Hi,
I wanted to get some advice on how to deal with my illness. I'm finding it very hard to cope with life following the death of my grandmother and then second year of uni topped it all off, and I found myself at the darkest point of my life towards the end of May. It took a long time for me to accept I was suffering with depression (I've only begun initial assessment, but I've also experienced manic periods which point to Bipolar II). Thankfully a few close friends and family understand my dilemma (I spent a good two hours crying with my mum).
However, I'm still faced with a major problem in that some of my friends and family don't believe I have an actual illness. I was really hurt when trying to explain to one friend and them saying "Oh, but you've always been a bit dramatic, are you not sure it's just stress?" I was even more hurt than when I tried to explain to an aunt I thought I was close to, she told me "to stop with the bull**** and stop emotionally blackmailing people". Furthermore she told me I was always the drama queen and mocked me saying "everyone else is always happy except for Hannah (not my real name obviously!)"
My mum told me that I should not have to explain myself to these people, but I've been having such an awful time at university, I don't want to lose the few friends I have. Then obviously, I don't want to cause a rift with my aunt over her behaviour, but my mother said that she won't understand and will never understand because she sees you once a year.
But it's not as easy as that - I don't like hurting people and pushing them away, but it seems like explaining to these people is not enough. It's like they want photographs of medication to prove it's real, when I prefer speaking to someone rather than pump my body full of pills.
Please can someone give me some advice, I feel my whole world is caving in.