Alyssa Milano on Sunday urged President Donald Trump to stop using terms like “crazy” or “lost his mind” because it hits too close to home for her.
Milano, an actress turned activist, tweeted at Trump to end the use of such language on Twitter, saying it adds “to the stigma of mental illness” and so harms the “44 million of us who suffer.”
Hey, @realDonaldTrump, maybe your New Year’s resolution should be to stop adding to the stigma of mental illness and not use terms in your tweets like, “crazy” or “lost his mind”.
The 44 million of us who suffer sure would appreciate it. ?
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) December 30, 2019
According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness, nearly 44 million Americans experience mental illness in a given year.
Milano has made her own struggles with mental health part of both her feminist advocacy and her #resistance to Trump.
In May 2018, Milano appeared on ABC’s “The View,” to publicly announce, “I have a mental illness.”
She first made the confession a day earlier in Time magazine op-ed, explaining that she has Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which was “most likely triggered by my postpartum depression.” She said her first panic attack was brought on by her inability to “give birth vaginally or nourish [her son] with the breast milk that had not come in yet.”
By speaking out, Milano said she was fighting against the “stigma around mental illness” and for the health insurance of mentally ill Americans, which she warned the Trump administration was threatening.
The hosts and the studio audience applauded.
Alyssa Milano gets no love for her mental illness
However, on Twitter this week, conservatives were less than supportive of Milano’s condition.
Practice what you preach ? pic.twitter.com/phbwOeHBZC
— The Conservative Latina (@TheConservati19) December 30, 2019
She needs to be a victim, it completes her.
— Rottiezucco (@rottiezucco1) December 30, 2019
Suffer from What??? #TDS???? So it’s Real?????? Get a Therapy Animal!
— Kris Barber Sr. (@KrisBrbr93) December 30, 2019
We can tell your mentally derailed by your very own tweets…we didn’t exactly “need” Trump for that. ??
— Mindy Robinson ?? (@iheartmindy) December 30, 2019
Since coming out as mentally ill, Milano has often spoken publicly about her anxiety attacks. She has said they are triggered by causes as varied as menstruation and her fear of gun violence, which has used as an argument for gun control.
Milano has said that she copes with her anxiety using meditation, yoga and by keeping two guns at home.
Via Pluralist
