Making the Internet My Accountability Partner

Featured Photo by Sydney Sims on Unsplash

Societal Norms are fascinating to me, but they can be so harmful, especially when it comes to mental health. In general, there is still some stigma against showing symptoms of mental illness. Even if we are more comfortable acknowledging that some people have depression or anxiety, people can still be judgemental when those illnesses impact your life and the way you can show up in your day-to-day life. And then other mental illnesses, particularly personality disorders or any that have psychotic features, are still taboo to even talk about.

Dismantling these stigmas and creating a better world for everyone starts with examining our internal biases. We all tell ourselves that we aren’t biased because we want to be good people. We can say I have no issue with *insert mental illness here* because we the question explicitly in terms of a disability. Instead, we need to start examining the beliefs and judgments we hold about things that may or may not be symptoms of mental illness. How do we feel about someone who has poor dental hygiene or looks “unbathed”? What do we think about the person who mutters to themself? What judgments do we make about someone who seems to be spacing out and has trouble “reconnecting” to the present? What do we think about someone whose speech patterns are different from our own, whether they are repeating things, making connections we don’t see, or speaking too quickly or too slowly?

This is what I mean when I say we still have a stigma against symptoms of mental illness. Until we can acknowledge that there is no need for everyone to be perfect and polished in their interactions with us or in their behavior in public we are going to have stigma against all kinds of cognitive, mental, and emotional differences. The society we were raised in has created and now we continue to uphold this norm that a “normal” person shows up a certain way in their interactions with others and shows up a certain way in front of others. But all that norm does is harm us. It puts people who are wonderfully unique and diverse into one box that no one fits in and makes us jump through hoops to perform for others. 

Let’s dismantle that expectation and practice compassion and non-judgment with others and with ourselves. Let’s stop making comments or judgments about other’s appearances or behaviors. Let’s open our hearts and our minds to the imperfections of the people around us. We can build a better and healthier world for ourselves.