Comics and Crazy People
It's not sort of thing you expect to find at the end of a link trail that started with a woman's erotic comic, this guy here has a number of comics about his experiences working in a psychiatric ward, but also about the people committed there. He has several that hit personal notes for me. This one on self harm, in a lot of way; the one line, "My mother would think it was all about her," especially. I can say from experience that that's not just an attitude held towards self injury (disgustingly common though that is). Because these things aren't. About. You. And frankly, it hurts having someone trivialize your pain to something as petty as "getting back," and trying to usurp it and take it away from you. Those last three panels are beautiful, though.
These pages also hit on something I've been thinking about a fair bit. tallguywrites talks about how discrimination against the mentally ill is still acceptable, and in a lot of ways I feel like that's true? There's stigma, myths, and down right lies attached to mental illnesses and a lot of times it feels like nobody is doing anything to dispel them. Obviously, this is a topic close to me so it may be that I'm being oversensitive to its absence, but it does feel to me like, in broad discussions about -isms and representation, rights and privilege, the mentally ill are completely cut out. It's like we're invisible. People spend a lot of time talking about women's health care, free health care, health care for the disabled. But it feels like not too many people are talking about mental health care, and there is a difference. It would help a lot if more people would accept that mental illnesses are physical illnesses, maybe.
It's not that I think discussions about mental illness are more important, or that the mentally ill are "more oppressed." Nothing like that. It's just, a lot of time walk away from discussions about the status quo feeling like I've learned something, enlightened, validated, happy that people are talking about things that need to be talked about, but also like, "Yes, but what about me? You're still stepping on me!"
I don't know.
Anyways, links for you.
These pages also hit on something I've been thinking about a fair bit. tallguywrites talks about how discrimination against the mentally ill is still acceptable, and in a lot of ways I feel like that's true? There's stigma, myths, and down right lies attached to mental illnesses and a lot of times it feels like nobody is doing anything to dispel them. Obviously, this is a topic close to me so it may be that I'm being oversensitive to its absence, but it does feel to me like, in broad discussions about -isms and representation, rights and privilege, the mentally ill are completely cut out. It's like we're invisible. People spend a lot of time talking about women's health care, free health care, health care for the disabled. But it feels like not too many people are talking about mental health care, and there is a difference. It would help a lot if more people would accept that mental illnesses are physical illnesses, maybe.
It's not that I think discussions about mental illness are more important, or that the mentally ill are "more oppressed." Nothing like that. It's just, a lot of time walk away from discussions about the status quo feeling like I've learned something, enlightened, validated, happy that people are talking about things that need to be talked about, but also like, "Yes, but what about me? You're still stepping on me!"
I don't know.
Anyways, links for you.