I don't normally share Others' videos here, but this one—10 minutes long — needs expanding and applauding.
Although it is about ADHD, it applies to everyone who is forced or conditioned to be something they are not. I have always believed that mental health issues are your psyche screaming at you to stop making yourself BE like everyone else. And/or it is the damage/trauma/shame of not being your core real self and being stuck with that shame/trauma, unable to regulate/be soothed.
School and society teach us to BE something as if being ourselves is not enough. We are told to conform, to sit still in a class, to not feel and express ourselves, to change how we feel, to think of others before ourselves, for men to be 'masculine', and for women to 'be feminine'.
I see a new wave of people starting to take charge of themselves. They are denying the identities that have historically been forced on them and are instead claiming their own identity, whether that is gender, sexuality or NeuroDivergence.
This can be distressing for them in the short term, as society criticises, bullies, and rejects them. But rejecting the Self is the greatest damage.
Internal ableism is the demand we then put on ourselves to BE a certain way, to fit a certain script, and we will always fail at being something we are not. Internal ableism stops us from figuring out who WE are, leaving us empty, unsure of our full potential, strengths, and capacity to be awesome, and unsure of where the edge of our identity is. Internal ableism leaves a big dark hole in our soul where our identity is meant to sit. We deny learning about our own likes, our own wants and our own needs. We have no sense of self and get stuck in the cracks between the untrue self we have attempted to mould ourselves into and the real self that is unknown to us. This is a lost, lonely, confused place to be.
From a young age, we should be encouraged to explore our internal world, express every feeling and speak our truth. Encouraged to be our authentic selves.
As Mental Health Week ends, my hope for you is that you will find out who you really are, how you really feel, and what you want, and then shine in all your Glory.
Do watch this video.