What is mental illness? The truth is...people are thinking "I couldn't tell you a thing about it". I couldn't tell you a thing about bi polar disorder, major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder..etc. And....that's.....ok. Because it's honest. The only way we can start to learn is by being honest with ourselves. HERES the part that concerns you. When I go to my psychiatrist who's obviously supposed to have this knowledge...and they start the session off with asking "we've only seen each other once before, right? After telling them that it's in fact the fourth time...and then they proceed to ask "do you think you have a mental illness and do you think you actually need medication"...that's when WE as people will mental illnesses lose faith. You see, losing faith is essentially the strongest theme of mental illness, but it is NOT the theme of this documentary. The theme of my documentary titled "I do not blame myself" is PULLING something from within you that you didn't know that you had so you can find the love for yourself that missing for so long....in order to heal WITH a mental illness. The only way we're ever going to learn about mental illness is if we can relate it to ourselves. EVERYONE goes through struggles of feeling unhappy, guilt, shame, and feeling like the only thing left to do is give up. While for most these feelings don't come across every day, everyday someone with a mental illness struggles with these feelings. Why is that? Is it just a chemical imbalance...or is it the fact that we feel so misunderstood by a lack of knowledge by the people around us and who care and love us that the guilt of having something that we feel even our own psychiatrists are clueless about? Well, I'm shifting the mental illness realm by saying YES, it is those things...but if we as individuals don't start to heal our hearts, then we don't stand the chance of ever understanding ourselves. It's our responsibility as people with mental illness to understand how to heal just as much as it is for the people around us to. Therefore, it becomes EVERYONES responsibility to learn how we can help our hearts just as much as we learn to take our pills. In Ben Duffy's new documentary " I do not blame myself", we begin to learn about this theme by establishing the foundation of misery and simply put, how to get from point A to B where we can get to a place in mental illness where there is love and peace within ourselves. How to transform that guilt, anxiety, shame, depression, fear, and harness it so you can see the light at the end of the tunnel that keeps you from going to the hospital or even worse....you know what. With each last interview and word spoke...we WILL have a better understand of how, as people with mental illnesses, pull themselves out of hell and back into the light, by real life examples of people with mental illnesses who have done so. Mental illness is a ring of fire, but it's so important to remember not every burn has to be permanent.

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