A mentor once told me that I should stop assuming that I know everything about a person based on where they went to church, what their stances were on controversial gender and sexuality matters, or their racial or ethnic background. Apparently, I had been making sweeping generalizations. I had been pigeonholing people.
As I read online journals, I see the authors are pigeonholing their own readers. People are being made to fit into holes that may not fit them entirely. But no matter, because they keep getting clicks, even if these clicks lead the masses into pits of hate and judgment of either liberals or conservatives. Both sides do it.
Pigeonholing with Serious Mental Illness
Striking to me now is how much I have mischaracterized not only others, but also myself throughout my life. I live with schizoaffective disorder. After my diagnosis, it took a long time to realize that I was still human, with loves, desires, goals, and ambitions. Given that this process was painful shows I had previously, before my own diagnosis of serious mental illness, pigeonholed mentally ill people and what it meant to live with serious mental illness. Clearly, I see now, I hadn’t thought of mentally people as fully human.
I also worry that people will think that because I personally advocate for medicine that I judge people who avoid medication.
Acknowledging that I am not my readers is an important first step towards inclusion of all.
