Yep… as someone who works in the human services field(2 years of which was in the mental health field). Pennsylvania and America in general treats mental illnesses like a joke. Human services in general are underfunded, but compared to developmental disability/autism services it’s even more underfunded than those. Then there is just the fact that so many people struggle with even the most basic of healthcare. Many people being “not sick enough” or making just enough above poverty to not qualify for Medicaid and private insurance not covering even the most barebones of mental health related services… Medicaid for all could do so much to rectify the situation. But that means challenging the stranglehold that private health insurance companies have on this country.

I agree, but then you go to places like Reddit where no one gives a crap about mental illness when guns may be involved. Like, I get the guns part, but the conversation always goes to the guns. And then when pro-gun people bring up mental illness, they're downvoted into oblivion and mocked. It is already difficult enough for people with mental illness to talk about it with others, if they even recognize it in the first place, so where is there a safe space for people to get help or talk? Nowhere. They go to a medical professional, they risk being committed, so they may reach out to online groups first. How many people have come to reddit for help, only to get blasted and yelled at over semantics or something equally as petty, only to withdraw into themselves even more? The reasonable answers are supposed to rise to the top, but instead the hive mind is just as cruel as anyone.

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