The One I Love --- Synchroblog, #BlessedAreTheCrazy

Thanks to our news media discussions about "mental illness" often conjure images of mass shootings, celebrity suicides, or controversial court cases. Hollywood, on the other hand, tends to romanticize mental illness, more or less suggesting that all one needs to overcome a debilitating mood disorder is a quirky girl that really "gets you." 

 While I don't think I'm quirky enough to replace someones medication, I do happen to be in love with a wonderful man diagnosed with a mental illness. 
And it's hard. 

It's hard enduring ignorant comments from our friends. 
It's hard negotiating who will receive this information with kindness and who will judge. 
It's hard watching him swallow pill after pill and go to sleep nauseous. 
But harder than all of that is knowing there are some days when there is no way to convince him that he is loved. 

Today (October 7th)  is the National Day of Prayer for Mental Illness Recovery and Understanding. So pray — not for the media caricatures, but for real people who live with a mental illness. 

 Pray. And when you are done praying get to work — ending the stigmas and the misrepresentations and the insensitivity and the marginalization. Do it because we are all connected. Do it because someone you know may be suffering in silence. Do it for any and all reasons. Do it for the one I love. 

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