Living with mental illness .
Just because I use that term, people instinctively make the leap to insane. Maybe that's not far off, but for the sake of being thorough let's dissect what mental illness is. Anything slightly askew from societies definition of normal, equals mental illness. Not so long ago, women were locked up for being aggressively sexual, or speaking too openly in public. This from a time in history that you could order heroin or morphine from a sears catalog and have it delivered to your door with a reusable hypodermic kit.
Now, these days everyone is on medication for something, stress? anxiety? Swallow these.
I'm certainly not saying our modern issues don't exist... My main issue is anxiety, keeps me home most of the time, I'm saying I've grown up around mental illness, from the outside looking in. It causes me to try and have a healthier outlook on my own mental health. When you forget how to spell a few words and your memory gets fuzzy after a few head traumas, you tend to appreciate what you do have. Other than the obvious oddity I've become externally, I'd like to think I'm a pretty well rounded person. My appearance is partially to weed through those that would judge me before they get to know me. I have plenty of "normal" friends, I extend the same courtesy and try to only judge what's on the inside.
When a doctor tells a six year old that their mother may get sick someday and not snap out of it, that's something that sticks with them. I have more of an understanding now though, the anger that boy had growing up, went away, it can be frustrating trying to understand the shame and embarrassment, when there's no need to feel that way. Denial is hard to watch too, that's why I'm very open now about my condition, it's not my fault, and if I can't fix it, I might as well be honest about it. So many people hide these things about themselves, but even if it makes us quirky, it also makes us who we are. I don't think I'd miss it, if I were suddenly fixed one day, but by no means do I actually consider myself broken. There's no point in wishing something away, when we just end up wasting time we could be treasuring.
Life is amazing, and even with the curveballs we get sometimes(I've had some big ones this week) the world is amazing, even if I only see it out my window half the time, I still appreciate what I have. Don't be scared of mental illness, you or someone you know have at least mild problems, but it doesn't make you less of a person. Just by reading the way I write, you should be able to surmise that just because my head has been squished a few times, that doesn't make me stupid, yes I have problems with a few things, but I think, as with most people, I'm worth getting to know.
This was a long-winded way of saying: hi, I'm a bit different, I'm sure you knew that, but I'm different in a surprising way... I'm your quiet friend, your neighbor, the one you pass at the supermarket, the guy you say hi to sometimes at shows, I could be anyone, there's only one way to find out though.

Straight from the wiki's mouth:
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. The recognition and understanding of mental health conditions have changed over time and across cultures, and there are still variations in the definition, assessment, and classification of mental disorders, although standard guideline criteria are widely accepted. Over a third of people in most countries report meeting criteria for the major categories at some point in their lives.