Ellie Sage (she/they)

Marriage equality isn't fully here until poly people can marry each other.

I want people to stop being forced into hospitals and stripped of their autonomy.

I want people to stop being backed into a corner where they feel their only options are homelessness or suicide.

I want people to stop being murdered via their monetary benefits being cut, even though they desperately need them.

I want mentally ill, Mad and neurodivergent people to be supported in all areas of their life and enabled to live in the community. Not locked away in institutions.

I get that we need people to understand mental health better. But so much of this month is people watering down inclusion and equity to mean "Mad people should just stop being visibly Mad and then they can be accepted".

So. I don't know. "Mental health awareness month" falls so fucking flat for me. I don't want to assimilate, I want to be respected as an autonomous being and enabled to live a good life. Not fed another platitude about how "CBT will definitely help this time, trust, you just need to do it for a fifth time and try harder to get better!".

so much of it overlaps and if you disregard one or forget that one is just as important as the other you are not going to get anywhere (general you /mostly aimed at med providers and the health industry)

and those with mental health problems are more likely to be victims and are at greater risk of death than general population.

What privilege you have to be afforded the luxury to not be diagnosed and to mask effortlessly. Many aren't so "lucky" as others seem to put it.

Besides, the idea that you can't move out of your country for having a disability (mental or physical) is nonsense. It's possible, but people keep using New Zealand as an example of extreme restrictions when that country has every right to not accept immigrants.

A diagnosis isnt the end of the world, and if it is, maybe you should question why that is and do something about it instead of denying yourself of resources to help yourself and others.

There are genuinely those of us out there who did not get to choose to be diagnosed vs undiagnosed.

We did not get that option to choose.

We can’t work, we already can’t participate in things, we struggle immensely, we can’t mask.

Until they try looking for support and suddenly it's "There's no support for autistics like us", and "All the support is for high support needs autistics and I can't relate to them at all. It'll be uncomfortable being around that", and "They only make resources for children and high support needs autistics", and "I can't handle being around higher support needs. They make me angry. They're so annoying. Why can't they act normal", among so much more.