Why do we chastise what we don't understand?

SO did anyone pick up the example of the stigma we give possible mental illnesses in my last post?

I made a comment about the 'freak' who sniffs the chairs in parliament (West Australian State Government).  Did anyone else think he was a freak because of that too? he is not a freak, he just does something we don't all accept as normal behaviour or understand why he does the things he does.  It was an example of how we paint someone because of a certain behaviour in a negative light, you know give it the stigma, because we don't understand and it scares us.

ITS the same with DnA.  I was scared to speak up and say I had a problem because of what it might do with to my friends and family.  Would people start treating me different? Would I lose friends as a result of it?

SINCE taking responsibility for myself and my own actions, I have had to explain things to my wife which I always kept to myself.  How could she help me when I wouldn't tell her things about how I was feeling or what I was going through.  Of course she wasn't going to understand me.  And just as  I thought, she didn't understand my DnA or what I am going through. But now that it is out in the open, I have been given the opportunity to explain a lot of things with her just listening to me and taking it all in. I repeat things some times  as this is all new to her so she has plenty of questions but I am glad she is asking them.

SO what are you doing to help someone who is suffering from DnA or any mental illness?

WHAT are you doing yourself about your mental illness?

IT takes a lot of courage to take the step to get help and the bigger one to tell people about your condition.  But if there is one thing I have learnt over the past few weeks, taking those steps are the best things I could have ever done. Not only have I found friends who have been in the same place as me but now I don't have to feel like I am living a double life.  I am what I am and people are accepting of that, they may not understand it but the accept me for who I am.

JUST like the MP in WA, those close to him accept him even though they may not understand his actions.  It can be the same for you.

Neil