Recovering Our Sense of Value After Being Labeled: Mentally Ill

Abstract

1. People with mental illness must know that mental illness does not mean they can no longer lead full lives. Role models--successful people who have mental illness--are needed. 2. There is a great danger in labeling a person as an illness. Once people believe they are an illness, there is no one left inside to take a stand toward the illness; they give up control and others take responsibility for them. 3. "High functioning" and "low functioning" are not attributes that exist inside a person. They are value judgments that are put on a person. There are no high-functioning or low-functioning people. There are people whose contribution we are able to see and value and there are those whose gifts we have failed to see and have failed to value.