You and your Dumb Untreated Mental Illness

Let's say I had a highly communicable disease called mondocrazyitis. It's so contagious, you might catch it standing in the same room as me. Even talking to me on the phone leaves you vulnerable.

Yet you still see me out in the world, sick as a damn dog, spreading my mondocrazyitis to the public at large. You'd think I was careless and just plain dangerous.

My point, you ask?

There are way too many untreated headcases out there with zero compulsion to treat their oh-so-obvious issues. And we have to deal with their crazy every day!

Whether its an addicted boyfriend or a bipolar boss or a hoarding parent or a puking friend, these nutters just traipse around causing chaos and often thinking they're so beyond mental help.

Why don't they do anything to fix themselves? 

Symptoms that you’re an untreated kook:

You’re a hoarder. It’s not healthy to bury yourself alive in crap and shit. If you can’t open the doors in your home or your cat is sleeping on top of a pile of newspapers from 1972, you’ve got a problem. Get help!

You do weird things with food. You binge, purge, starve or store bread crusts in attics for emergencies. You're just act weird with food. And it's been going on for years. You think no one knows but everybody does. Get help!

You’re a love addict. You’ve been in a string of soul-sapping poisonous relationships for years yet you continue to pursue the same type of jerk as if your life depends on it. You tell others how amazing this guy is and how only you really, truly "get him." Get help!

You’re another kind of addict. Booze and drugs can be our good friends sometimes, but if you’re punching walls and puking every time you drink, hello, you probably have a problem that's been affecting others (jerk) for years. Get help!

You’re a sociopath and you know it. Oh sociopaths, you sneaky little mindfucks you. You manipulate others and mess up their lives and are never in the wrong for doing so. You're also the least likely to get help. Get help anyway, you heartless soul!

You’re unhappily married. Egad there are a gaggle of you, aren't there? “Doing it for the children” right? Solid rationale. Maybe they can be as miserable as you when they grow up and get in a relationship. That's all right. We simply adore your endless bickering and icy silences. Get help or divorce!

Yes, but does therapy really work?  

Hell if I know...though I've spent thousands it anyway. Why? Because it beats blindly trampling through life with a problem that actively affects myself and others.

I have to manage my mental issues. It's my responsibility as a big girl in the real world. Because if something is broke, I have this wacky human tendency to want to fix it.

Do the same. Don’t let your dumb mental illness affect your own happiness or that of others. It’s your job as a human.

But if you choose to stay sick and avoid any form of self-examination and self-growth, please use a the mental equivalent of a Kleenex and cover your mouth when around others.

And every day, whether its at work or home or out in the world, people like you and me are unwilling recipients to their free-floating mind bugs.