I'm going to share where all this comes from. I've been in disability rights meetings and rallies where mentioning I have mental health issues were discounted as just being said. That panic attacks could be solved by not being a coward.

I've had people say they understood my depression because they were sad over their fave Crapbuxs drink being cancelled. And this is when I turned to them because I knew how close I was too being suicidal.

In the past weeks, I've been having multiple conversations on campus with people insisting there can be no exceptions for wearing masks. I'll bring up the ADA Southeast/Burton Blatt white paper that lists disability reasons. The response is that always to dismiss them.

Every dismissal is based on belittling the issue to a much more minor reaction. Panic attacks are just being uncomfortable. PTSD reactions are just not letting go of something.

This is the same as depression just being sad, OCD as checking the door lock twice, etc.

Or it gets worse when people call black people scared of interacting with the police as paranoid, a person who has lots of passions as schizo, and more.

It's all part of systemic, institutionalized bias against anything that is not mentally normal. And guess what?

All of us are impacted by that ingrained culture, even those of us with mental health issues!! We apply those biases and bigotries to each other to keep each other down.

None of us are perfect. We hate being called out on our behavior. But we still need to listen to each other.

Or don't and die. That seems to be the way people want to go. I should stop caring if I knew how to.

But don't listen to me. I'm just some mentally unwell person who may not be on her meds. But that's what a lot of people will first ask. Are you crazy? Are you off your meds?

Go ahead and ask that shit and know that the only ounce of caring I give you is that I hate you and if it were possible to be on a different planet than you, I would take up that offer now.