Worth Is Not Yours To Measure

Over the last several days I have been digesting, dissecting, churning, meditating, and pondering over a statement made to me. I was attempting to talk to a partner of a very dear friend of mine. I was bringing the subject up of mental illness in poly relationships. Really it's any type of relationship. His response was that "No one should be in a relationship if they are not right." My immediate mental response was 'What the fuck?' I didn't say or respond because I was unsure why the statement bothered me so much.

I took it home with me and thought about it . . . and thought about it . . . and thought about it.

The it came to me. Mental illness is chronic. It doesn't get cured and it doesn't go away. Even if a person is medicated and it is "under control" it is still there. I suffer from mental illness and I have learned and developed tools to function, but it is still there. It has always been there and it will always be there.

So the statement eats at me because he, and a great many other people, feel that people like me should not have relationships? I should be alone for ever because I have to count my peas before I eat them?

Why do people keep feeling the need to take things from each other?

You are not worthy because you are not straight.
You are not worthy because you are nonmongomous.
You are not worthy because you have mental illness.

I am worthy. I am worthy of the very human need to connect, to feel, to love and be loved. We are all worthy of these things.