Olympic gymnast Simone Biles has gotten a lot of media attention lately. She certainly has captured my attention–and not because of her outstanding feats as a gymnast (although that was why I originally noticed her five years ago). She’s gotten my attention lately for dropping out of several Olympic events, citing her mental health.
I, for one, applaud Biles for taking care of her mental health. I love that she did not put her sport before it and bow to the pressure put on her by her country (especially her country’s media). She is taking care of her mind.
Biles’ attention to her mental health got me thinking. What’s happened to respect for mental health in our society?
During this pandemic in which we have been for almost a year and a half now, there’s been a lot of babble about preserving mental health during a pandemic. However, I have seen no good ideas or clear suggestions on how to do so. Everybody’s all talk and no action.
Mental illness, in particular, needs to be respected more in society. People with it are often labeled as “crazy,” “psycho,” or “schizo,” to use a sample of ableist terms. I remember being in a small group Bible study some 18 years ago and one young woman asking for prayer because she had just been diagnosed with depression. When she uttered the word “depression,” her voice dropped to a whisper, as if she were telling us she had committed a crime. Her shame at having depression was clearly evident, and I pitied her for kowtowing to the stigma that depression has (and other mental illnesses have).
Instead of ostracizing people with mental illness, we need to start accepting them–just as many are encouraging people to accept those on the autism spectrum. (Aside: Being on the autism spectrum is not the same as having a mental illness.) We need to accept the little eccentricities and idiosyncrasies of each mentally ill person. This does not mean that we should let them do things that are harmful to themselves or others (and not all of them do!), but we all need to remember that people with mental illness are not weird or odd. They want what the rest of us want–to be accepted. I saw a variation of this as a meme on social media and I could not have said it better myself.