YOU ARE NOT YOUR MENTAL ILLNESS

 I'm definitely going to get into trouble for this one...but I can't not say it.

𝙔𝙊𝙐 𝘼𝙍𝙀 𝙉𝙊𝙏 𝙔𝙊𝙐𝙍 𝙈𝙀𝙉𝙏𝘼𝙇 𝙄𝙇𝙇𝙉𝙀𝙎𝙎

We tell people with mental disorders all the time ‘𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠’. We tell them this to enable them to accept treatment and to help them to see that they are, in fact, suffering from an illness.

We spend a fortune on mental health services and counselling to help people to separate their perception of reality from actual reality. We have psychiatric services, hospitals, clinics, and doctors all dedicated to helping people to bring their thoughts in line with reality.

There are many examples of how we do this. I’ll list a few in 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 basic terms:

• We tell people with anorexia they are not fat.

• We tell people with schizophrenia that there is nobody whispering into their brain.

• We tell those with OCD that nothing bad will happen if you don’t flick the light switch 4 times.

• We tell those with depression that life will get better for them.

• We tell those who are suicidal that we wouldn’t be better off without them.

• We tell those with PTSD that the situation is in the past and is not happening right now.

• We tell those with illusions that what they see/perceive is not real…

There are, of course, many more examples of how mental illness is treated by trying to align the patient’s thoughts with their surrounding reality.

However, there is one notable exception that is becoming more and more difficult to ignore…

𝗚𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥 𝗗𝗬𝗦𝗣𝗛𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗔

I am not trying to pretend that I am an expert, I cannot imagine the mental anguish of people who suffer from gender dysphoria and I genuinely sympathise with their plight.

However, from my point of view, this is the one area where the entire medical establishment seems to have broken from the mantra ‘𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴.’

With the issue of a person feeling like they are in the ‘wrong body’, there is becoming less of an effort to align that person’s feelings with reality.

The reality is that they are either male or female. That is a biological reality (with the exception of the miniscule number of physically intersex people). When a person ‘feels’ they are in the body of the wrong sex, there is an obvious break from reality. This used to be fully accepted by doctors and lay people alike.

What changed? What happened that those same doctors will now join in the delusion that a person can be born in the body of the wrong gender?

Far from saying ‘𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠’; many are now saying ‘𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒅𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒈𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒐𝒃𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚.’

Bᴜᴛ ᴏɴʟʏ ɪɴ ᴛʜɪs ᴏɴᴇ ᴀʀᴇᴀ.

And not only that. Now the doctors, politicians, activists etc are trying to make it mandatory that we all enter into the delusion too. Now I must suspend my actual, tangible, observable reality (on pain of imprisonment in some countries) so that the gender dysmorphic person is made comfortable in their delusion.

Surely there is something wrong with that?

Or are we now supposed to tell people with schizophrenia that the tv is actually sending them messages, or tell the person with an eating disorder that they are fat and ugly etc??

If not, why not?

Where does it end?