"7th October 2015"

Am I able to make my own decision? Yes, I am able to do so. Other people would think that people with mental disabilities are unable to make their own decision. Surely, I need hope and dignity to stay on. No one ever wants to be treated unjustly but people with mental disabilities often experience such case.

When we travel by plane to another country, we have to fill in a form about our health. There is a question which I do not like to answer. It’s some sort of, “Do you have mental illness?” Normally, I just tick no because my mental health is currently under control. The media conveys that mental illness people are dangerous. Movies also convey the same message to the audience for example the recent movie in theatre “The Visit”.  In the movie, mental illness people are psycho and so we have to stay away from them.

I remember when I was in a lift and a boy talked to his parents with terror in his eyes, “Oh, this floor is for the mental illnesses.” My friends visited me while I was in a ward. They brought me to walk around and I met such a little boy. Even though there is a statistic which states that mental illness people normally tend to harm themselves and those without mental illnesses are more dangerous but most of the people still think that mental illness people are psycho.

Actually there are a lot of people with mental illnesses but they prefer to keep it a secret because the society cannot accept us. Homosexual people fight in high spirit to get all the rights they want. They even have gay pride demonstration yearly so that more and more people would accept them. I think to myself, could mental illness people do the same thing? The number of mental illness people for sure a lot more than the homosexual group.

Could we, stand together to fight for a better life? Anyhow, before that, I have to make sure that my mental health is under control. I can perform as good as other employees in my company. I can be a good son to take care of my parents.