I have debated in the past to do a post on the subject that I am going to talk about today, but I have decided that I truly think I need to.  I have Bi Polar Disorder and have been in remission for five years thanks to medication.  I would not wish this disease on my worst enemy, as the things I went through before I started taking medication, were simply horrible.  The reason I want to do a post about this, is because I want to shed light on the stigma attached to mental illness.  Yesterday evening I received a very nasty text from a women named Christine.  She is mad at me for not letting my daughter ride in the car with her, for reasons I won't get into.  In the text she sent me, she threatened to tell people that I had Bi Polar and had to be hospitalized before I started treatment.  When I read that she was trying to use this disease to threaten me, it made me very angry.  I did nothing wrong and did not ask for this disease anymore than someone with cancer would ask to have it.  Mental illness is the brain (which is an organ) not functioning properly.  Anyways, I just want to say that we all need to understand mental illness is not something that we should be ashamed of.  Nor should it ever be used against a person.  We need to end the stigma attached to mental illness, and perhaps if we did, more people would be willing to seek treatment.  My heart is just broken right now, and I wanted to share my thoughts on this very serious matter.