My Passion For Being a Mental Illness Advocate (Daily Word Prompt is Martyr)

To be a martyr is the best compliment a person could ever receive and is the strongest and best kind of person there is. However, I believe there are different types and degrees of martyrs in our lives and in the world.

The greatest, strongest and most important kind of martyr is one who chooses to be killed because of their religious beliefs. For example, he was martyred because he was a Christian and he admitted his strong love, faith and belief in Jesus Christ.

When someone asks me if I would die for Jesus Christ, I easily and quickly reply with the affirmation that I absolutely would die for Him. I love and live my life for Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior serving Him as often as I can throughout my life in as many ways as possible.

However, when I think deeper and further into that situation and question, I honestly don’t know for sure what I would do if I was truly put into a real life and death situation. Do any of us truly know what we would do when we were put into a life and death serious traumatic situation that could kill us?

When I truly think about it, I think visions of my three beautiful children would flash strongly, vividly and lovingly throughout my mind. So, would I choose to stay on this earth to live with my three children for a longer period of time or would I choose to die? How would I or any of us really know the true sincere honest answer to that question until we were put into that exact situation?

On the other hand, with absolute certainty I know for a fact that I would do anything to keep my three children alive. As a mother, I would be a martyr and die for my children. I would do anything to save their lives. For example, I would stand in front of 100 speeding bullets to save their lives.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was an activist who was a strong leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement and sadly was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. He was a martyr who lived and died fighting for equal rights for many people and made a positive huge impact by helping to change our views and laws on justice and equal rights in America today and f0rever.

I believe mental Illness Stigma is the Civil Rights Movement in America today and that we need to fight the prejudice, discrimination and the stigma that many people with mental illness are facing today in the United States of America and all over the world.

Another definition of martyr is a person who sacrifices something of great value and especially life itself for the sake of principle or one who makes great sacrifices or suffers much in order to further a belief, cause, or principle.

I have been living with a severe mental illness my entire life and to be more specific the many labels I have been given and added as ornaments to decorate my tree of life are Bipolar Disorder 1 with ultradian rapid cycling, mixed episodes, PTSD, Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Personality Disorder.

According to the definition I have been a martyr for Bipolar Disorder as I choose to be a voice for Bipolar Disorder to increase awareness and educate about all types of mental illness, but mostly Bipolar Disorder as that is my specialty as I have lived with it throughout my entire life and have researched it as much as possible.

I have spoken and written honestly to as many people as I can, given many presentations sharing my story, being a certified NAMI presenter, speaking to Police Officers and Social Workers and other professionals for their Crisis Intervention Training Program, spoke at local Universities and various other locations and spoke for our local television news station and for our local newspaper to increase awareness and education, reduce the stigma of mental illness and reduce the alarming increasing rate of the number of suicides due to mental illness.

Also, I have sometimes been open at my current jobs and at interviews that I have Bipolar Disorder knowing that I may be discriminated against due the current stigma about mental illness. Employers and coworkers are very smart in their ability to disguise their true stupidity and ignorance of discrimination, prejudice and the stigma of mental illness that still exists today.

For example, a few  years ago I was fired at the last Special Education Teaching job I worked at. I was teaching very well and successfully at the time as my Bipolar symptoms were very minimal and I was feeling awesome and very happy then.

However, the School District found out I have a mental illness and chose to fire me. I did win a wrongful termination lawsuit and won $15, 000, but I feel like I should have won more money for the discrimination and pain and suffering of how I was disgraced and terminated from my position out of the clear blue sky for no reason at all.

The school district used bogus reasons, such as I did not fill out my application honestly and completly. This was ridiculous and is an example of how jobs will and can use disguises so they will hide their true discrimination, ignorance, stupidity and cruelty of mental illness stigma. 

My attorney told me after the case was over that the true reason I was fired was because this particular school district does not want to have teachers with a severe mental illness like Bipolar Disorder teaching at their school as parents do not want teachers with a severe mental illness like Bipolar Disorder teaching their children. How cruel, ridiculous, stupid and unfair.

Even though I have lost a lot throughout my life due to the stigma of mental illness, I will always choose to speak loudly and honestly about sharing my story and my life living with a severe mental illness like Bipolar Disorder 1 to be an advocate and a voice for others that cannot speak for themselves.

I have a huge passion to increase awareness and education, to reduce the horrific and painful stigma that still roars loudly today throughout the United States and the world and to reduce suicide that continues to sadly increase at alarming rates.

A definition of martyr is a person who sacrifices something of great value for the sake of principle or…

A martyr is one who makes great sacrifices much in order to further a belief, cause, or principle.

So, using those definitions, it sounds like I am a martyr for being a mental Illness advocate. I never thought about it in those terms before, but I guess I am a Mental Illness and Bipolar Disorder Advocate and a “martyr.”

Wow! According to the definitions I have learned today….

I am a martyr for being a Bipolar Disorder and Mental Illness Advocate.

However, I definitely need to put this into perspective by adding the fact that the type of martyr I am is the safest kind of martyr with the lowest level of degree compared to those risking their lives for their martyrdom.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/martyr/

 

Advertisement