Art
Perspective comes in in a litteral way, your seeing through the eyes of yourself. The perspective is from your angel and where you are, the walls look farther away and the people get smaller as you look, your talking to someone you know (the red person looking at you) but the metaphorical fun part is the fact you can see the issues of those around you. You don't know what they mean, but they are there and you could probably guess a few of them.
History |
Animal hats
The cream colored animal hats on all of the figures here are there to show that we are all human, and humans are just like any other animal. My message here is something along the lines of, We are all people and we should treat each other that way, but on the flip side, we are all animals so we will treat each other that way. Colors
The people being an arrangement of vibrant colors is supposed to show that we are all different and that we all have different struggles, the color represents the struggle the figure deals with as well. The person covered in paint is there to show those who take on issues they exaggerate or just don't have Blank room
The space they are in can either, 1- represent the internet and the void that we all scream into every night after dinner. Or, it can represent the world we exist on because both will work its all about your view on the isuue. |
Letter To the Editor (From the perspective of Dorothea Dix)
https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/features/dying-attention-faking-illness-becomes-online-epidemic State position and concernsIn the Article “Dying For Attention,” I agree that those needing to be ill have a separate issue from wanting to fake something so life-altering. Still, I believe it is no excuse, especially after the horrific ways I have seen the mentally ill have been treated in the past. No man would want to live the life of a mentally handicapped person in the 1800’s. No man would want to live the life of a mentally handicapped person in the 21st century either. Things have changed but those less fortunate in this day and age still have such a difficult time due to being mentally disabled. Explain why she is tied to this issueIn 1841 after seeing the condition of those with mental illness in prisons, and even their own homes I could never know how any soul could want such a thing to happen to them. After many years of witnessing and fighting against the oppression of the mentally ill, it is hard to see so many steps being taken backward daily due to nonsense. Those in charge are picking up on it as well, and they don't take it in the way they should. What is at stake if no one does anything This time two hundred years ago people with simple disabilities could've been locked in a cupboard with no say in the matter, and thank the lord that those issues have been resolved, but things are not perfect. People of today need to understand their privileges, rather than hurt others with less privilege by claiming to be a part of their cause, folks need to help from the outside. You don't need to be ill to have a say. You don't need to be ill to help the ill. Folks with privilege need to be a voice for the voiceless rather than claiming and taking away the small say they do have. Recap and explain how others can helpPerhaps the lies are due to rebellion, perhaps they are a different illness, but whether or not it is the case society needs to be careful with whom they attack. It isn't about the lies, it is about those telling the truth, they are our focus. Sincerely, D.D |
Relation to Perspective + how/why i did it
This letter is related to perspective due to it being written as if a person who isn't me wrote it. A woman who was alive almost two hundred years ago, Dorothea Dix. The first advocate for the mentally ill. I wanted to write from a perspective I wouldn't understand after just one article, I wanted one I really had to understand to write from. I went so far as to read many examples of books and pamphlets she wrote herself so i could understand her way of talking and her mannerisms. I picked a very modern article, one made by an adult today to write to from her perspective, it was difficult to go from the 1800's to 2023 and write from the perspective of someone from that time, but it was a fun challenge. The light gray words were the skeleton of my letter. Id never heard of a letter to the editor so some googling was required. Overall I think the letter turned out pretty cool. |
English
In this piece I didn't have a video or article to refer to at first, but i found a video by a guy in a cooly lit room. This video changed my entire written piece. I Was on the opposite side of my argument by the end of the video and it really changed not just my project but my thoughts on an issue I have always been passionate about. I have every thought that went through my head and more below so there really isn't much more I can say.
The “Need to be Worse”
A video essay by me
Intro Mental illness, about one in five adults in America suffer from a mental illness If you were to ask 25 adults if they have a mental illness I'm sure many of them would share their story or say that they have some form of mental disorder. Now out of those 25, let's say 7 have a mental illness. How many of the seven do you think are faking? None, right? “Why would someone lie about that? No one in their right mind would do that,” I hear you say. I upsettingly must disagree. I am 15 years old, so not quite an adult, yet I have interacted with many teenagers my age. Mental illness affects us too, but let's ask the same question here. There are 25 13 to 17-year-old kids in a room, but about 18 say they have a mental illness. How many do you think are lying? I'm sure the answer is different. Why is that? We know not all of them are telling the truth, but well why do they do that? And the biggest thing, how do those diagnosed feel, and how does it affect them in their diagnosis, daily life, and stereotyped lifestyle?
Part 1 1/2: a hell of an example In 2018 Little Me was 10 years old when I got a few apps, you may recognize these, something like Tumblr. Twitter? Ever heard of Tik Tok? I'm sure you have. On these apps, I first encountered a thing called “Mental Illness.” Sure I knew depression, anxiety, Autism, and ADHD were a thing but I never thought I could have these. The everyday person didn't have these in my ten-year-old brain. Not to get too personal here, but hey this is about perspective, and I'd like to give context to my fascination with this topic. Starting at the ripe old age of ten, I had already known something was up. I knew that everyone else thought a little differently about their fears. I was more afraid of things, I thought about things no one my age would care about. I was questioning God, Christianity, morality, growing up, the state of the world, and my family's well-being by the time I could multiply. I thought to myself, “Why do I think about this so much? Why am I so afraid of these things? That was called anxiety little dude. My anxiety as a kid was what caused me to develop excoriation (a skin-picking disorder) and some weird nervous movements. My dad would remind me to knock it off when I repeatedly licked my shoulder or picked a scab on my knee, but I thought that's just what people did. But, when I saw a video of a boy with split dyed hair and rainbow nails making noises and movements he could not control that he called Tourettes syndrome I knew I was on to something. The apps I previously listed led me down a rabbit hole. A rabbit hole of “Ten signs you have Tourettes, A day in the life of someone with Tourette's syndrome,’ and ‘Some of my most common tics,” videos by teenagers online. I thought I'd had it. These videos convinced me that's what I had. Older teens online reassured me that I was “Valid,” and had Tourettes and the licking my shoulder thing and a few other strange moves were Tourettes. Thankfully, I had met
someone online who genuinely did have tics, and they shared with me their experience with it and how what I had been told was probably incorrect. “Blinking fast and frequently,’ isn't a sign of Tourettes, it's a required human movement,” they had told me and I realized what had happened. That I had fallen for it. She encouraged me to talk to a therapist if I am still worried about it, but at 10 I thought therapy was horrible due to therapy being used as a threat to me at that age. Obviously, it's not, therapy is a great and necessary way to cope with being alive for many people and I highly encourage going even just to talk to another human. That's beside the }?point. My actual point here is, that these apps are what has caused this epidemic on the internet that plagues those who are suffering.
Part 1 2/2: Where This All Started In the year 2018/2019 Tourettes, anxiety, and depression were wanted. In 2020 DID, and depression was amped up a level, and suicidal ideology and self-harm were glorified 2021 ADHD/ADD and OCD, in 2022 DID came back in full force, 2022 PTSD and trauma related illness along with autism were made popular, and now might be the most infuriating for me, Schizophrenia, BPD, and Bipolar Disorder, along with other kinds of disorders with psychosis and mania were romanticized.
Part 2: The Desire to be Tragic, how Sadness makes us InterestingIn this day and age, people feel like they have to be sick, or need to be pitied to be seen or to get any attention. They need everyone to see that they are suffering too, because in this world everything, and everyone, is always suffering. But you have to suffer more than the guy next to you. Why do people do this? I have a few ideas based on my fifteen-year-old knowledge and what I've looked into and seen in my own life. It is obviously for the attention, but I think it is –
Part 3: How do the diagnosed peeps feel about this? I see two main arguments, “imagine you have a headache, and people try to help you and give you accommodations for it, now imagine that someone else “has a headache,” and they get all the same accommodations, but have no symptoms. They are seen yelling, running around, and focusing on their work in a bright room. Everyone realized they were a fake, and the next time you have a headache no one believes you due to their actions. Now you can’t get the medication you need for your headaches because everyone always has a headache,” and the “Who cares what someone does if in the end the good outweighs the bad for a few people?”
And I want to talk about the view that is more controversial, the one that not many people think or care about. The one that isn't dunking on kids online.
Alexander’s Take on Self-Diagnosis on Online Platforms
Part one - Alexander's claim and self-diagnosis People are relating to mental health struggles and talking to other people who are diagnosed with different mental disorders to find community, understand themselves, and cope with being alive, Oh the horrors, how dare they find community! This is the exact point of one Mr. Alexander Avila, a transgender, autistic dude on YouTube with a degree in psychology. Alexander is known for sharing his unique and often controversial perspectives on his rare experience being a part of both of those marginalized groups, on very seemingly one-sided arguments. He claims that being diagnosed itself is a construct, as well as maybe even the symptoms that describe autism. The criteria you have to meet to “be autistic,” are almost completely based on the opposites of the social norm, which is also a social construct. So how can you diagnose the higher functioning kinds of autism if it's based on something that is rapidly changing? The diagnosis is based on a single person's opinion of your experience, and people are biased as hell when it comes to mental illness! He was self-diagnosed with autism for a lot of his life for these very reasons. He says he resonated with the autistic experience and found comfort in the online spaces for autistic people. He says it made him feel less different knowing other people felt like him, he felt normal. Okay, but isn't this supposed to be the type of person I’m dunking on? Yeah, it was. And if I hadn't seen his perspective on this topic I’d still be saying just that. If people who are struggling with mental illness can find comfort in these spaces, hell if people can find comfort in them, is it so bad? If a neurodivergent person resonates with the problems and experiences people with ADHD have is it hurting anyone? Not only is it not hurting anyone, but it is helping someone else. And after hearing it put that way, I know that I was wrong. I'll get to that later, but expanding on his claim, other people say that you cannot claim a neurodivergent identity without a diagnosis, and, you need a diagnosis to get the appropriate accommodations for the disorders, but a diagnosis isn't always a good thing. Why wouldn't people want to get a diagnosis even if they claim that they are neurodivergent or mentally ill in some way? Well, so many things can go wrong or ruin things in your future if you are diagnosed. What are those things?
Here's a little list of just a few things that make self-diagnosis seem more valid than a professional opinion
Getting diagnosed isn't always bad, obviously. It can be life-changing, and life-saving for some people as well. This is why if you are capable you always do your research. But after hearing this, self-diagnosis makes a lot of sense. And the people “faking,” why is it our place to tell them what they are and aren't experiencing?
Part two - So who can we dunk on if we can't dunk on neurodivergent teenagers anymore? Fakers or not?There are still people who use mental illness to differ from their privilege, yes, but those people should not lead us to be aggressive or dismissive towards people who claim to have certain mental illnesses. When people use this type of thing and use some “weird type of moral authority,” over people is when it becomes a real problem and starts affecting marginalized groups. When the apathetic people online are saying the kids online with dyed hair and piercings are all faking mental illness to be cool those in charge of diagnosing people will pick up on that. And then that bias gets added to the list. So when the fourteen-year-old walks into their psychiatrist's office claiming “Hey I think I might have ADHD, I've done some research and I have a lot in common with those who have lived life experiencing ADHD,” The person across from them, the authority, the one with the final say, heard on fox news that the youth are faking
mental illness now, and this kid fits the look criteria of those fakers. So that kid is dismissed, and they may not have had ADHD but what if they did? How would that affect that person? And I truly believe, I know, that those who fake mental illnesses will never step foot in a psychiatric office and claim that they have x disorder. But who cares? The people we should be focusing on aren't the teenagers online looking for community in people with ADHD, it should be a load of people who think that psychiatric authority has the final say.
So getting a diagnosis can be a bad thing sometimes we know that, but you are a faker and aren't neurodivergent without a diagnosis. Make it make sense here man.
Part three - the one people don't wanna talk about
Solutions. Are there any? Yes actually, and it really shouldn't be that hard but we all know it is. We have to stop dunking on people and claiming we know what others are going through. It's not our place. And even if they are seeking attention, that is just not our business! We can never know if they are, why do we get to dictate their experiences? Either educate them respectfully or distance yourself from it.
A video essay by me
Intro Mental illness, about one in five adults in America suffer from a mental illness If you were to ask 25 adults if they have a mental illness I'm sure many of them would share their story or say that they have some form of mental disorder. Now out of those 25, let's say 7 have a mental illness. How many of the seven do you think are faking? None, right? “Why would someone lie about that? No one in their right mind would do that,” I hear you say. I upsettingly must disagree. I am 15 years old, so not quite an adult, yet I have interacted with many teenagers my age. Mental illness affects us too, but let's ask the same question here. There are 25 13 to 17-year-old kids in a room, but about 18 say they have a mental illness. How many do you think are lying? I'm sure the answer is different. Why is that? We know not all of them are telling the truth, but well why do they do that? And the biggest thing, how do those diagnosed feel, and how does it affect them in their diagnosis, daily life, and stereotyped lifestyle?
Part 1 1/2: a hell of an example In 2018 Little Me was 10 years old when I got a few apps, you may recognize these, something like Tumblr. Twitter? Ever heard of Tik Tok? I'm sure you have. On these apps, I first encountered a thing called “Mental Illness.” Sure I knew depression, anxiety, Autism, and ADHD were a thing but I never thought I could have these. The everyday person didn't have these in my ten-year-old brain. Not to get too personal here, but hey this is about perspective, and I'd like to give context to my fascination with this topic. Starting at the ripe old age of ten, I had already known something was up. I knew that everyone else thought a little differently about their fears. I was more afraid of things, I thought about things no one my age would care about. I was questioning God, Christianity, morality, growing up, the state of the world, and my family's well-being by the time I could multiply. I thought to myself, “Why do I think about this so much? Why am I so afraid of these things? That was called anxiety little dude. My anxiety as a kid was what caused me to develop excoriation (a skin-picking disorder) and some weird nervous movements. My dad would remind me to knock it off when I repeatedly licked my shoulder or picked a scab on my knee, but I thought that's just what people did. But, when I saw a video of a boy with split dyed hair and rainbow nails making noises and movements he could not control that he called Tourettes syndrome I knew I was on to something. The apps I previously listed led me down a rabbit hole. A rabbit hole of “Ten signs you have Tourettes, A day in the life of someone with Tourette's syndrome,’ and ‘Some of my most common tics,” videos by teenagers online. I thought I'd had it. These videos convinced me that's what I had. Older teens online reassured me that I was “Valid,” and had Tourettes and the licking my shoulder thing and a few other strange moves were Tourettes. Thankfully, I had met
someone online who genuinely did have tics, and they shared with me their experience with it and how what I had been told was probably incorrect. “Blinking fast and frequently,’ isn't a sign of Tourettes, it's a required human movement,” they had told me and I realized what had happened. That I had fallen for it. She encouraged me to talk to a therapist if I am still worried about it, but at 10 I thought therapy was horrible due to therapy being used as a threat to me at that age. Obviously, it's not, therapy is a great and necessary way to cope with being alive for many people and I highly encourage going even just to talk to another human. That's beside the }?point. My actual point here is, that these apps are what has caused this epidemic on the internet that plagues those who are suffering.
Part 1 2/2: Where This All Started In the year 2018/2019 Tourettes, anxiety, and depression were wanted. In 2020 DID, and depression was amped up a level, and suicidal ideology and self-harm were glorified 2021 ADHD/ADD and OCD, in 2022 DID came back in full force, 2022 PTSD and trauma related illness along with autism were made popular, and now might be the most infuriating for me, Schizophrenia, BPD, and Bipolar Disorder, along with other kinds of disorders with psychosis and mania were romanticized.
Part 2: The Desire to be Tragic, how Sadness makes us InterestingIn this day and age, people feel like they have to be sick, or need to be pitied to be seen or to get any attention. They need everyone to see that they are suffering too, because in this world everything, and everyone, is always suffering. But you have to suffer more than the guy next to you. Why do people do this? I have a few ideas based on my fifteen-year-old knowledge and what I've looked into and seen in my own life. It is obviously for the attention, but I think it is –
Part 3: How do the diagnosed peeps feel about this? I see two main arguments, “imagine you have a headache, and people try to help you and give you accommodations for it, now imagine that someone else “has a headache,” and they get all the same accommodations, but have no symptoms. They are seen yelling, running around, and focusing on their work in a bright room. Everyone realized they were a fake, and the next time you have a headache no one believes you due to their actions. Now you can’t get the medication you need for your headaches because everyone always has a headache,” and the “Who cares what someone does if in the end the good outweighs the bad for a few people?”
And I want to talk about the view that is more controversial, the one that not many people think or care about. The one that isn't dunking on kids online.
Alexander’s Take on Self-Diagnosis on Online Platforms
Part one - Alexander's claim and self-diagnosis People are relating to mental health struggles and talking to other people who are diagnosed with different mental disorders to find community, understand themselves, and cope with being alive, Oh the horrors, how dare they find community! This is the exact point of one Mr. Alexander Avila, a transgender, autistic dude on YouTube with a degree in psychology. Alexander is known for sharing his unique and often controversial perspectives on his rare experience being a part of both of those marginalized groups, on very seemingly one-sided arguments. He claims that being diagnosed itself is a construct, as well as maybe even the symptoms that describe autism. The criteria you have to meet to “be autistic,” are almost completely based on the opposites of the social norm, which is also a social construct. So how can you diagnose the higher functioning kinds of autism if it's based on something that is rapidly changing? The diagnosis is based on a single person's opinion of your experience, and people are biased as hell when it comes to mental illness! He was self-diagnosed with autism for a lot of his life for these very reasons. He says he resonated with the autistic experience and found comfort in the online spaces for autistic people. He says it made him feel less different knowing other people felt like him, he felt normal. Okay, but isn't this supposed to be the type of person I’m dunking on? Yeah, it was. And if I hadn't seen his perspective on this topic I’d still be saying just that. If people who are struggling with mental illness can find comfort in these spaces, hell if people can find comfort in them, is it so bad? If a neurodivergent person resonates with the problems and experiences people with ADHD have is it hurting anyone? Not only is it not hurting anyone, but it is helping someone else. And after hearing it put that way, I know that I was wrong. I'll get to that later, but expanding on his claim, other people say that you cannot claim a neurodivergent identity without a diagnosis, and, you need a diagnosis to get the appropriate accommodations for the disorders, but a diagnosis isn't always a good thing. Why wouldn't people want to get a diagnosis even if they claim that they are neurodivergent or mentally ill in some way? Well, so many things can go wrong or ruin things in your future if you are diagnosed. What are those things?
Here's a little list of just a few things that make self-diagnosis seem more valid than a professional opinion
- A diagnosis is EXPENSIVE, an autism evaluation is 1,000 to 2,000 buckaroos
- Many mental health “professionals,” have different ways they were trained
- The institution is insanely biased
- The stigmas surrounding the illnesses
- Immigration to certain countries becomes impossible with some mental illness
- People can lose the right to adopt kids
- They can lose the right to gender-affirming care
- And for a lot of folks, it causes their mental health to decline for obvious reasons
- Society will treat you differently, it is a fact
- It can stop you from getting certain positions in jobs/school
- It can stop you from doing things like buying a house
Getting diagnosed isn't always bad, obviously. It can be life-changing, and life-saving for some people as well. This is why if you are capable you always do your research. But after hearing this, self-diagnosis makes a lot of sense. And the people “faking,” why is it our place to tell them what they are and aren't experiencing?
Part two - So who can we dunk on if we can't dunk on neurodivergent teenagers anymore? Fakers or not?There are still people who use mental illness to differ from their privilege, yes, but those people should not lead us to be aggressive or dismissive towards people who claim to have certain mental illnesses. When people use this type of thing and use some “weird type of moral authority,” over people is when it becomes a real problem and starts affecting marginalized groups. When the apathetic people online are saying the kids online with dyed hair and piercings are all faking mental illness to be cool those in charge of diagnosing people will pick up on that. And then that bias gets added to the list. So when the fourteen-year-old walks into their psychiatrist's office claiming “Hey I think I might have ADHD, I've done some research and I have a lot in common with those who have lived life experiencing ADHD,” The person across from them, the authority, the one with the final say, heard on fox news that the youth are faking
mental illness now, and this kid fits the look criteria of those fakers. So that kid is dismissed, and they may not have had ADHD but what if they did? How would that affect that person? And I truly believe, I know, that those who fake mental illnesses will never step foot in a psychiatric office and claim that they have x disorder. But who cares? The people we should be focusing on aren't the teenagers online looking for community in people with ADHD, it should be a load of people who think that psychiatric authority has the final say.
So getting a diagnosis can be a bad thing sometimes we know that, but you are a faker and aren't neurodivergent without a diagnosis. Make it make sense here man.
Part three - the one people don't wanna talk about
Solutions. Are there any? Yes actually, and it really shouldn't be that hard but we all know it is. We have to stop dunking on people and claiming we know what others are going through. It's not our place. And even if they are seeking attention, that is just not our business! We can never know if they are, why do we get to dictate their experiences? Either educate them respectfully or distance yourself from it.