Illness

  • Social Media is Not What It Promised to Be – a History

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 4 minutes

    You are my online community, and while your numbers might not be as large as the number of followers I had on other platforms, I’m not worried about how this platform will change and become dangerous to any of you. This platform, MY platform, is safe for survivors, for those of you with mental health struggles, and for those of you dealing with illness, oppression, hatred, and discrimination. There are no shareholders to be beholden to, no one tracking you, no ads. There’s nothing here but one guy reminding you all that you are not alone.

  • The Difference Between Knowledge and Life Experience

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 3 minutes

    You should not feel sorry for me. This post isn’t about me. As I said, I have a condition that millions of people deal with every day. I’ll do the same. It’s about the reality that people around us are living with things that require efforts that we don’t understand. Just showing up for life every day requires effort and dedication from everyone you know. The amount of effort and challenges are different, and they are not distributed equally. You shouldn’t dismiss anyone’s struggles, especially if you’ve not been in those same circumstances yourself. 

    Some things have to be experienced to see all the details. When someone is willing to share the details of their challenges, listen and learn. Raise their voices instead of assuming you know the answers. 

    Experience is a hard teacher. We all can learn the lessons from those who’ve lived it. 

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    We All Have Mental Health Issues

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Imagine frowning upon someone taking ibuprofen for a headache because they should “tough it out.” Or talking about how the common cold affects people “over there” and not your group. 

    It’s nonsense. Yet, when it comes to talking about mental health, people start that same nonsense as if they have never had a day where they struggle with anxiety or need to take a break from the stress of day-to-day life. 

    I think it’s time we started looking at mental health the way Dr. Lee describes it. We all have mental health issues of some form or another, just like we all have different physical ailments at times. Stigmatizing people who need mental healthcare and being unable to provide it is a failure for all of us. 

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    The Many Ways We Invalidate Someone’s Story

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 4 minutes

    We could also talk about abuse here too, and all the ways our stories all invalidated. How many of these have you heard from folks who find out about the abuse you dealt with as a child, or even as an adult:

    “You were young, you’ll get over it” (Or you don’t remember it that well)

    “Are you sure it was abuse?”

    “I can’t imagine (abuser) doing that”

    “Why didn’t you just leave?”

    “How could you have let that happen?”