We’re doing a good job of raising awareness of mental illness but we need to be careful that we don’t label every emotional difficulty as an illness. Language is powerful, using medical terminology to describe a normal emotional reaction is unhelpful – we need to learn to manage our normal emotions as just that.
Who defines what disables us? When alone in my home, I’m not disabled but when asked to interact with the world around me, at times I’m severely disabled, not by my conditions but by my environment.
Responsibly, accurate depiction of mental illness is needed to raise awareness. We need to be be awareness that young people can be easily influenced into some behaviours but this does not mean we should shy away from the truth about the reality of eating disorders.
