AMPERS
Diverse Radio for Minnesota's Communities
It’s painful for people with mental illness to feel that you’re not sick enough to be taken seriously.
You don’t have to prove you’re hurt. This is an illness. That’s what I say when I’m talking to people about mental illness, but I have to say it to myself too.
Kate Eifrig: The stigma and the shame put on top of it says: you don't deserve to feel this bad. You’re making it up. You're overdramatizing it, it's all in your head. And the ironic thing is, it is all in your head because that's where the organ is that’s screwing up.
Host: This is Keep Moving Forward.
George H.W. Bush: Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down.
Host: Exploring the legacy and promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Kate Eifrig: I am Kate Eifrig. What I have is refractory treatment-resistant major clinical depression and generalized anxiety disorder, with PTSD and social anxiety disorder as well.
Each one of those diagnoses validates something that's real, and gives you something to fight.
I have an invisible disability but at the same time, it becomes visible when I walk into a room and I have a service dog. When you have a service dog sometimes people take things a little bit less seriously. It “cute-ifies” the disability, which is really painful for people with mental illnesses where you feel that you're not sick enough to be taken seriously.
You don't have to prove you're hurt. This is an illness. And that's what I say over and over when I'm talking to people about mental illness, but I have to say it to myself, too.
Host: Keep Moving Forward is supported by The Minnesota Council on Disability, The Minnesota Humanities Center and the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund, online at Ampers.org.