When Mental Health Quirks Turn to Reality

Our eyes see inwardly whatever troubles the world externally.

To those who use mental health as a ‘quirk’, I say:

I get it.

For I was one of you.

I’m not here to shame anyone, to make anyone feel wrong, worthless, or guilty for presenting a mental illness in a certain way.

Growing up, I also viewed a self-diagnosis in this way.

Suffering Was - and Is - Chic

Honestly, it was chic to have a label of suffering. It set you apart, gave you something to focus on as the dying drum of school ticked away your childhood hours.

It made you in-Vogue in the most volatile of ways.

It made you feel important, when no one else made you feel that way.

It made you a little less scared of your own shadow as you felt you could find your feet in a world filled with people bursting at the Earth’s seams.

Then, for most of us, the ‘quirk’ became reality.

It turns out that what we had been half-pretending to have was an unconscious cry for help. For someone - anyone - to recognise that we already felt something wasn’t quite ‘right’ with us.

Then, when the full-blown, isolating truth emerged: we felt like an imposter, unsure if what we had falsely amplified was still false, or if we were really experiencing the throes of an illness.

That doubt became a partner with our illness. They clasped drug-drenched hands, forming an unbreakable daisy-chain that was beautiful to stare at, but whose pollen gave us allergies that made us cry, continuously.

There is no silver-lining to shout from silver rooftops about this mini-tale.

This is simply a letter of love and understanding to those whose semi-faux ‘quirks’ turned to a cancerous stone in the minds.