Puzzlebrains

A friend of mine posted this on FB, and I thought how true it is. So I'm posting it here too, to make you think.

Don't judge a person until you have lived their life and walked in their shoes. It takes the strength of an ox and the courage of a lion to fight the Invisible Torturer and come out the other side. Most importantly, remember that you don't have to be mentally ill to suffer with mental illness.

Oh how true that is. OH has a t-shirt that says drum out the stigma of mental illness. On the reverse side there are bongo drums, happy smiley faces and the statement that mental illness is just an illness, same as flu.

He wore it because its a decent t-shirt he got free at a conference. Until he wore it in the presence of one of the most intelligent & nicest person I've had the pleasure to come across. I'm not quite sure of the nature of his illness but its controlled by medication. I'd never have known he had a problem unless he'd told us and the reason he told us was because of the t-shirt!

The lady who posted that spent many years dealing with Post Natal Depression and then agoraphobia. But nevertheless was / is one of the funniest, most caring people I know, and had plenty of time for me when I was in a dark place. The hardest thing is to actually TALK about it, but I'm so glad that she (and others) did for me. Now I would never be afraid to ask the question "do you want to talk about it?" The worst that can happen is that they say "no".