Kids with mental disorders get pushed down a bad path early on. I was recently told that I most likely have bipolar disorder and we are doing more tests to confirm it. My entire early childhood I was labeled the bad kid because I would get depressed and start crying in class, I would get angry and paranoid, etc. I was compared to the girl from The Exorcist by adults because I was hearing demonic voices at night. I didn’t go to church as a kid because another 6 year old at Sunday School beat me with a Bible because I admitted that I had thought of suicide before which is a major sin. After I committed suicide in third grade other kids’ parents used it as a reason not to invite me to playdates or let their kids play at my house.

Aside from the alienation, BP causes paranoia which makes it hard to trust anyone. So then kids with problems are cut off from positive groups which would guide them down the right path in life. They then get sucked into “edgy” groups mainly in adolescence (age 9 to 21) where they encourage bad behavior and encourage you to define your identity by your illness. It’s toxic for everyone involved. After I committed suicide again other “edgy emo kid” group members were glorifying it and telling me I now have street cred. I made a comment saying I was scared of getting an infection because I hadn’t taken my antibiotics and then they said they were jealous because I would get attention if I had to go to the hospital. Then people made suicide attempts but set them up to fail to prove that they were really struggling since nobody in their family was taking their illness seriously. I did it once myself. I was caught in this mentality but I’m glad I made it out. If you do anything to improve your life then you get called “normie” which is a derogatory term for people without mental disorders.

I think that if we can get the kids with mental disorders on a better trajectory it would reduce their incarceration rates, drug abuse and suicidal tendencies as well.

I have a plan for how to improve the situation but I’m not sure how to implement it.

1. Take children’s emotions seriously
2. Teach healthy ways to get attention and support
3. Spread the message that while mental illness is horrible, the people who have them are not
4. Treat kids with mental health disorders the same way you would treat other kids. Don’t call them creepy or make insulting comparisons.