Society is a collection of ideals pressed together to form some sort of unspoken rule book about how we should all live.
Have you ever stopped and thought about what would happen if you could not follow that rule book? Society is understanding of those who can't follow the rule book because they are missing an arm or a leg or an eye or what ever body part it maybe. That is easy to relate too. You can put your hand behind your back and pretend you only have one limb or close one eye and get a taste of that person's world.
Yet society does not allow people to step out of line when it comes to social disorders. Or mental illness.
As I write this I wonder if social disorder or mental illness is a correct word for it. These words imply something is wrong. In the case of anxiety and depression, which are due to illness caused by an endless list of reasons, something like Asperger's I would say is not an illness or a disorder.
It would be like saying that a person with a certain colour skin is ill, or perhaps everyone with brown hair is "ill". The genetic code that makes up who you are is unique to you and if it so happens that you end up with a brain that works slightly differently to most other people's brain, is that really an illness?
I would say that it is just another way of being human. Unfortunately society does not look at things in this light. If you are different, even in a minor way, then society casts you out. It doesn't matter if you can help your situation or not, society doesn't want to know you.
An evolutionary take on this could be that those who did not fit in with society when we were cave men got push out of the family unit and failed to pass on their genetic traits, thus strengthening the species as useful genetics were weeded out. But we no longer run around in grass lands hoping to kill a beast with nothing more than a sharpened rock on the end of a stick. Society has evolved and this argument should be invalid.
People who are not the same as society have much to offer. They maybe just offer it in a different way. The video linked above has two of the most amazing autistic men in it. They not only have learned how to communicate and function independently in society they want to help others to do the same. They are living examples of how we should not label autism as mental illness. They are functioning human beings with much to offer, they just can't communicate in the same way as we do.
It was interesting that the man with tourettes in the above video wore a T shirt when out in public stating he had tourettes. That almost made me want to cry that society would be so unsupportive as to force a man dealing with a condition that is difficult to manage on its own without forcing him to label himself essentially, kind of almost like putting a sandwich board on the man, so that people would understand and accept him.
Imagine if we all had a sandwich board to wear. What secret would yours say?
We who are different are judged and so little thought is given to how that judgement affects us. Would you like to be a situation where you fight panic every time you talk to someone? The fear of saying the wrong thing and not knowing why people pull away from you? Would you like to be in a situation where all you want to do is be a friend and have a friend yet there is few who can look past your "inappropriateness" to see the real you?
Society judges very harshly those who do not fit in with perfection. The frustration, the terror, the anxiety, that goes with simple every day tasks, can be crippling. You never know what people hide from the world each day. While you too may have your own demons or problems you hide from the world, consider that for those of us who have a mental illness like autism or Asperger's syndrome or tourettes, consider how trying to fit into a world that has no room for them feels.
That person who keeps to themselves in the corner might just not simply know how to say hello. Maybe you could do them a favour and instead of seeing them as weird just see them as a person.
