The Beautiful Face of Mental Illness
Kasey Woods on the pain that lies behind far too many smiles
What does success look like? I played around with the idea of that for years and continuously tried to mold myself to fit that warped view of perfection that I painted in my mind. This was even truer during my years as a publicist in the music industry. I used what I perceived as the success of others as inspiration of who I should be, what I should do even who I should know, but no matter what I believed, it just wasn’t enough because it wasn’t reality. It was the fictitious expectations of someone that didn’t know any better. I realize my errors in such folly and from that I have grown.
Today, I ask you to do the same but instead of identifying what you think of when you hear the word success, tell me what you think of when hear the term “mental illness.” Whose face do you see? Is it the crazy guy in front of the bodega that talks to himself and screams obscenities at passersby? Is it the cousin no one talks about that lives in an institution who everyone only visits on major holidays? Maybe it’s the old lady down the street that has 20 cats and doesn’t let anyone past her front door? Yeah, that’s crazy right?
Read the full article at EBONY
(http://www.ebony.com/wellness-empowerment/the-beautiful-face-of-mental-illness-042#axzz2tidIX4UA)
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