Are you Mentally Different?

"Yes, I've got these conditions - anxiety, depression, addiction - and they almost killed me. But they are also my superpowers. I'm the canary in the mine and you need my sensitivity because I can smell toxins in the air that you can't smell, see trouble you don't see and sense danger you don't feel. My sensitivity could save us all. And so instead of letting me fall silent and die - why don't we work together to clear some of this poison from the air?


What we who are mentally different need is respect. We know we need help managing our mental differences, but what we ask for is a shift in your approach to helping us. Instead of coming at us with the desire to change us because we are inconvenient to the world - come at us with the desire to help us because we are important to the world. We want you to see that with a little help, we can be your prophets, healers, clergy, artists and activists. Help us manager our fire, yes, but don't try to extinguish us. And so we don't want you to take what we've got, we just want help learning how to use what we've got for good."

- Why the World Needs the Mentally Different