group why he wanted to be a member. A girl before me told them that she was joining because she has been suffering from depression for the past 4 years. Her eye was twitching.
I was next, and I talked about me being a programmer and having graduated a decade ago from the university (This was in the hospital of the university). What I didn’t say was that I suffered from schizophrenia. This is because even though these guys were trying to fight the stigma, I know that I would be treated differently. I also know that most people, will treat me differently if they knew.
Equality is the name of the game. It is the plight of the highly functional. I hope one day this will be seen as a case of diabetes or cholesterol. I remember at a previous job, my boss had a rare condition related to high cholesterol. He mentioned it casually and no one cared. This is my hope for schizophrenia. But how to break the stigma and how to contribute. Well this little blog is my attempt at that.
Someone wrote this to one of my comments on reddit. And boy do I wish this was the case. Today, I was in a meeting for this group who are mental health advocates here in Lebanon. Now as I excepted from the get go, most people there were university psychology students trying to help their future by getting involved in this NGO. The NGO wanted to setup a suicide hotline in Lebanon which was a noble cause.
At the start of the meeting they asked everyone of us to introduce himself and tell the group why he wanted to be a member. A girl before me told them that she was joining because she has been suffering from depression for the past 4 years. Her eye was twitching.
I was next, and I talked about me being a programmer and having graduated a decade ago from the university (This was in the hospital of the university). What I didn’t say was that I suffered from schizophrenia. This is because even though these guys were trying to fight the stigma, I know that I would be treated differently. I also know that most people, will treat me differently if they knew.
Equality is the name of the game. It is the plight of the highly functional. I hope one day this will be seen as a case of diabetes or cholesterol. I remember at a previous job, my boss had a rare condition related to high cholesterol. He mentioned it casually and no one cared. This is my hope for schizophrenia. But how to break the stigma and how to contribute. Well this little blog is my attempt at that.
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