Participation on the Basis of Sanity

Prejudice based on mental illness is disgustingly insidious in our culture. Scratch that, prejudice based on mental illness is insidious in almost every cultural tradition that I can think of. In society's eyes, if you have mental illness, you're less than human. At best you're incapable of truly reasoned thought, your feelings and observations dismissed as the ravings of lunacy. At worst, your a menace to society, a ticking timebomb who can at any moment loose their grip on reality and explode.

I am labelled insane and because of this I am deemed unfit for participation in society.

For me, maybe you could call me lucky in this regard, but I have some privilege. I have the privilege of not actually having what society considers a mental illness. My neurological problems are not what society deems insanity. [1] I am considered sane. When people get to know me, my perceived sanity becomes an explicitly stated fact of my social existence.

I am labelled sane again and because of this I am deemed safe and fit for civilized life.

I can't describe how this hurts me. You have to understand that some of the closest people in my life have serious mental illness. These are people I love, people I would lay down my life to protect. These are the people who have to truly shoulder the burden of hatred. These are people, according to society, unlike me.

These are people who society feels a need to explicitly differentiate me from.

This needs to stop. Every time someone says "she's not crazy" it hurts. It hurts people I love and it hurts me.

[1] I have Tourette Syndrome.