Recently, someone irately said to me, “You shouldn’t make money off people with mental illness who need help.” Okay, I understand the sentiment. The person who said it, we’ll call her MG, went on to say that I made her want to puke because I charged for my masterclasses. (My masterclasses are $35 for an early bird registration and $45 for late registration, by the way.) MG then called me a shyster, a creep and a douche and threatened to have me banned from Facebook. (So far, I’m still on Facebook.)

To say the least, MG was quite upset. And in case you were wondering, she’s not the only one who has yelled obscenities at me for daring to charge for my work.

In short, the idea is you shouldn’t make money off of people suffering from a mental illness. Okay, let’s unpack that for a moment, shall we?

Every Company Makes Money Off People with Mental Illness

First of all, I’d like to say that most of my income comes from companies. These are entities that can afford to pay me the rates I charge to create high-quality, in-depth, educational content for their sites.

Secondly, I’d like to say this: every single company a person with mental illness, like me, interacts with makes money off of them. Doctors make money off of us. Pharmaceutical companies make money off of us. Pharmacies make money off of us. Therapists make money off of us. Hospitals make money off of us. And so on, and so on, and so on. And most people pay a heck of a lot out-of-pocket for all of those things, plus, of course, whatever insurance they’re paying for. Adding that all up can literally be thousands of dollars a month.

So, should doctors, pharmaceutical companies, pharmacies, therapists and hospitals all work for free because we have mental illness? Would you like doctors to be living under bridges so we can get free care? How about pharmacists? Therapists? Who, exactly, do you think should pay those people?

Then you have every single other thing a person with mental illness does. Want a sandwich? You’ll be paying for it, it doesn’t matter if you have a mental illness or not. Break your leg and need crutches? Oh, they still cost money even though you have a mental illness. And want to go to a conference to learn about mental illness treatments? Be prepared to pay for travel, lodging and a hefty conference registration fee — even nonprofits that run conferences still charge all that whether you have a mental illness or not.

So, should restaurants, medical equipment makers and conferences all charge nothing for their products/services because we have a mental illness?

Part of the Living I Require Makes Money from People with Mental Illness

The fact of the matter is, about 99% of what I have worked on is available online for free. There are more than 1000 articles about mental illness online, by me, available for free. The only things you can’t see online are my talks (except for these ones) and my masterclasses.

So sue me for making a fucking living.

What I Do Is Expensive and Deserves Payment

See, I’ve been researching and writing about mental illness for 17 years. Yes, 17 years. That makes me a subject matter expert. There is virtually nothing I do not know, or can’t quickly look up, about bipolar disorder. And if you want access to that experience and knowledge, should you not pay for it?

Well, apparently MG thinks not. That is certainly her prerogative. But I refuse to beat myself up for making a living. I refuse to feel bad about charging for that which has required 17 years of work. I refuse to be told that my work is somehow less worthy of payment than a doctor’s or therapist’s.

Oh, and I charge for my book, Lost Marbles: Insights into My Life with Depression and Bipolar, too, although people don’t seem to have such an issue with that.

I know that people are used to things being free, particularly online, and I have actually had hundreds of people attend my mini-webinars for free and I give registrations to masterclasses away for free at times too. But I still insist on making a living. The only way I can produce all the writing on my site, for example, is to make a living doing it. The only way I can have a place to live is to make a living. And call me crazy, that’s something I, and my cats, quite like.

So, in short, if I could, I would offer everything for free; however, I can’t do that as I’m not independently wealthy. If you don’t want to support my work, that’s certainly your business, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t have a hissy fit because I’m charging for my services, just like everyone else.

PS: This doesn’t take into account people who really do take advantage of those with mental illness to line their own pockets. For example, a supplement company that makes baseless and, indeed, illegal claims about their product’s effects on mental illness and then upsells patients and charges much more per month than their products are worth? Yeah, they’re disgusting. I just wanted to throw that out there because, without a doubt, those people are out there.