Stanley

Nicole Stanley
Ms. Gardner
Honors English 4th
21 Oct. 2014
Tyranny Speech: Mental Illness
Ms. Gardner, Ladies, and Gentlemen.
As people on this earth, we are able to choose our own battles. Although, why do we
choose for these battles to be war, or something concerning hate and violence? Technically, we
do not choose these things as this choice is left up to our government; congress and the president.
As a nation we are lead to focus on things concerning other people in other countries, and how
many we can kill before they kill us or finally surrender. Why dont we choose a different type of
war to pay attention to? Why dont we choose one that does not involve annihilating, killing,
strategizing? Why dont we choose one that concerns those of the troubled, not the angry? Why
dont we choose to focus on those of the mentally ill? These people fight a battle of
uncontrollable thoughts and emotions every day.
Victims of mental illness can present themselves as the every day person would, normal,
carefree; but their disorders are buried deep inside, often masked as to not stand out. What may
be a minor problem or annoyance to a person unaffected by mental illness can be insurmountable
to a person struggling with mental illness causing their entire day to be filled with agitation,
anxiousness and uncertainty.
It may be easy to disregard mental illness and think one is being difficult or asking for
attention, you wouldnt know the true struggle until you felt worthless to the world; until you
felt forced to repeat a task until it was perfect; until you felt fear overwhelming your thoughts;

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until you felt as if your throat was closing up and you couldnt breath; until you felt like you
couldnt concentrate on one thing no matter how hard you tried; until then, you could never
understand the tolling effects these feelings have on a persons mind, body and everyday lives.
There are many different mental illnesses that are all judged and viewed in different
ways. For example, many have the impression that those who suffer from depression cut
themselves or constantly contemplate suicide when in reality these people are not self-harming
but can suffer from many impairments such as being in a constant state of paralyzing sadness or
lacking motivation. If God is said to have created all men equal, then why are those suffering
from mental illness looked upon as lesser members of society and suffer from false feelings of
inadequacy? The only difference between a person suffering with mental illness and a person
that is not is ones train of thought, and how the mind processes certain thoughts. Those with
mental illness are put under a stereotype of being erratic or insane, although if you were to open
up the minds of the mentally ill, you would find that it is constantly cloudy, and often raining.
However, the discrimination against the mentally ill-used to be much worse. In times of
the great depression, anyone thought to have the slightest bit of mental illness would undergo a
surgery called a Lobotomy, which removed a piece of the brain to cure ones mental illness. In
Tanya Lewis article Lobotomy:Definition,Procedure&History, she states that lobotomies
were widelyperformedformorethantwodecadesastreatmentforschizophrenia,manic
depressionandbipolardisorder,amongothermentalillnesses.However, the surgery did
nothing to help the person, but simply turned them from mentally ill, into mentally handicapped,
agitated to crazy, sane to delirious. Even though no one wanted to admit it, these procedures
were only performed to stop the worrying and misunderstanding of those who discriminated
against the mentally ill. As a nation we have come so far from these times, nonetheless; we can

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join together to progress even farther. Together we can change how many look upon those
struggling from mental illness.
Knowing this, we can start with the newest generation of young Americans. These
children are the future of our nation. As Aristotle once said, Good habits formed at youth make
all the difference. By educating children in school as well as at home that being different is
okay will let their minds know from early on that being unique is what makes you special.
Additionally, not only will we educate, but we will empower the mentally ill and spread
awareness of what they suffer from.
Lets come together to arm our next generation with these resources.
Remember, the mentally ill may have a different perspective on life, but life should not
have different perspective for them.

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Works Cited
Lewis,Tanya."Lobotomy:Definition,Procedure&History."LiveScience.TechMedia
Network,28Aug.2014.Web.28Oct.2014.
"YouthQuotes."BrainyQuote.Xplore,n.d.Web.31Oct.2014.