Depression is not a rich man’s problem. Eating disorders are not capricious kid problems.
I think it is important to come back to this.
I have the impression that there are still many people who separate people with mental disorders into two groups.

On the one hand, those who have experienced a trauma, who have suffered an emotional shock that has led them to fall ill.

On the other hand, those who have not experienced anything terrible, but who still feel bad. And for those, judgments often go well.

 

You might like : Letter to those who suffer

 

I have often heard this sentence, not necessarily pronounced against me. “Depression is a rich man’s problem. “Anorexia is a disease of rich Westerners.”

I have two problems with saying that. Already, it puts aside a whole part of the people who suffer from depression, eating disorders or mental disorders and who are neither rich nor “Westerners”. It denigrates these people all the more because the suffering of many of them can come from the discrimination they suffer on a daily basis.

Then it denies the suffering of people who may be rich, privileged, who may not have experienced anything painful or traumatic, but who still suffer.

I don’t know if all suffering is equal, but I think it’s a bad idea to prioritize suffering. All suffering is legitimate and all suffering people have the right to be heard, to be helped, to be supported.

I suffered from anorexia for seven years. I was not raped, harassed or beaten.

I didn’t experience anything really difficult until I got sick. Yet I was in pain. Yet I needed help. I suffered from anorexia for seven years but I did not spend seven years in extreme underweight. My suffering has not always been very visible, it has often been considered not important enough by the medical profession. And that too I find unacceptable. No one but yourself can judge your degree of suffering. No one has the right to determine the legitimacy of your suffering.

But whatever your suffering today, don’t forget that it will work.

 

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