Everyone deserves empathy
Goal statement
By the end of this speech, I would like my audience to understand the nature of mental illnesses and the gift of empathy
Attention statement
- It is unjust to blame someone for a biological condition they have no control over
Introduction
- There are no explanations for the mutations in someone’s brain
- Everyone talks about depression, anxiety and eating disorders, but no one acknowledges the 200 other mental illnesses in the world
- How can we show empathy towards someone when we can be so ignorant and entitled to understand that an individual may be living with a mental illness?
- So, by the end of this speech, I would like you to think about a time you might’ve thought someone was acting irrationally, and then consider putting mental health into the equation
Body
- The human brain lets us perceive and attempt to understand the world around us
- People continue to find new discoveries on how the mind functions and fails
- I am going to give you an example of a story where a man I knew was acting peculiar
- This individual went on a trip with my friends a while back
- He expresses typical behaviour; he is well-liked and generally has a lot of friends
- Out of nowhere, he has recently been posting pictures of people he went to school with
- He was harassing these individuals by exposing their secrets, conversations they had and photographs of them
- Keep in mind, these people were his friends
- I later found out that he is actually living with a mental illness and is experiencing psychosis
- One of my best friends was featured in his story
- Before we knew what he was going through, she was disturbed how someone could post such spiteful comments about the people he cared about
- Some people go through traumatic experiences that can mentally scar them for life
- Some people struggle with the misuse of drugs but that does not mean they WANT to abuse a substance
- Some people may try it once and have a hard time quitting
- Some people are just genetically prone to be living with a mental illness
- However, don’t think I am appropriating bad behaviour
- There are ways to cope with a mental illness
- An important note is to be kind to everyone
Conclusion
- I would like to remind everyone to not lash out and jump to conclusions about someone
- To ultimately understand the nature of mental illnesses and to not blame them for their irrational behaviour
- Next time, when someone has hurt you, try understanding it from their perspective and aim to be supportive and non-judgemental
- The treatment of mental illnesses has been hindered by the sense that these disorders of emotion, behaviour and thinking lack legitimacy and instead reflect poor life choices and individual weakness
- But this is not the case, as I argued before, we need to acknowledge that everyone is experiencing other issues in their life
- Everyone deserves empathy
Residual message
- The impact of mental illness and addiction on public health has been limited to addressing this problem
- Change the problem by giving empathy
