Most of All - Remember Your RIGHTS!

Due to social stigma and wide-spread negative prejudice against even the idea of mental illness, people afflicted with Mental Illness often accept what is said. They often learn to allow the wrong ideas about Mental Illness to surround themselves.

They learn to accept what a general public 'says' about Mental Illness.
They learn that mental illness is for a select few who 'deserve' to be mentally ill for various reasons. They learn that it's just some peoples' bad luck that they are born retarted. They learn that those born unlucky are not as smart as everyone else - nor do they deserve everything that regular people deserve.

They learn to accept how a general public may sometimes treat them. They might accept as normal - that people shy away from those suspected or known to have symptoms of mental illness. Name-calling toward those known to have mental illness often is prevalent in society due to both 'normal' people initiating this kind of thing - and also - because those who are being called names, are not standing up for themselves to make it stop. Sometimes all kinds of people accept the wrong things, the wrong ideas about how life should be - and then it affects how all of us think.

Just to refresh peoples' memories, here is a list of UNIVERSAL rights:

I have the right to be treated with respect.
I have the right to say no and not feel guilty.
I have have the right to experience and express my feelings.
I have the right to take time for myself.
I have the right to change my mind.
I have the right to ask for what I want.
I have the right to ask for information.
I have the right to make mistakes.
I have the right to do less than I am humanly capable of.
I have the right to feel good about myself.
I have the right to act only in ways that promote
my dignity and self- respect as long as others are
not violated in the process.

These are just SOME of the universal human rights that everyone can choose to remember whether mental illness is present in their lives or not.