Prescription pills can't remove a little thing I like to call stigma.

The little creature on my shoulder, whispering into my ear: You're incompetent.

The uncomfortable look I receive when I admit I experience anxiety and depression.

A half-hearted hug attempting to do something I try to do myself: fix me.

A slightly annoyed sigh when I admit not drinking because I can't "normally"

Ignorant advice of trying harder to be happy or calm.

Do 'healthy' people think these thoughts aren't mine as well?

But, therapy and pills cannot erase what I have been told, what I'm seen as:

Unstable.  Irrational.  Violent.  Unpredictable.

I'm neither the Joker from The Dark Knight,

Nor Norman Bates from Psycho,

Nor Alex Forrest from Fatal Attraction.

Mentally ill people are much more complex than that.

But, the most shocking thing?  We're human.

It's high time that we're portrayed as such.