Recently, I spoke to a child who told me that he was not normal. When I asked him why, he said

"Everyone always talks about bipolar, paranoid, crazy and weird. I think they're talking about me because I'm crazy. I see a talking doctor and that makes a person crazy. No other kids in school see talking doctors."

This really saddens me. I told this child that he is not crazy and seeing a "talking doctor" is actually a healthy decision. You would think that with the progression of studies in the Psychology field, people would be more sensitive towards mental illness. Even a lot of the Psychology majors just make me shake my head. Throwing around words that label a person after a serious illness is a pretty ignorant thing to do. Whether a person believes in mental illness or not, they are legally considered serious medical conditions.

After a pretty long conversation, the child agreed that the other kids are just not as educated as him in the mental health subject. I also told him that there are a lot more people with mental illnesses than he thinks. It is just not something that a lot of people openly talk about.