Is Everyone Crazy or Psycho Who Has a Mental Illness?
It does not matter if your name is Kanye West, Taylor Swift or Justin Hayes., mental illness does not care about your popularity, net worth or how many private jets you own. When mental illness strikes, mental illness strikes whether you live in a multi-million dollar mansion in the Hollywood hills or in a homeless shelter. It strikes day or night, at minutes or even years at a time.
Why is it true then, that when a celebrity such as Kanye West goes through a mental illness episode, that people, many people are so quick to judge and jump to conclusions about the person and pretend that you are so much different then the person being judged? If you are a human, you have mental health. Read that again. If you are a human, you have mental health. That means everyone of us has mental health. I have been guilty of doing my fair share of judging others in my lifetime, so I do not pretend to be a perfect person, which for the record, none of us are perfect. But since I have been given a new outlook on life since my mental illness diagnoses after a near death incident, I have done more introspection and less judging of others. Could you start to do the same?
Just because you are a TMZ gossip reporter or host a TV show like Entertainment Tonight, it does not give you the authority to speak, post and comment as if you are a mental health expert. If instead you would take your platform to reach out and help someone who is going through a difficult time mentally, instead of only being concerned with what the hot topic is or how many likes or retweets you can get, then maybe some of us that are not blessed with talent or wealth on that level would be more willing to help smash the stigma of mental health, instead of worrying if we, too would be judged like Kanye
Think about it this way. Instead of being so quick to comment or post on social media that someone is “crazy” or “psycho” because you see or hear about someone battling mental illness in the public eye, remember that they too are a human being. No matter how many followers a person has on Twitter, that person could be one step away from questioning life and packing it in. You and I have seen the story all too many times.. Let us do our part in de-stigmatizing mental health and those of us with a mental illness.