TODAY THE WORDS are WHAT MASKS DO WE WEAR? With more tragic news yesterday of another celebrity’s suicide, it paused my busy day and as so many of us paid tribute to his funny lines, comedic persona, and social media burst with memories. The news of 63 yr old Robin Williams’s death, who most of us would smile when we would see him on the screen. I am not writing to be disrespectful as I was a huge fan. One friend on FB, responded with an “in the face” truth statement and this is what I want to write about in this blog post. She has dealt with maniac depression and without quoting verbatim, her message was in this context, “This is a perfect case of what I have been trying to get through to my FB friends; a famous, public figure commits suicide and it’s sad, a regular person like me does it and it’s a shame not to be discussed.” excerpt from TJ on FB
I thought about her words and when I was in prayer, it was on my heart to spend some time on this subject. In our society, we shy away from conversations about mental illness disorders of maniac depression, bipolar, paranoia, and so many more which showed up when I looked at the listt. What I found out is there are so many mental conditions we are not familiar with; it would take pages to try to list them. What I do challenge you; and I have already decided I will learn more about what society does tag as the “avoided” or “dreaded” diseases. That’s right, it is a disease and we should discuss how and why these diseases occur.
Society should stop tagging mental illnesses as a sign of inferior intelligence. It seems there have been studies which reflect brain disorders (and yes, it is not just in their thinking, it is actually in their brain) can occur in higher intellectuals and is different from retardation or mentally deficient. Society sometimes, because of incorrect information or intellectual ignorance, clumps all forms of mental illness together and this should not happen.
Dependency on alcohol, and/or drugs sometimes come into play and when nothing makes sense; they are substitutes or “pain release”. Just because we don’t understand why people do what they do or if it doesn’t sound “normal”; remember we haven’t walked in their shoes and we should feel compassion and listen more.
Now for my deeper thought and this is my thoughts only….personally I shied away from talking about this subject, not because I didn’t care; actually I think it was because I do care but I felt inferior to sayanything about a disease that can be treated but not cured. A person who is not capable of understanding may feel helpless and shies away from discussing it. This being said, “Let’s put on the other person’s shoes for a minute and think if we were trying to get a message to someone and it seemed their responses were vague or non responsive; how would we feel?” Maybe if we take the masks off and get real and say to someone who has a mental disorder…….I don’t understand what you are going through, but I care about you. Tell me what you are going through…..AND LISTEN!” RIP ROBIN WILLIAMS 1951- 2014 We will miss your funny face.
DAILY FEATURED BIBLE VERSE:
Psalm 34:17-20 ESV
When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.
(c) copyright 2014 Arline Lott Miller. The material here copyrighted, use only by permission.
