I find myself being insensitive to the physically disabled (or a more proactive name, -challenged) as I understand more about mental illness than what are going through by the handicapped, the deaf, the blind, etc.
Do you think is there any “competition” between the Physically disabled and the Mentally ill? Would a physically disabled, likewise, being insensitive to the mentally ill?
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Or should it even be called
Healthcare
Maybe. I think we have different experiences and it can be harder to understand what someone is going through if you aren’t going through it yourself.
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Physically challenged people are lot more stronger then mentally challenged…!!!
That’ what i say…!!! People having mental illness are no more than a corpse lying in the coffin…!!!
Soory for the bad words…!!!
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The general public seems to have more sympathy towards the physically challenged.
I also notice that Homeless Veterans also get a lot of sympathy and public support.
People diagnosed with Schizophrenia or another Psychotic disorder seem to get the least amount of sympathy and support.
We are often times misunderstood and stigmatized.
Makes me sad …
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Normally when I read or hear “mentally challenged,” I think of people with below average IQ, but I knew what you meant. I agree with @Wave that people tend to be far more sympathetic to people with physical difficulties than they are toward those of us with severe/psychotic mental illnesses. People are more likely to be afraid of us, or to be creeped out by us, then to show us any compassion. That’s not true of all people, but just people in general.
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I can’t tell you how steamed I get when someone said to me “Come on, you’re able-bodied!” In a world so technologically advanced the brain is a bit more important than the body. But people just take for granted how mentally complex all our movements and processes really are. For the undamaged brain there’s a lot more automation.
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Plus
Fog over meds
Fatigue
Other side effects
Two very different areas, both with different challenges. A lot of the time people with severe physical disability also develop mental illnesses like depression so I imagine a lot of them can understand mental illness or at least the suffering of it. Meanwhile most with mental illness do not have severe physical disability so maybe less with mental illness could understand those issues. Even if we can’t understand the struggle of the other we should always respect that struggle.
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At least with a physical disability you are yourself all of the time and not just when taking meds.
I agree with what others are saying in here about psychotic mental illnesses being misunderstood and judged harshly. I personally would take a physical disability any day over my mental disability.
But with the mental disability there is a lot more hope for the future than with a physical disability so it’s a tough call.
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I’m the type of guy who think it’s not a very good thing to compare two misfortunes. Both the physically-challenged and the mentally-challenged have it hard.
of course, I’m quite sure that the public think differently though, and have more pity for the physically-challenged than they have for the mentally-challenged; since the physically-challenged usually have very apparent disadvantages.
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Thank you everyone, I think @sirBoring was right, it is not healthy to compare the two misfortunes. Plus, I made quite a number of grammar mistake and it is embarrassing.
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