Now I’m a little nervous about going to work on Thursday. That will be my first day of work since making the post yesterday. Six of my coworkers are on my friends list, and I’m wondering if they’re going to look at me like I’m crazy now. I’m leaving it up, not going to delete it, screw it. I know at least one of my coworkers saw it, since she gave it a like. The fact that those coworkers are my fb friends is one of the reasons I did it, though, so it’s maybe a little stupid for me to be nervous now. I guess I did it because I want to be understood, if that makes any sense.
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Kudos to you. Well done on putting it out there 
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You’re brave for being able to do that. I know I wouldnt be able to but its a great step in fighting stigma towards mental illness. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to care less about what ppl think and do the same
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I actually typed out the post in a Word document about three months ago, just took me until yesterday to work up the nerve to finally post it.
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I wish you the best of luck in coming out to your friends. Hopefully everything goes smoothly. Does your HR person know about sz?
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We don’t have an HR dept per se, but my boss knows I’m sza.
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Well I guess the worst of it in that it could affect your employment is not there. You just have to worry if your friends are going to hold it against you. Anyway hope it goes well for you.
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I’m hoping to get a computer programming-related job, so that having a mental illness wouldn’t be too impacting especially with the profession’s lack of social environment.
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I think I kind of see things a little differently. What do you gain from doing this? Apart from hoping people see you warts and all, I’m not sure what the accomplishment was. You might (key word: might) be the recipient of stigmatization that you would not have before. Selectively choosing friends to “come out to,” is more understandable, but this is your workplace we’re talking about. I’m not trying to be crass or crude or ridiculous, but some things co-workers don’t need to know. Who knows what people are concealing when you meet them. Some may have strange tastes in sex (strange to you, that is), or erectile dysfunction, or a kid who is addicted to drugs, or any number of things that are potentially embarrassing that they’re not telling you. Aside from clearing your conscience, I’m not sure if this was the right thing to do. But, the cat’s out of the bag now, so I just hope this all works out for you (it might).
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What’s a facebook?
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I did this a while back and I couldn’t be happier about it. I faced some additional stigma from some people, but overall I am happier and it is very freeing to not feel like I have a terrible secret to hide. It’s weird, but telling everyone helped make me to get rid of my own self-stigma. We need more people to stand up and proudly out ourselves. It humanizes us and makes people less afraid.
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You are very brave and what you did, in my opinion, is not only an individual act of fighting the stigma but it matters in a larger perspective, for every human affected with mental illness. If more people would come out, the easier would be to humanize and naturalize those fearful words such as schizophrenia is.
I sincerely hope that the world
will gain more and more understanding as the time pass. And I’m pretty sure that your colleagues will now respect you even more.
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I agree with you, too. but it seems that keeping the secret was causing more harm than good, in this case. he had even written about it, 3 months prior. at least it’s off his chest now.
I understand your take on it. Hiding it, though, was doing me more harm than good, as @sirBoring said. Keeping the secret was bothering me. Also, at least now they will understand my frequent call-offs, as well as why I take breaks - taking breaks other than lunch, even though we’re entitled to those breaks, is frowned upon by some people there. As far as the call-offs, and there have been over 15 in less than two years at that job, I know a lot of my coworkers think I’m ok with screwing them over that way. Maybe some of the nastiness about that stuff will stop (or at least lessen). Regarding the breaks, there’s one supervisor who puts up a big fuss if one of us wants to take a break, and who can/will make our lives more difficult if we do so, to the point that we all know not to take a break if she’s the only supervisor there to ask. Perhaps if word of this gets back to her she will understand that I need breaks, and that it’s not just about smoking a cigarette; work is hell for me if all I get in 8 hours is a half hour lunch. There’s also the matter of coworkers joking about mental illness, like saying things about “the crazies at St. Charles;” I hope they will realize what the hell they’re saying, and that maybe they shouldn’t say it (at least when I’m present). I realize they may still slip up and say such things, though. You could be right about me risking more stigmatization, but I see the potential good in this outweighing the potential bad. Not to mention the issue of simply getting it off my chest.
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This is brave, man. I have created a video about my schizophrenia but I still haven’t got the guts to post it.
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Good luck with it @scoobasteve, I hope it turns out for the best.
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good for you for doing it
Very good
Very brave
Now tell them all your accomplishments
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I consider my biggest accomplishment to be my teaching job, which I’ve held onto for more than six years now, and my master’s degree, which made the teaching job possible. They all know about that stuff. If anything, I emphasize that sort of stuff and downplay my many failures.
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