Crazy Creatives A to Z 2017

Team Netherworld has multiple blogs, and in the past we have participated in the A to Z challenge both officially and unofficially. We used it to try and share our fiction writing in the past, but this wasn't well received. So instead I thought that this year we would try to spread awareness via the challenge.

Most blog hops feel intimidating to unwelcoming when one lives with a psychiatric illness. People like me tend to fear that we will be shot down or shut out, and this happens with fair frequency. This is why I created Crazy Creatives Cheerleading Camp. I imagined it as a haven for those who are living with a psychiatric condition and who identify as creative. It hasn't exactly taken off like a wildfire, but I hope that it may one day make a difference somehow.

This year I plan to utilize the month of April to draw attention to various psychiatric conditions that people may be dealing with. In a world where people deem it acceptable to use phrases like "off their meds" to insult and belittle people they don't agree with, it is necessary to remove the stigma from mental illness.

One would not (I would hope) refer to a diabetic who hadn't injected their insulin and was therefore behaving strangely as being "off their meds" in a derogatory way. Why should we think it's okay to refer to a person that we deem as behaving strangely due to not having taken their psych meds in a derogatory way?

I hope to use the month of April to shed a bit of light on psychiatric ailments and, most importantly, to encourage seeing people with psychiatric ailments as people--not as lesser or defective people, just as people.

~The Real Cie~

For Team Netherworld