asalamu alaikum,


Today while sitting and waiting to see my psychiatrist i happened to flip through a recent edition of Bipolar Magazine. a 49 year old bipolar muslimah from the eastern US wrote in a letter to the editor, name withhelf of course, talking about how she lives in shame with the illness because her muslim community has prejudices against the disease. subhannaAllah.

but i ask, what community doesnt have prejudices against the mentally ill? dr. P and i chatted today for an hour and one of the things he mentioned was that the medical community as a whole is incredibly prejudiced against the mentally ill. can you imagine? people who have trained and studied and live their lives assisting people who are unwell... sadly, i knew what he was saying was true. a year ago i went to a new doctor, she was young and clearly affluent. it was the intake meeting and she was getting to know me. i was feeling really good that day and was dressed nicely and was very very relaxed. we chatted for about 15 minutes and she asked me "what do you take the epival for?" i calmly replied "ah, for bipolar disorder" and what did the bigotted ninny say? "oh yes, i could tell that you are very stressed and upset." ???????????????? you gotta be kidding me. did i ever go back to see her? nope. why would i bother? the amount of prejudice we (the mentally ill) face on a daily basis - at work, in our families, amongst our friends, on tv and in movies....- is enough to tide us over. why do we need to purposely subject ourselves to it?

so when a middle aged bipolar muslimah writes to a bipolar periodical, saying that her community (we the Muslims) have a lack of understanding and prejudice against the mentally ill, i dont disagree. but i do ask to be enlightened about what community accepts us with open arms, complete understanding, and a total lack of prejudice and fear? there isnt one.

so yes, our communities (all faith groups, ethnic groups ...) need to be educated. we the biopolar people (and the depressed people, the obsessive compulsive and the schizophrenics...) need to reach out and show ourselves to be the creative, intelligent, and unique people that we are. we need to take the stigma away from those who would seek to forever label us, slander us, and target us with their campaigns of fear and ignorance. the governments and local health agencies can do all the campaigns that they want attempting to portray the mentally ill as normal and well adjusted folk, but the true onus is on us, my brothers and sisters in mental illness. we are the ones who need to come out of the shadows and speak about our experiences, our triumphs and our failures.

it just takes a single step, a lot of faith, and the support of people who understand... may Allah subhanahu wa tala guide us all to take this first step. inshaAllah.



masalama