Mental illness is something that has long been misunderstood, and lumbered with stigmatism to boot. This is something numerous charities are seeking to rectify, charities like Mind and Rethink Mental Illness through campaigns like Time To Change, and are doing a damn fine job of doing so. However, mental illness is still a fuel for prejudice, confusion, or ignorance en masse. One specific mental illness that gets a lot of misrepresentation is schizophrenia.
For example, there is still a substantial number of people who believe schizophrenia to be some kind of multiple personality disorder, or belief that sufferers of schizophrenia are your staple horror film serial killers and psychos come to life. This is an unfortunate media bias that has engrained itself into a social and cultural one – a bias that does significant damage to the cause for improving attitudes towards schizophrenia, but in many ways can do significant damage to the lives of sufferers of schizophrenia themselves.
The key culprits for this, as mentioned, are misrepresentation and misunderstanding, and campaigns lead by organisations such as Rethink Mental Illness and Mind are doing their best to address these issues with all kinds of mental illness. For those who have never experienced any issues of mental health, it’s almost impossible to understand what it’s like to suffer with them – many people unable to get past the notion of it all being in someone’s head and their being able to pull themselves together, or look how much worse people have it elsewhere.
Add that to the stigma attached to mental illnesses and you can start to see why there are far too many people who find themselves unable to reach out for help, through shame or fear. It is for that reason that some turn to suicide. This was the decision Jonny Benjamin, one such sufferer of mental illness, specifically schizophrenia, sought out back in 2008. Everything having completely toppled his around him, and unable to cope with everything going on inside his head and how this changed the world around him, he headed to Waterloo bridge in London with the intention of jumping.
That was until a complete stranger intervened, talked him down, and convinced him he could go on. Jonny was swayed by this stranger, named Mike, and instead of ending his life sought out changing it, bettering it, reaching out, getting help. All of the things he couldn’t do until someone he’d never met stepped into his life to show him life as worth living, and not just that, but that if this complete stranger could take the time out of his life to try and save the life of another complete stranger. Who’s to say that Jonny couldn’t reach out to his family, friends, colleagues, anyone?
Since that day Jonny has not just turned his life around, but has become a keen campaigner for mental health. You could even say he became something of a poster boy for schizophrenia, because he is a stark contrast to the perceived notion of who a sufferer of schizophrenia can be, or how they can be. This year he tried to find that stranger and went about doing so through the media and social networking, campaigning to bring attention to the plight of sufferers or mental health, but also to meet the man who made everything he has done since possible. And thank him.
Some of you might be familiar with Finding Mike as it was quite the trend on Twitter and what have you this year, but as with plenty of trends they don’t last forever. Seeing that the documentary filmed around Jonny’s experiences in his pursuit to find ‘Mike’ hasn’t yet hit 20,000 views since being posted in May is a little disheartening.
So, here I am trying to draw some more attention to this. Give it a watch. Go on. Because, it’s more than just Jonny’s story, it’s more than removing the stigma from schizophrenia or mental illness in general, it’s a story about how things can change. It’s a story about how there are people out there who can help, there are people out there who are going through similar things or have been through the exact same thing. It’s a story about how, even when you feel you have come to your absolute end, there is still a way, there is still a way to keep writing your own story instead of finishing it prematurely. Most of all it is proof that everyone out there is a cunt. Which is a damn fine thing to know when your bombarded with otherwise every day.
Take some time out of your day and watch it. Depending on your position, it might change your perception, or it might just help you.
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