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Stigma surrounding mental illness

15 years ago 0 +0 / -0 538

Hello Rosie,

I just wanted to say I hear you on this. I find it so annoying when people just assume you can just fell better in a flash by changing your attitude or getting over it...I find our society needs to better educate its members on the topic of mental health...Anyway, have a nice day Rosie!

15 years ago 0 +0 / -0 1153

Rosie,
Although depression is definitely not just about attitude alone, having a positive attitude can help with depression. Engaging in pleasurable activities, setting goals and working towards them, doing activites that make you feel accomplished (even as simple as making your bed, brushing your teeth, doing the dishes) can all help with depression. Attitude alone can not make depression go away but it can help to make you feel better.
Brenna, Bilingual Health Educator

15 years ago 0 +0 / -0 3043

I hear you Rosie,

As a child I always wondered why I couldn't just cheer up or adjust my attitude enough. I had no idea what was wrong but knew enough to be aware that it was something inside me that prevented it.

I agree, sympathy would be greater if you had a broken arm - this people can relate to. They see the ailment, they see the cure and understand. Depression isn't like that so others can't "see" and so they don't understand. They only get a glimpse when they have a down moment.

Ultimately Sheba is right, don't bother seeking approval from others - it will let you down. If you have someone who you feel you must explain it to try asking them to remember something that made them really sad or down. Ask them to try to remember how they felt at that time and then to imagine that feeling not going away even when you tried to "cheer up". Ask them to imagine what it would be like to be stuck there. This may help you to explain and let them understand that this takes time.

Hope this helps Rosie, but I think it depends on whether people want to understand. Do what you need to do to conquer your depression and don't let others be a negative factor in that. Hang in there!!!

15 years ago 0 +0 / -0 185

I know it very well. I don't speak about strangers but my parents also see my problems like a tabu.

It is important to care for yourself. You need to get better and not to have the approuval of others.

15 years ago 0 +0 / -0 3043

My doctor booked me off for a few days till I can change my medication and my boss was really understanding. I have been putting on a happy face at work for the past 3 months and recently it just started feeling like I was exhausted from pretending. People at work have noticed I look sad and have said things like 'cheer up' and 'get over it'. I feel like it is out of my control, if I could just cheer up I would not have gone to my doctor. I feel like if I had something like a broken arm, people wouldn't expect me to just 'get over it'. It would take time and medication to heal it. Why do people think attitude alone can make depression go away?

15 years ago 0 +0 / -0 538

Hiya Gigi,

I think that life is difficult for everyone. As for the degree od difficulty I could not begin to evaluate what is better or worse, more or less...I wish I had an answer to your question. Also what is normal? If you look at the statistics nearly half the North American Population will have one or another mental illness at one point in their lives! Yeah almost half. So aren't we all normal whether we have a mental illness or not?

Anyway, I just wanted to hop on to encourage you to do what you need to do to get better whatever that may be. When I started ignoring the whole shame and embarassment thingy is when I started being able to go get the help I truely needed. Of course I do not put myself in the way of embarassement on purpose but I do what I need to get better despite what others think. And I find that now that I have stopped being ahsamed of myself and embarassed with my condition most of the people who are close to me have come to accept it much more easily. How could they accept me when I did not accept myself.

Oh and btw, I am not perfect at this. I still have my days where I feel pressured and sad and ashamed and all that. But overall it is better. Hang in there it really can get better.

15 years ago 0 +0 / -0 16

Yeah Wildcat... you got it right.
It's funny how, sometimes... I'm think like I'm the ONLY person in the world that feels these feelings or thinks these thoughts... and then I'll read that most all depressive folks are the same as me.
At least I don't feel alone right now. (just give me a couple of hours--I'll feel alone again) heh grrr

My brother did actually tell me once, that I needed to "get out of that." I know that he was not trying to be mean, that he was trying to help. But, I wonder if folks think we LIKE being this way. I mean... if we could GET OUT OF it... don't they believe we would?

The guilt... yes Wildcat... unintentionally, that is put on us from our loved ones, is heart-wrenching.

And it just adds to the intense guilt we already force on ourselves.

I've been thinking for a couple of months that I want to go to hospital. But, I'm afraid of the guilt and embarassment it might cause my family. However.. if I had LYME DISEASE ... I wouldn't think twice about getting the best help possible--be damned what anybody thought.

Is life this difficult for "normal" people?

15 years ago 0 +0 / -0 3043

Hi gang,

Part of the stigma is the - just pick yourself up and brush off the dust - ...

There are plenty of those people who had a "bad day", picked themself up and became Mr IBM! But most of us live a stress and fall ... live more stress and fall further ... and finally the stress causes us to hit the bottom and become sick- depressesed. We need time to heal. We need help to heal.

(We have all binged at the buffet table once or twice in our life times... but the next day we eat reasonable and go right on with out tasks at hand.. Right! Well! Ask a Type 2 diabetic to wait 6 months to see a Dr - start basic treatments and make healthy lifesyle changes... they might have a rough time as well.)

Depression is an illness. It is one part how we see the world. How we think of our selves. It is one part the way we are programmed.

Depression is alson one part chemical. It is how the neuron communicate information in our brain and in our body. It is a series of symptomes that affects our mood, our mobility, our life.

So, It is easy to be afraid of this illness. At work... will others be affected - possibly! What can we do to help? how can we prevent? At Home ... our loved one is in pain and we can do absolutely nothing! to help. Is there anything more madding or more frustrating ... (yes our loved one is dying and there is nothing we can do)? Our loved one has a moment of sun and then a week of rain... when are the clouds going to blow over? What can we do?

and when all fails and the frustration blows up to... what have you done?... what are you doing? more of the stigma returns and you know the patient gets hit from the outside and from them self! Okay tell me if anyone here has not had the "I should be doing" and "i need to get" and the "guilt feelings". Perhaps that is the worst of all this. We feel guilty for being sick.

"Oh my goodness I ran in my slippers through a snow-storm to get a newspaper and now I am depressed. I am suck a nasty and stupid person. I won't do something that dumb again.

" OR "I think I remember lying on the pool table under the keg of beer and inhaling the beer till I passed out. Oh that was dumb, no wonder I am depressed these past 3 years. I better not start that again

15 years ago 0 +0 / -0 823

Gigi, With more awareness and education, hopefully the "stigma" connected with mental illness will diminish. It is great that you are helping to educate others by talking about your depression. Unfortunately when there is ignorance, there is fear. You pose some interesting questions. Members do any of you have personal experience or words of wisdom you can share with Gigi? What strikes me most is that depression creates a sense of low self-esteem. For you there are added stresses affecting your physical and mental health. It is vital to focus on the positive qualities of who you are and to project that positivity into the universe. Be yourself and respect your limits also. Faryal

15 years ago 0 +0 / -0 538

Hello Gigi.

I read your post and really could connect with how you feel about the stigma surrounding mental illness. I have had to deal with it for my depression and for anxiety disorders. One way or another seems a lot of people just don't get it. But I have to say it got better. So hang in there. I am sorry for the short reply. I will try to come back and elaborate more later. But I did want to drop in to say you are not alone in this.

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Stigma surrounding mental illness