I also know the painful, shameful stigma of having Dissociative Identity Disorder. Comedians joke about us and bad tv movies misrepresent the experiences of those with DID. Most people seeing me would never guess how I suffer because I learned early to work hard at “passing for normal”. It’s awful hard for any of us to “walk a mile in someone elses shoes”. I live with a spouse who believes DID doesn’t exist and that I am a lazy malingerer. I can’t even begin to tell what that feels like.

I am not a joke and no one who suffers needs to be stigmatized on top of the mountain of difficulty that already exists in having a mental/emotional disorder.

I feel very sad for this man and his grieving family/friends/team mates. They will always wonder if it was their fault he did what he did. When will people wake up and grow some compassion???

This post was mentioned on Twitter by psychcentral: Depression Blog: Stigma – not depression – killed Robert Enke http://bit.ly/SrKo5...

Mental illnesses are disorders of the brain, not personal choices yet we know that certain life events along with the sufferer’s own biological and emotional make up may activate the problem.

How then do we resolve both the above issues? Mental illness is more than a psychiatric problem so suggestions from “us” may give the answers. Are the “right” questions even being asked????

Let’s get this discussion rolling.

This outdated stigma is offensive, unfair (as if we *choose* to be mentally ill!) and ultimately horribly damaging, as this case attests. Attitudes need to change.

RIP Robert Enke, and sympathies to his family and friends. This is such a sad case.