(no subject)

[feotakahari]

A lot of people think other people fake mental illness in order to get privilege. Hot take: claiming that mentally ill people have privilege in “sane” society is like claiming that women have privilege under patriarchy.

Comments

[sigmaleph]

I think this ignores contextual dynamics. being mentally ill is not a privilege, but claiming to be can, in some specific contexts, get you social advantages.

communities smaller than society-at-large exist, and if you talk about having a mental illness in some of them this can in fact get you sympathy, more respect for your opinions re: mental illness, etc. and, of course, if you aren't actually mentally ill and you don't call yourself such in front of anyone except those specific communities, you can get most of the (very contextual) benefits and very few of the downsides.

which is not to say this is a serious problem or that we need to scrutinise everyone claiming to be mentally ill as potential fakers or anything like that. it happens sometimes, but mostly it matters for like online community drama more than anything else.