I felt honored to have an opportunity to speak at the Human Rights Conference on April 11 in Marshall, MN, sponsored by the Southwestern Center for Independent Living and Southwest Minnesota State University. The topic of my presentation was “Long lasting psychological impact of bias-based bullying”, which was based on my first book.
This presentation is focused on three key objectives – acceptance of differences in people around you, being kind and respectful to others as opposed to negative behavior such as bias-based bullying, and focusing on self-acceptance so you can achieve success in life. The presentation describes devastating long term impact of bullying that was based on non-acceptance of diversity. The purpose of this presentation is to motivate everyone to respect others because mistreatment can cause serious life-long impact.
I share my personal story to inspire everyone to be accepting of people irrespective of their differences and to be kind and respectful in their day-to-day behavior towards others. This specific presentation focuses on devastating long-term impact of mistreatment (or bullying) that is based on cultural/racial differences. When a person is mistreated because of differences in how he looks or how his name is spelled, the long term impact can be devastating. During my presentation I use my specific example to make the point that any mistreatment (whether it is based on cultural differences or any other differences) can have similar negative results. My presentation describes my two decades of battle and recovery from obsessive compulsive disorder, a devastating mental illness, triggered because of this mistreatment, and everyone is able to relate to that.