Editor’s Note: This submission is from a netizen Ms. Y, discussing how people with mental illness need more empathy and compassion from everyone. After careful consideration, we’re publishing it in full as submitted.
Case Study: Mild depression → Unclear people causing repeated harmful stimuli → Worsening mild depression → PTSD → External academic-social pressure → Prolonging depression, slight hypomania emerging → People’s exaggerated behavior, even nicknaming as “OO crazy girl” → Intensified hypomania. I hope it doesn’t progress further…
My doctor said I’m rarely so regular—depression in summer, normalcy in winter. Sophomore winter break—doing things super energetically; junior year depression; junior spring nearly normal; senior year depression; senior spring should have been nearly normal, yet… The doctor was puzzled, saying: “Logically you should have it in winter! You’re so regular.”
I understand now. I crossed the line…
Painful memories are still vivid… Normal, lucky people, I beg you in the voice of someone with mental illness: please stop giving us unkind stimuli.
I beg you—we already try so hard, so, so hard.
Life must go on, and the external environment is truly critical for us.
Schools should teach from childhood how to prevent mental illness and how to treat those with mental conditions.
Lin Yi-han was a beautiful, talented med student; OOO was a seemingly normal OO student too.
What defines “normal” versus “abnormal”? Simply the normal distribution curve—nothing more. I beg reporters, I beg society, I beg government officials—I’m pleading—this is what many mentally ill people’s fates depend on: whether they enter what normal people call—and fear—institutions.
I accept that I have mental illness because only acceptance creates courage to overcome and face it. I won’t let myself cross that line again. I’ll coexist peacefully with it, trying my best to appear normal—more normal than so-called “normal people.” Society’s small step is humankind’s giant leap, and for us sick people—an enormous step.
I won’t cry. I won’t cry because if I do, those who love me—my partner, my parents—will cry even harder.
I won’t blame heaven or curse fate. Mencius said: “When Heaven is about to place a great responsibility on someone, it first frustrates their spirit, exhausts their muscles and bones, starves their body, empties their heart, and confuses their undertakings. In this way their mind is stimulated, their nature strengthened, and their capabilities increased.” I won’t blame—I only hope to inspire others. Please exercise empathy and compassion. Don’t give us strange looks because we truly already suffer so much.