Get Back To Me On That Trump
As much as I really dislike reading constantly about Trump, this is a response to the Trump's statement made during a Q and A at the Retired Warriors Pac.
“When people come back from war and combat and they see maybe what the people in this room have seen many times over, and you’re strong and you can handle it, but a lot of people can’t handle it,” Trump said.
Wonder why stigmas are still around?
Admitting that I needed help was the strongest thing that I ever did, ask anyone whose done it and I can assure you it is the toughest thing that someone has to do.
It's ignorant statements like this that perpetuate the stigma that being "sick" is "weak". It's not weak. One of the strongest and bravest thing that you can do is recognize that this is not the way you want to be living. When you get someone telling you that you should just suck it up, you not only question the validity of your state but you also have an overwhelming sense of shame that you aren't "strong" enough. The feeling of inadequacy just compounds your negative feelings. And the most tragic FACT is that it's not that they can't handle it. It's that there is PHYSICAL wiring of your brain that makes you react to triggers in a detrimental way.
Telling someone they should just suck it up for a couple more days is basically like telling someone in a body cast that they should just suck it up and run. This also blatantly undermines the dire need for more access to health care by insinuating that people are simply making too much of a fuss and can handle a couple of days longer without care. What if that turns into weeks, months, or in the case of the inpatient program I was in a year ago- the government-funded beds having a 4-year waitlist? According to Trump, some people just aren't "strong" enough to wait for that help. According to reality though, when you're in such a state that impacts your daily activities to such an extent that makes you question if you want to live, like being in a full-body cast, or having a mental illness- it doesn't seem unreasonable to want to get access to that help a little earlier. (Don't worry though, only like 2 years earlier, or else we'd be asking for too much right Trump?) A little earlier may be the difference between someone realizing how much they were really struggling, and dealing with the issue before it gets worse. Or them dismissing the problem as "just being weak" and the problem getting worse and worse until they no longer want to go into treatment because they've gone so deep.
It's fucking strong to ask for help to get out of that state. Don't belittle other people's experiences and pains, because you have no clue what could be going on in their mind, and how much mental AND physical strength it takes to simply EXSIST with those problems every day. We are already strong, it's not our own tenacity that should be questioned, but the reason we even question if we're just not "putting in enough effort".
Though I've never suffered from PTSD personally, I know that fighting mental illness is, for lack of a better expression, fucking hard. You're fighting something that is ever-present in your mind, therefore affecting every. single. thing. you. do. Is it weak to not want to be living in a state of terror and anxiety? Is it weak for me to admit that I'm ready to put in the painstaking work of digging into past experiences and physically rewire my brain by facing my biggest fears?
Get back to me on that Trump.