In another thread, someone posted a video of a person galloping like a horse. The title was LITERAL MENTAL ILLNESS. I commented, "Is it though?" Of course I got down voted to hell.

Several others replied to my comment with one word in all caps: YES

I wanted to reply, but I didn't, knowing how conflict-happy so many people are, and how most are unable to even consider another person's opinion/argument.

I wanted to say, "I'm a mental illness public speaker for NAMI (the Ending the Silence Program and the In Our Own Voice Program). I have mental illnesses. I've known plenty of people with zero mental illnesses who do outlandish stuff like gallop like a horse, and I've known plenty with extreme mental illness who lay on a couch all day. If the person in the video above has publicly stated that they have mental illness, I don't have a problem with the video title. But if you see odd behavior and immediately jump to the conclusion that the person must be mentally ill, well... that's messed up."

But again, I knew I would be down voted endlessly.

It's similar to when you make some sort of extremely imaginative, out there art piece and show it to a friend and they immediately say, "What drugs were you on to come up with that???"

Ugh.

"You're galloping like a horse? You're mentally ill!"

"You created that weird work of art? You're on drugs!"

...Or maybe you just have no imagination?

End rant. Thank you for reading.