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What misconceptions do people have about your condition(s)?

Be it a physical or mental condition, what misconceptions have you encountered from people who don't know much about your illness?

Use this thread to set the record straight and raise awareness of your conditions :yep:

For me, some common misconceptions I've experienced from people regarding psoriasis are -

"Psoriasis is just a skin condition" - Its an autoimmune disease which presents itself on the skin but for some sufferers, the nails and joints are also involved. There is no cure but some people can be in remission from flare ups for years at a time. Lesions are not only unsightly but can be extremely painful and itchy and often spread. Psoriasis can develop into a type of arthritis called Psoriatic Arthritis. I have both skin and nail psoriasis and have a high chance of developing PA due to my psoriasis advancing and family history of both psoriasis and PA.

"Don't touch me! I don't want to catch that!" (as a few children said to me when we were younger) - As with other autoimmune diseases, psoriasis isn't contagious. It also isn't caused by lack of hygiene.
(edited 6 years ago)

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"How can you be depressed when others have it worse than you" is one I hear alot. Yeah I get alot of people have it worse but how does that help a neurochemical imbalance.
(edited 6 years ago)
"You shouldn't eat a lot of junk food then"
"YOure not allowed to have any junk food at all, your blood sugar will go high "
Pisses me of even writing this
Not sure if this counts as a condition as it isn't debilitating, but lots of people don't seem to know that associative synethesia is a thing and assume that if we associate a word with a taste, for example, we physically taste the word rather than simply viewing the taste as a property of the word.
"You're so lazy"
"Why are you being so anti all the time"
"I understand what its like being depressed, my uncle has chronic schizophrenia"

Heard all of these about my depression 😑
"Other people in the world have it worse than you, think of those children starving in Africa and here you are being sad over petty things!" (depression)
"Why can't you just get over the situation?" (ptsd)
"Don't worry, eventually you'll forget about it and it wont matter anymore" (ptsd)
"Why can't you just take a sleeping pill?" (ptsd)
(edited 6 years ago)
I'm not autistic but a common one is, for example:

"Oh your son has autism? Does he have any special talents?"
Original post by Fermion.
"Other people in the world have it worse than you, think of those children starving in Africa and here you are being sad over petty things!" (depression)
"Why can't you just get over the situation?" (ptsd)
"Don't worry, eventually you'll forget about it and it wont matter anymore" (ptsd)
"Why can't you just take a sleeping pill?" (ptsd)


feel you on some of them, not that i have depression but my counsellor said something along the lines of well at least you arent a syrian refugee. as sad as it is that there are syrian refugees that wasn't exactly helpful

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not really a 'condition' i guess but that it's just a child's problem or is mild cos 'its not real' just want to whack people over the head when they say stuff like that, one of the reasons why i only rlly talk about stuff like that to MH mods on here
Original post by Anonymous
feel you on some of them, not that i have depression but my counsellor said something along the lines of well at least you arent a syrian refugee. as sad as it is that there are syrian refugees that wasn't exactly helpful

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not really a 'condition' i guess but that it's just a child's problem or is mild cos 'its not real' just want to whack people over the head when they say stuff like that, one of the reasons why i only rlly talk about stuff like that to MH mods on here


Yeah it's pathetic when people try to dumb down your problems by bringing up what other people are going through. Obviously other people might be going through worse things in their life but that doesn't mean you can't feel sad about what's going on in yours.
Reply 9
L A Z Y
That and "You're young. Just do stuff."
(Regarding a condition that causes fatigue)
Original post by angelike1
I'm not autistic but a common one is, for example:

"Oh your son has autism? Does he have any special talents?"


"Ignoring nosey idiots like you" could be a good response :tongue:
Original post by Sonechka
Not sure if this counts as a condition as it isn't debilitating, but lots of people don't seem to know that associative synethesia is a thing and assume that if we associate a word with a taste, for example, we physically taste the word rather than simply viewing the taste as a property of the word.


This is something I haven't heard much about. Sorry if this comes across as annoying but...
Is it kinda like me saying "ice cream" and you actually physically tasting ice cream, or "blue" and you tasting cheese?
Rather than you just expecting that if "ice cream" had a taste it would be like ice cream or if "brown" had a flavour it would be like chocolate.

I guess it's one of those things that's a bit difficult to understand if you can't experience it yourself.
Original post by Casisalive
"How can you be depressed when others have it worse than you" is one I hear alot. Yeah I get alot of people have it worse but how does that help a neurochemical imbalance.


That one annoys me a lot! You don't usually hear things like:
"I have cancer" "Oh no. You couldn't possibly. You've never bathed in radioactive fluid."
Or
"I have a broken leg" "Oh yeah I totally get it. I stubbed my toe once. You just need to hold some ice on it for a moment and stop feeling sorry for yourself"
Original post by Spock's Socks
Be it a physical or mental condition, what misconceptions have you encountered from people who don't know much about your illness?

Use this thread to set the record straight and raise awareness of your conditions :yep:

For me, some common misconceptions I've experienced from people regarding psoriasis are -

"Psoriasis is just a skin condition" - Its an autoimmune disease which presents itself on the skin but for some sufferers, the nails and joints are also involved. There is no cure but some people can be in remission from flare ups for years at a time. Lesions are not only unsightly but can be extremely painful and itchy and often spread. Psoriasis can develop into a type of arthritis called Psoriatic Arthritis. I have both skin and nail psoriasis and have a high chance of developing PA due to my psoriasis advancing and family history of both psoriasis and PA.

"Don't touch me! I don't want to catch that!" (as a few children said to me when we were younger) - As with other autoimmune diseases, psoriasis isn't contagious. It also isn't caused by lack of hygiene.


A lot of people dont actually believe that I have a health condition, as it is known to be an 'invisible' illness. So its really ****ing annoying bc you don't actually see any physical changes in me when I am really, really unwell. Quite a few people I have come across think I am lying, and due to the invisible illness I get the 'oh you looked fine yesterday' phrase a lot. Finally, my condition has the word disease so they think that it is contagious when it really isn't

Life sucks sometimes lol
Original post by Kindred
This is something I haven't heard much about. Sorry if this comes across as annoying but...
Is it kinda like me saying "ice cream" and you actually physically tasting ice cream, or "blue" and you tasting cheese?
Rather than you just expecting that if "ice cream" had a taste it would be like ice cream or if "brown" had a flavour it would be like chocolate.

I guess it's one of those things that's a bit difficult to understand if you can't experience it yourself.


I always find this so hard to explain to people but the taste of a word (or a morpheme, phoneme, or any cohesive collection of sounds) is not something I physically feel, it's just sort of an impression. An analogy that might be useful is that one can't "feel" when a number is even, but its evenness is a property and it is possible to be aware of this property without actually experiencing it a posteriori. The tastes (and associated colours) of words/lexical units, and the colours (and associated tastes) of numbers, are a similar case for me.

Also, the taste of a word (for me at least) has no semantic basis. "Ice cream" doesn't taste like ice cream; it tastes crunchy and sweet, probably because of the voiceless velar plosive (i.e. [k]). The tastes of words are mostly a result of their phonology.
Original post by Sonechka
I always find this so hard to explain to people but the taste of a word (or a morpheme, phoneme, or any cohesive collection of sounds) is not something I physically feel, it's just sort of an impression. An analogy that might be useful is that one can't "feel" when a number is even, but its evenness is a property and it is possible to be aware of this property without actually experiencing it a posteriori. The tastes (and associated colours) of words/lexical units, and the colours (and associated tastes) of numbers, are a similar case for me.

Also, the taste of a word (for me at least) has no semantic basis. "Ice cream" doesn't taste like ice cream; it tastes crunchy and sweet, probably because of the voiceless velar plosive (i.e. [k]). The tastes of words are mostly a result of their phonology.


Okay I think I get it. I can see why it's hard to describe- it's like trying to describe what it's like to have feet. You don't know what not having feet feels like so how can you describe the difference?
So you don't physically taste something, but you just kinda know that it has or is associated with a taste?

I guess it may be a little bit like how people just know that a red sweet is strawberry without tasting it, but to a bigger extent. Or how I think Marxism is blue and Functionalism is green (I used a colour code in A levels so now when I think of one of them some part of me is seeing/ thinking blue or green). But for you it's more of a natural thing and more deep and wide spread.

That said, I once got really confused about how depression would feel when I actually had depression so I could be so wrong :lol:
I have panic disorder and emetophobia and I often get told things like "just stop thinking about it" and "try thinking positively". Like WOW I'm cured :dry:
Original post by Fermion.
Yeah it's pathetic when people try to dumb down your problems by bringing up what other people are going through. Obviously other people might be going through worse things in their life but that doesn't mean you can't feel sad about what's going on in yours.


well said :hugs:
Original post by rainbow.panda
I have panic disorder and emetophobia and I often get told things like "just stop thinking about it" and "try thinking positively". Like WOW I'm cured :dry:


I was once told this about my asthma. Yes, because thinking positively is going to help me breathe normally. Urgh!

Oh, where do I start:

- if I just wear stronger glasses, my vision will be fine. Except, it won't. The muscles haven't formed the way they should do and some of the nerve is missing. Glasses don't help my colourblindness one bit either.

- "oh we all get headaches sometimes". Completely different to migraine. And no, paracetamol doesn't help one bit.

I've also been told I can't have Autism for the most bizarre reasons either. Or that it doesn't cause me problems either. And (someone mentioned this one, I think) the stuff about the talents. Either that, or it's assumed I'm stupid.
That having dyslexia means I can't read at all or that i m lazy because I have to do physical things slower because of my dyspraxia. Seeing letters backwards is another common misconception

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