Welcome to my blog!

Let me start out by saying that I do live with a mental illness. I have been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder or Complex PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome).

This does not mean that I can not function in the real world. This diagnosis does not mean that I am crazy or need to be treated differently to other people.

What this means is that I see the world in a strange way. I see it through a broken window.. The cracks distort the reality somewhat.

The purpose of this blog isto make people aware of mental illness. I will endeavour to post links about all kinds of disorders and other people's accounts of living with them.

Personally I can talk about depression, anxiety and borderline personality disorder. However, I have spent time in hospital during "critical" times in my life and I have been around a lot of people with other disorders.

Some disorders are scary, especially for the person who "suffers" from it. Other disorders just make it hard for people to connect with others.

Whatever way a disorder might affect someone, it does not mean that they are crazy, will try to kill you (where did that particular idiocy start??) or that you will even know they are "ill". I wonder just how many of your friends, colleagues and aquaintances have known someone or might even "suffer" from a mental illness themselves?

I plan on challenging people's beliefs and the stigma that is associated with mental illness. I am personally very tired of listening to people complain about "not knowing" that someone has a mental illness. Does it make a difference? In some cases, fine, it does. However in many more cases it does not matter one bit. It is like determining friends on hair colour, job, wages or even weight. Not only is this practice rude but it is superficial. Are there really people out there who judge their friends or aquaintances on these things?

If you're interested in keeping up to date with what I'm researching or standing on my soap box about, please subscribe. I would also love to hear stories and experiences other people have had if anyone would like to share them.

Thanks for reading The Beginning!

Cheers,

Raznay