Week 8-Esther Perng A01

In Shana Bulhan Haydock’s “fucked up,” they talk about the way they personally prefer to view mental illnesses – an opportunity to reclaim abnormality and be proud of being a part of the “others” while denouncing what society deems to be “normal.” They mention their dislike of holistic methods to “fix” mental health, which is in and of itself already a problem because you can’t fix people who are mentally ill. I agree with their sentiment on that issue because people are not objects; you can’t fix mental illnesses the way you could a broken table leg or a cracked phone screen. And the fact that it can’t be fixed is okay because we were not broken in the first place. We should embrace the idea that we are and will always be different, which can get really hard sometimes because of how exhausting it could be to simply live or do mundane everyday tasks, but it beats the alternative of thinking and believing that we should strive to be something that we cannot be.

Question: Why is it so hard for some people to accept that other people have mental illnesses instead of thinking that it's "all in their head." Is it simply because it's not physically seen?

References:
Haydock, S. "fucked up." In I would always rather be abnormal than holistic: Nine micro-essays. (45-53). DSM: Asian American edition.

Wells, J. (Writer) & Chulack C. (Director). (2015). Love songs (in the key of Gallagher) [Television series episode]. In M. Hissrich (Producer), Shameless. New York City, NY: Showtime.