Toleration
Barbara Bohm, Americus
Friday, May 29, 2009
WE ARE ASKED to be accepting and tolerant of each other. As a person who suffers from mental illness, a disease I did not choose to have, I ask for your tolerance and understanding, even if some of my behaviors appears odd or unusual.
Look at a teen with headphones on, his lips moving silently. A normal child, you say? Or a child with severe schizophrenia who is hearing voices not over the radio, but masking it so as not to be stared at?
The mentally ill are nothing if not odd. Each person in this category may have only a few or dozens of odd traits whereby they just don’t quite fit into mainstream society. Some of the symptoms of mental illness go beyond the word “odd” and can actually be disabling to the individual. Odd traits both visible and invisible to the eye, but no less troubling, painful, limiting, or disabling to the person. Medicine and therapy can modify these behaviors so the mentally ill can better fit in. Tolerance on everyone’s part is also a great aid. Be a hero! Be nice to someone today; you may improve someone’s life more than you can know.
Barbara Bohm
Americus
dalelinn (Dale Linn) says...
Amen
May 29, 2009 at 8:33 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
hottopics (anonymous) says...
My son who suffers from a disorder, finally broke down in school because he could not take the kids making fun of him any more. We begged for help from the schools who continually forced him to remain with the regular class. He wrote how he felt, his teacher turned him in and we are fighting a felony charge for it. People can be so illiterate in all aspects of life. Thank you for reminding people without challenges to be more caring of those less fortunate.
May 29, 2009 at 8:55 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
hottopics, it sounds as if you are blaming the teacher for the felony charge being levied against your son. If there are serious threats made in a student's writing, the teacher is required to turn that in.
May 31, 2009 at 6:28 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )