Mental Health Camp » relationships http://www.mentalhealthcamp.org Erasing Stigma and Exploring Possibilities with Social Media - Second Annnual Mental Health Camp (July 10, 2010, Vancouver, British Columbia Canada) Fri, 23 Jul 2010 03:32:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Diagnosis, Stigma, Loneliness – and Hope http://www.mentalhealthcamp.org/diagnosis-stigma-loneliness-and-hope/ http://www.mentalhealthcamp.org/diagnosis-stigma-loneliness-and-hope/#comments Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:52:42 +0000 moritherapy http://www.mentalhealthcamp.org/?p=47 This is a guest post by Adrienne Lindsay. Adrienne has completed two and a half degrees, a marathon, has run her own business and is a single mother to an awesome 12-year-old daughter. She was initially diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, but is now diagnosed with bipolar II disorder. Too many things have been taken from her because of her diagnoses so she’s using her voice to try to do what she can to combat stigma against all mental illnesses because there are too many people who have mental illnesses who don’t have a voice. She also wants her kid to be proud of her, to live in a better world than she does, but mostly, she’s speaking out because discrimination of any kind, sucks.

For me, the worst thing about being diagnosed with a mental illness has to be the diagnosis itself – not the symptoms. Because of that label – and the stigma attached to it – I’ve lost my partner, friends – even my job. Don’t get me wrong, at times, the symptoms suck too, but more than the confused emotions that come from my bipolar II diagnosis, it’s the loneliness of not having any consistent support or friendship that hurts the worst. I believe this loneliness is not uncommon to those with mental illness and I believe that it has a lot to do with the stigma attached to it.

And I’m hoping that’s where social media can really make some inroads. For one thing, it’s always there – you can post to a blog or go on to Twitter at any time. And when you feel you have no one to talk to, no friend to call, it’s nice to know that you can find whole communities of people who may be dealing with some of the same things as you or even just fellow twitterers to help distract you from what you may be going through.

When I first « came out » as having a mental illness, I was really hoping – almost expecting that I would be accepted, even embraced by those around me. That it would now be easier to get the support I needed – but that wasn’t the case at all. If anything, I felt that people would use my diagnosis against me – in ways that even affected my daughter. Friends, family, colleagues, the government, it seemed like I was taken dismissed as being almost a lesser person because of my diagnosis.

When I started my first twitter account about three months ago, I was worried about what to put in my bio because having a mental illness is a big part of who I am. But I decided to be open about my struggles, and for the first time, I was embraced for it. People followed me BECAUSE of my diagnosis, not IN SPITE of it. If I tweet that I am feeling down, people respond with virtual hugs.

And I have found out about things like the Coping Digitally panel at Northern Voices, MentalHealthCamp and other events, ressources and contacts where I can be be myself, be proud of who I am and – the best thing of all – not have to feel lost, alone or helpless.

My goal for MentalHealthCamp is of course to expand my knowledge of both mental illness and social media, but most of all, I’m looking forward to meeting in person the people I have met online and coming up with new ways to fight both mental illness and the stigma that surrounds it online and off.

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