I want to start of by saying i have never been able to talk about this before and steemit is giving people the chance to open up to others. That alone helps hugely and because of steemit i am more balanced as a person. Thank you!

Mental health needs more attention, Far to many ignore it and pretend it isn't an issue not to mention the lack of support when it's needed. I'm sure i am not the only one! Many people can freely discuss issues where in their personal lives they feel unable. I do feel mental health doesn't get enough attention on here at the moment but hopefully that changes as it grows.

As the picture says, i feel like my voice actually is worth something.

This kid who has Asperger syndrome......

Age 10 was forced to take ritalin because of a widely misunderstood disability. That ritalin withdrew that child from the world and although it kept him quiet it made him feel as if he was neutral emotionally. Also could not eat for days.

At age 12 his parents seen how withdrawn he had become and his grades or intelligence didn't increase hardly if at all. He was a shell of the child he once was. Luckily the refused to give him it. From age 12 untill the age of 18 all he did was play video games on his own in his room.

Through school he never had a thirst for knowledge or the attention span too learn even if he wanted too.

Age 18, He smokes marijuana for the first time because he was fed up with life and what people told him to think and feel. He was also at the end of his tether when it came to his own existence. As he felt he would never be a social person and would never progress in life. He had hardly any education and felt like there was no point anymore. On his 18th birthday was the day he tried marijuana. He coughed loads.

Age 18-19 he starts smoking marijuana regularly. He finds he now has the attention span to read entire books, not just that but he started to take notice of world events and put people and others before himself.

19-20, He starts to learn at an extraordinary rate. Faster than he could ever have imagined. He came to realize everything he thought, everything he had be told about this plant was a fucking lie. He started to research the plant. What toxicity does it have? Turns out less than fucking caffeine by far. So much less in fact it takes so much marijuana to overdose you would die from asphyxiation.

Age 20-22, He studies, he learns and he grows as a person. Everyday made him stronger as a person. This boy who once wouldn't leave his room because he felt society wouldn't like him now begins to take society on face first. The boy that had a really hard time in school became person who would not be stepped on by any body. People started to respect him because of his opinions and knowledge possessed.

Age 23 (Current age) He does things no one i know in my local area does, he is strong, confident and tries harder than any of the people that used to give him a hard time. He is more successful than them and he will be far more of a success than them. Also he joined steemit to blog.

That boy...... is me.

All this makes me a criminal where i live. I face the same persecution as you because i don't just smoke marijuana. I'm apart of the community and with it comes a greater risk of prosecution. Nelson Mandela did 25 years for what he believed in. I'm willing to do a couple if my government is that pathetic. I Have grown as a person because of marijuana.
This is a repost from a day ago as it is hugely personal to me and i found it hard to write but i have edited it after some advice from the awesome community.

Thanks to steemit i can openly talk about this, something i could never have done before. I will be writing more personal blogs in the future as it helps me massively! Also by talking about it we can help others open up.