Today, we celebrate Mental Illness Awareness Week
At Project Animal Freedom, we strive to build a welcoming, thriving community no matter one’s sex, sexuality, skin color, socioeconomic status, senescence, species, or disability status. Today, I would like to highlight Mental Illness Awareness Week by discussing my own struggles with mental health.
I was born with a neurological condition known as Asperger’s, a form of high-functioning autism characterized by social difficulties, poor eye contact, and intense passions. While my case is mild thanks to nearly two decades of therapy, Asperger’s continues to have a profound impact on my life. I still struggle to understand the perspective of others, and I remain ruthlessly goal-driven on my foremost passion: building a fully just, sustainable world free from the tyranny of factory farms and slaughterhouses. This relentless focus on the rights, lives, and wellbeing of others is so intense, I spend little time doing much else, much to my mother’s chagrin; I fail to clean the house, and I fail to take proper care of my body. I also struggle to form romantic relationships due to my all-consuming desires; who would want to date someone who only talks about animal rights, veganism, atheism, and politics?
Though Asperger’s is not technically a mental illness, it remains a pervasive developmental disorder that has substantially impacted my mental health, mostly in the form of strained, damaged, and permanently severed relationships. That said, I do struggle with bipolar disorder, a form of depression characterized by mood swings, manic and depressive episodes, and irritability. Bipolar disorder has had a major impact on my life. Prior to finding the proper medication to manage my condition, I was prone to temper tantrums once or twice a month. One of these temper tantrums may have cost me a major ally, and I sincerely regret what happened leading up to that incident. Over the years, several people have also noticed I periodically disappear from social media for months at a time. When I disappear from social media, I am not on a social media detox; I am undergoing a major depressive episode that makes even the simplest of tasks, like returning a text message or walking the dog, physically and mentally exhausting. During these periods, I crave sleep more than anything so I can be free from the toxic cocktail of thoughts roiling ceaselessly in my mind.
While mental illness can have a profound impact on one’s life, mental illness does not preclude the possibility of social, academic, and professional success; in fact, mental illness can be instrumental to achieving the extraordinary. Historical luminaries from Winston Churchill to Ernest Hemingway struggled with bipolar disorder; both were exceptional authors who won the Nobel Prize in literature, with Churchill referring to depression as his “black dog.” I also had the honor of being named the highest-scoring member of the All-Missouri Academic Team in 2016 thanks to my overwhelming fixation on animal ethics, leading to several groundbreaking essays on concepts at the cutting-edge of animal rights critical theory.
As depression continues to explode among millennials and other adults in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, it is more crucial than ever we fight the stigma surrounding mental illness and maintain open lines of communication; someone’s mental wellbeing and even continued existence could hinge on others’ willingness to communicate openly and support heartily.
