The Voiceless Minority

Late last year, I brought up an issue that was not discussed very much in the disability community, disability and mental health. As I thought about this blog, I remembered a recent email that I got, and it inspired me to revisit the issue. In the email was a story about how colleges are flunking mental health treatment.             The article described a young boy, Dan, who had mental health issues and made a wrong choice one night in an attempt to overdose. To summarize, he did not overdose. He was having trouble dealing with a new medication, and once his medicine was adjusted, he was fine. However, his college did not treat him appropriately.             His health center referred him to a hospital, which they should have done, but the administration's actions were incorrect.  Instead of recognizing a student in trouble, they treated Dan as if he wa...

So I didn't write a lot in 2014 yet, but I promise that will change. This posting will be my 40 th  blog. It is amazing what this blog has grown into a little over nine months.             Nine months ago, I was angry and bitter and didn't know how to deal with it. They say life has a funny way of working out. I can't say that I would say that in nine months, I found my voice or at least the beginnings of it. As this blog says, I have learned a few things over the past little bit. I've written about comedy, I've written about political issues, and I've written about disability stereotypes; however, this blog will be a little different.             Maybe it's because of how I was raised, but I have developed a spirit of a fighter that is both a good thing and a bad thing. As I sit down to write this post, in fact, I still remember the latest fight I had w...

The last blog I wrote was entitled “The Acceptance Problem.” It talked about an issue that is not often discussed within the disabled community, that of disability identity versus complete identity. Now it is only appropriate to talk about another issue that is not talked about which is disability and depression.         There are a variety of disabilities. There are the obvious types, which can be seen, in physical disabilities. There are also hidden disabilities that impact a person’s learning style such as Asperger’s, Dyslexia or Dysgraphia , just to name a few. However, one type of disability that is not often considered a “disability” is that of mental illness. Whether it is Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, or Depression these can be very debilitating, when one combines these disorders with a physical disability, the discussion virtually stops.        My battle with depression has led me to come to several c...