The sudden thudding of heart, those hot flashes, racing pulse, galloping blood pressure and a constant feeling of being out of control. All this and more leave a mark everyday on what is called ‘a life of a person suffering from mental illness’.
Saying hello to Mental stigma and discrimination is like summoning to stress, anxiety, frustration, shame, depression, fear, grief and much much more. Every time you get closer to a person and they start unraveling their secrets, I realize how deceptive our perceptions of people really are.

It is so easy to believe someone’s life is a definition of perfection and flawlessness just because we cannot see the sadness behind those smiles. It is so easy to think that all the hardships only fall upon us and not others. It’s so easy to blame God and ask ‘Why us?’. Just because you cannot see others sufferings doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, just as a smiling person doesn’t necessarily equate to being a happy person.

Imagine being bombarded with voices from invisible forces, and stripped off your ability to understand what is real and what is not. When you discover you cannot trust your senses. When your mind starts playing tricks on you, and when your family and friends seem part of a conspiracy to harm you.

IT IS LIKE BATTLING WHEN THE ENEMY’S STRATEGY IS TO CONVINCE YOU THAT THE BATTLE AIN’T ACTUALLY TAKING PLACE.

 Once a mind is tattooed with negative and pessimistic thinking, then the individual can never be successful. Trying to escape being trapped in a bubble of anxiety disorders, emotional traumas, unusual fears, and mental discrimination is not as easy as it seems to be.

So, let’s join hands together and tell those mentally ill people out there that they don’t need to fear change at all. There’s no need to pretend that they are fine, no need to make their life complicated and pretend that things can’t get better. They don’t need to stop asking questions just because they think that they already know the answers and that they will haunt them back.

“You are not your illness. You have an individual story to tell. You have a name, a history, a personality.” – Julian Seifte.

So, never reckon that you are alone. NEVER. LIVE IN THE MOMENT.LAUGH, CRY, SING AND DANCE BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN TOMORROW.

Submitted by Areeba Qureshi