This is Sophie Eliza. She was, is and shall continue to be a vibrant young student with a full and rich life ahead of her. However, like so many people, she suffers from mental illness.
On February 14 Sophie decided to take a bold step to raise awareness of a rarely-discussed issue. So she published on Facebook an explanation of how her condition affects her. The response was phenomenal and the 20-year-old went viral.
There were plenty of critics, of course, but the attacks were outweighed by praise, some of it teary-eyed. Within days Sophie had lost her job. Her story highlights what we need to understand about mental illness, an often invisible form of disability and the fact that social media has given us a powerful new way to break down barriers.
Sophie’s Most Powerful Messages
Read Sophie’s full post via the link at the bottom of this page. These are some of her hardest-hitting truths. They can help people learn that it isn’t always as easy as “just pulling yourself together” or “getting over it.”
“The first photo is of the Sophie that everyone knows. Happy and smiley. The next photo and video is of me is during a psychotic episode after I had calmed down a bit to where I could talk and I was seeing things other than visions of people screaming covered in blood. Believe me, I was much worse.”
“This is the reality of psychotic illnesses. This is the reality for some with bipolar, or bpd, severe depression or schizophrenia (all of which I’ve been diagnosed with at some point). Mental illnesses aren’t romantic or beautiful or cute. Mental illnesses are scary, terrifying.”
“Sometimes, it makes me believe things that aren’t real. It makes me see things that aren’t real. It makes me feel things that aren’t real, including physical pain. It makes me relive the worst moments of my life again and again with no escape. But those traumas are mine and I keep them with me at all times, wherever I go. But while mental health is still being misunderstood and words such as ‘depressed’, ‘anxious’, ‘bipolar’, and ‘schizo’ are being used flippantly it makes people like me feel well, crazy. We’re not, we’re not alone.”
The Reaction
Shortly after her remarkably brave effort to raise awareness of the complexities of mental illness Sophie was fired from her job working with children. It was only a part-time role during her studies so she was not traumatised to lose the jobs. But her sacking highlighted the deep problems in our attitude towards mental illness.
“So update on my life, I have been fired from my job as a princess as parents do not want their children around me and I am a danger to society. Furthermore my former boss made it clear this was my fault for being public and open about it as I should be a princess and perfect in all aspects of my life. I can post what I want – but also I can’t post what I want. This. This is the stigma. This is the issue. This is what I want to stop.”
“Princesses stand up for the little guy. Princesses don’t hide who they are. Princesses spread messages of love and help those in need.”
Read Sophie’s full post in context here https://www.facebook.com/sophie.gooch.9/posts/10211834803729347?pnref=story
Stewart Vickers Instagram/Twitter: @Vickhellfire
The post Mental illness going viral: this young women gets us talking appeared first on Felix Magazine.
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