I've been thinking about this lately. I lost someone last year after she turned to a church that was all for the mass execution of the LGBT community, and refused to accept that illness was anything but a punishment from god, and that medication was like selling the soul to the devil...or something. I don't know, she tried to explain. I didn't really get it. I mean no offense, and I respect religion, and a persons freedom to chose what they believe in, but personally, I can't respect something that cries "discrimination" or "unfair" at times, and then wishes to oppress another sector of society.
Last words me and this person exchanged, well, mostly from her. She said she was concerned about me. I'd be acting odd. Everyone had noticed my mood swings. So I told her. I'd been diagnosed with anxiety age 12, and now I was dealing with a whole load of depression. I was told to accept jesus into my life and it would all go away. It is, according to her, a punishment from god. (To be fair on her, she never actually said that. She never said "You've been punished from god." Just kept going on about this and that...")
I refuse to believe I'm being punished by god.
I haven't lived long. I can assure you that throughout my teenage years, I did not spend them as a golden teen, but neither did I spend them as difficult, rioting one. I did speak back to my parents at times, argue with them, stay out passed curfew and did not go on a family walk, deciding to bugger off to the cinema with friends instead. I did not have sex with half the year, I did not get pissed and high on the street and spray a penis on the subway. I was not part of a gang. I did not throw a brick through a ship window when everyone else was rioting. I never physically hurt anyone. I didn't even download music for free off limewire.
And on the other side of the spectrum...you read the news and see murders, rapes, or a well-respected member of society involved in a pedophile scandal. And well...those involved in that...I can't fucking believe that they were all goddamn celebrities, who were given full access to areas where people were extremely vulnerable (Hospitals, rather scarilly, the one closest to me and that I use), and staff turned a blinde eye or whatever to what was going on. The police ignored any reports made. At the same time as being a well known figure, having millions in the back...
The guy doesn't even get to go jail. He died. Long before all of this came out.
But from I gather, a guy like that who abused children got to live the highlife, and got away with it. He wasn't punished.
And that's why I refuse to believe that mental illness is a punishment for something bad we did, in any way.