I'm not ashamed.

Quite often I get messages off people on facebook asking me things like, why am I so open about my mental illnesses, why aren’t I keeping it a secret, why aren’t I ashamed of it.

Well, I’ve kept it a secret for years (I still do keep some stuff to myself), I used to make up excuses as to why I missed school, I wouldn’t tell anyone. It then came to a point, where I couldn’t keep making up excuses, I had to start being honest, especially when rumours started up about me. I think being honest is one of the best things I’ve ever done.

Since then, I’ve had people come up to me and message me saying things like:

You’ve made me feel that I’m not alone.

I’ve been going through a similar thing, but I’ve never spoken to anyone about it.

I’ve even had messages saying that if it wasn’t for me persuading them to get help and to not be ashamed of feeling depressed etc, they would be dead.

These things mean so much to me. The fact, apparently, I’m helping other people by speaking up about mental illnesses is a big thing to me. So many people are ashamed of what they’re going through, and scared about being judged. It’s not fair. An illness is an illness whether it’s physical or mental. It should be nothing to be ashamed of, and you shouldn’t have to hide it.

I say to myself, that I didn’t ask for a mental illness, like the way people don’t ask to have a broken leg. People aren’t ashamed to have a broken leg, so why should I be ashamed to be mentally ill.

I just want to say a huge thank you, to all the people who have supported me through thick and thin, it means so much to me. If anyone has anything they’d like to discuss about this then feel free to send me a message. I felt alone for years, and I’d hate to see someone else feel like that.