Mental Health

SundayDarkness · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **SundayDarkness** on Thu Jan 29, 2015 6:01 pm

A persons mental health is usually not taken very seriously, and people who struggle with mental illnesses or just struggling with something mentally are often just told to get over it.
At least I feel that mental health is not taken seriously enough, and that people struggling with their mental health don't get the help they need and deserve.

Why? Why isn't there any more focus on mental health? Doesn't governments understand that peoples mental health is just as important as their physical health? Or do they just not care?
How are we supposed to be able to go to work or go to school if we are mentally exhausted?

What is your opinion on mental health? Do you think it's taken seriously enough?

dealing with it · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **dealing with it** on Fri Jan 30, 2015 8:05 pm

I've been diagnosed with schizophrenia and in the last decade I've spent about 10% of my time in hospitals. I don't have the problem of not being taken seriously. If anything, the doctors are too cautious. Anyway, I don't even work, and going to school isn't an option; I get a monthly disability cheque instead.

It might be a factor of where you live. I'm in Canada, which has a very enlightened healthcare system.

Aniihya · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Aniihya** on Sun Feb 01, 2015 2:02 pm

I have high functioning autism and a more severe form of it. In my country while the government takes it moderately serious, the general populace doesn't know of it or doesn't know how to deal with it. So generally I am viewed as rude because of circumstances that I cannot understand.

Shané · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Shané** on Wed Feb 04, 2015 6:30 am

I certainly think it depends on where you live. Here in Australia we are still trying to get to a higher level of awareness. I am studying Occupational Therapy so in my world it is taken very seriously and I have numerous friends that struggle with varying degrees of mental illness.

Unfortunately most people do not know how to deal with it however. Awareness is certainly becoming more of a priority here, but we have a long way to go. Thankfully ads by organisations such as BeyondBlue are helping this, however so many people are ignorant still. Most of the time people want to be supportive/sympathetic, but I also know people with people who are certain that it is a 'phase', 'attention-seeking' or a 'snap out of it' kind of thing. This makes me very angry.

Can I also just say that I really admire both Dealing With It and Aniihya for being so honest here :) It's great to see! (And please don't take this in a condescending way.) I was wondering, if you don't mind me asking, how do you feel society in general reacts to your mental health? Aniihya your experience is quite common here in Australia too. I wish that was not the case.

dealing with it · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **dealing with it** on Wed Feb 04, 2015 12:27 pm

In general society, I see a lot of "this guy was mentally ill and that's why he just raped and murdered a bunch of children before killing himself." Pop-psychology is a nuisance. Mentally ill people are more likely to be the victims of than the perpetrators of crime.

Shané · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Shané** on Thu Feb 05, 2015 3:44 am

Interesting you say that. You do see a lot of crime being blamed on severe mental illness, not necessarily by media but people making excuses for criminals. I would think a lot of movies wouldn't help this idea either.

dealing with it · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **dealing with it** on Sun Feb 08, 2015 8:22 pm

Since this thread has potential, I'll deflect it in a slightly more fruitful direction.

I'm able to answer any questions anyone has about schizophrenia and mental illness. I just wrote and presented a guest lecture for a local university's psychiatric nursing class that went over rather well.

If anyone else wants to join in an Ask/Tell with their own experiences, feel free.

Maestro · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Maestro** on Mon Feb 09, 2015 12:18 am

Forgive any illiteracies in this message; the cost of using my phone to write this. To start, it is rather amazing the way we view mental health today. Were quick to use it as an excuse for a plethora of problems (especially in the justice system). This hurts me the most because it paints a very bad stereotypical image on those suffering from mental illness. I don't think anyone can fully understand what it means less they experience it themselves (a burden I wouldn't wish on anyone).

I've suffered with Bipolar Type 1 since my teens and its so hard for people to realize its something I have to coexist with. There is no cure or a way to moved passed it. You can only cope with it. And people cannot even fathom what its like to suffer from severe bouts of depression one second to fits of raging impulses and energy the next. Days of not sleeping, suicidal thoughts and a wide range of other unbecoming behaviors.

The hardest part? Accepting that you have a problem and taking the steps neccesary to remedy it. At the same time I've been in my most creative states when I was depressed. Though probably also the reason for my greatest mistakes and fleeting interests. Fortunately it made me see what I wanted from my life.

Currently I'm a Psychology major on top of pre-med (planning on being a Pscyhatrist). Hopefully as medicine medicine evolves so will we. We can realize the mind-body connection and find cures to such disorders as bipolar, or schizophrenia. Nonetheless I'm convinced that these things are meant to make us stronger in order to handle the things ahead. Though I always did like rationalizing things.

dealing with it · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **dealing with it** on Mon Feb 09, 2015 2:40 pm

Maestro wrote:We can realize the mind-body connection and find cures to such disorders as bipolar, or schizophrenia. Nonetheless I'm convinced that these things are meant to make us stronger in order to handle the things ahead. Though I always did like rationalizing things.

I've had years to rationalize my illness.

Think of the example of a hundred pins dropped haphazardly on the floor. Nobody can count all the pins at once: we have to group them. And the most we can group at one glance is 4. Evolutionarily speaking, our minds are limited by our ancestors' capacity.

I believe that mental illness is in some part caused by the activity of the mind. When the mind comprehends things beyond its capacity, it can cause damage to the brain. Thinking too far and too fast is dangerous.

Severe mental illnesses tend to emerge around times of great angst, namely the late teens and early twenties. This gives insight into the trigger: a life crisis can lead to a mental breakdown. I'd hazard that the most common crises is an existential one -- concern over life and death. People with more time on their hands can break down over nearly anything, however.

This is because of emotions. Normally, emotions are very useful indicators of situations, especially social ones. It's how we prioritize our lives. Nobody is meant to use emotions beyond their limits. It's possible to try to comprehend esoteric facts with emotions -- how it makes you feel to believe something is how true it is -- but that's looking for trouble.

Soon, the emotions misfire. An average day is filled with the fight-or-flight instinct. One looks around for the cause of the fear, and discovers there is no cause. So the imagination comes to the rescue to invent causes. And that's where the delusions come flooding in. The more deeply immersed one is in whatever crisis one is experiencing, the more deeply the accompanying madness can become.

The safest bet is to leave emotions to social situations, and use logic when dealing with facts. And ne'er the twain shall meet.

Sara Whitley · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Sara Whitley** on Tue Mar 24, 2015 12:35 pm

Yeah a lot of people are totally oblivious to the fact that the brain and the mind are like... physical things, parts of the body, that can get sick too. The notion of free will and some religious and cultural views of it strongly fight against the scientific river.
Unfortunately it will take time for these kinds of people to "phase out" in favor of new generations and new psychological/neurological knowledge.

MissJordynBug · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **MissJordynBug** on Sat Apr 11, 2015 11:05 am

My brother has Autism and his affects pretty much all of his skills. He gets angry quickly and threatening seems easy to him, but at the same time he can be one of the nicest people you know. He can't go a day without his Wii U and when we threaten to take it away he will scream and cry and apologize a lot.

Aniihya · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Aniihya** on Sat Apr 11, 2015 1:27 pm

Since I can somewhat relate to your brother, try seeking new hobbies or interests for him. Then he will spend most of his time being somewhat productive. I used to play PS all the time or be glued to the TV, but then I got interested in PCs and philosophy. Now I spend most of my time with those. However I learned to control my anger and I cool off very quickly. Really after about 30 seconds to a minute I can be fine again. Just I do not like people with whiny voices, commanding tones and high pitched sounds. They trigger me to become angry.

an edgar allan poet · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **an edgar allan poet** on Mon Apr 13, 2015 7:20 pm

I believe mental health should be taken more seriously because there's so much evidence on how fragile our minds are and how easily they can affect our health in positive or negative ways. I also know how hard it can be for some people who have mental disorders to get through the day. I have a very close friend who has a real hard time understanding emotions at all and this makes him come off as a huge jerk. He really just doesn't get how people are and this prevents him from getting close to people and sometimes it's really hard not to get angry with him because of some of the really insensitive things he says. Still, his mind is in it's own balance and if it's the balance that keeps him healthy then that's just going to be the way it is.

Aniihya · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Aniihya** on Tue Apr 14, 2015 7:58 am

That sort of sounds like me, aeap. It is a condition called Alexithymia. It can get worse when you have never experienced certain emotions like me and have a very limited range of emotions like me (happy, sad, upset, panic, neutral).

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