I admire folks on here who can continually reveal their most private selves. I find my few such forays grueling. I understand how it helps other people, but it is not an easy path. I admit the discourse over candidates' mental health plans has been incredibly unsettling for me.
I've been on both sides of this issue: involuntarily committed at 16 to a locked adolescent psych ward for conversion therapy & also having to have two family members committed and dealing daily with the stress of caring for a severely mentally ill family member. It all matters.
My own experience with PTSD and anxiety resulting from a brutal rape that almost killed me is another layer of this. As is having been suicidal 20+ years ago during a bout of depression and finding it almost impossible to get timely help.
A grandparent who lived with us slit their throat & wrists when I was in 13. I was tasked with the clean up. This is happening all over America. Families on all sides of serious mental illness needing help. Needing help to stay in their communities, not just be warehoused.
There is so much more to say about this. And my voice is much smaller than others'. But if mentally ill folks don't feel safe they can't access help.I nearly killed myself with anorexia in college because my memory of the hospital overrode my sense that I desperately needed help.
