This is perfect. These types of articles somehow manage to miss the mark on two fronts. As you say, they never address the structural reasons (or if they do, there's never any discussion of possible solutions to those structural issues). They also place the responsibility on the individual, but ALWAYS in exactly the wrong way. It's always tit like 'if you do X, you'll get better', which is not true and essentially blames people who suffer from MH issues, because they clearly can't do X. But at the same time these articles perpetuate the whole 'I have ADHD therefore I'm a chaotic mess' type crap, which is reductive and doesn't give people an out.
My personal MH experiences have taught me that the route out of dealing with in my case c-PTSD, but this is probably applicable to other conditions is
1) full acceptance of what has happened/is happening/ is real
2) being truthful about one's own feelings
3) understanding that feelings aren't permanent
4) letting go of guild and shame
5) building an ongoing support structure, which will involve other people, perhaps medication and WORK which has to be done by you, no matter how unfair that may seem
6) being honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses
7) seeking and accepting help
These steps don't necessarily happen in sequence, you will stumble and fall and have setbacks. Certain tools will help you, but none will fix you - like a wallpaper planner is not going to fix things, neither is a chemical rollercoaster. Because life isn't easy, but it's worthwhile getting yourself better, because you are worth it (insert swishy hair ad).
I know so many of you on here know this, but perhaps this is useful for some of the newer coven members. It's also why JM triggers me so much. She's doing a lot of damage with her 'campaigning'.
(where’s the pats on head emoji)
