Crazy

cra·zy

adjective

1.

mentally deranged; demented; insane.

2.

senseless; impractical; totally unsound: a crazy scheme.

3.

Informal . intensely enthusiastic; passionately excited: crazy about baseball.

4.

Informal . very enamored or infatuated (usually followed by about ): He was crazy about her.

5.

Informal . intensely anxious or eager; impatient: I'm crazy to try those new skis.

Crazy.  I’ve often been called this.  Am I crazy?  Are clinically and seriously depressed people crazy?  Does depression make you mentally deranged, demented, or insane?  No.  I’m not.  I’m a person just like everyone else.  I struggle sometimes with feelings of sadness, guilt, despair, and other wonderful things that come with having depression, but I’m not insane.

Most of the people on the psychiatric unit weren’t “crazy” either.  Most of the people I met were struggling with feelings similar to mine.  There comes a point for some people where everything hurts too much, or they’re just overwhelmed.  That’s OK.  You don’t have to be “normal” all the time. 

Taking medications help to fix a chemical imbalance in the brain.  It doesn’t make me any less “crazy”, it doesn’t make me “normal”, it helps to fix something that is biologically wrong with my body.  Just like a hormone imbalance, a hypo or hyper-thyroid.  Any number of medical problems that people take medications for.  I’m not weaker than anyone else out there.  I take medicine for my health, just like anyone else with any medical condition.

The stigma is still alive and well thanks to shows like iCarly.  The recent episode “I lost my mind”, should leave Nickelodeon ashamed.  The show left the viewer with a very inaccurate and stigmatized view of what a psych unit looks like.  It tells our youth that the only people who go into psych units are delusional, or psychotic.  This just simply isn’t the case.  I plan on writing to Nickelodeon about their “comical” perception of what a psych unit is.  It is things like this that keep those of us who suffer hidden, and afraid to ask for help.

Am I crazy.  I certainly don't think so.