Mental health stigma

I feel like there's a lot of it still around. My own family seem to kind of against it. Basically sometimes I get asked by, family friends, builders who do work on our house and etc they ask what I do for a living still so I tell them I go to college, the builder I think it was he was doing some work in my room then he spoke to me, he said what's my job then I said I go to college, he just asked how come I still go to college in my 20s so I told him about my anxiety and stuff I had when I was in my teenage years that I didn't go because of that and I decided to go now then my parents butted in trying to deny the anxiety thing. Later my parents spoke to me and told me not to mention my anxiety and they were just saying things like it looks bad and stuff. I don't know what is wrong and what looks bad about anxiety like its common and well talked about. Just feel like there so much stigma and **** against mental health

Reply 1

Anonymous #1

OP

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Reply 2

BohemianPhysics

12

There definitely is. Anxiety is talked about but as normal everyday worries, but when it impacts your functioning is when you have a problem with anxiety, which is not as accepted. The biggest problem is that people view the parents as bad if the child's problem becomes bad enough that they are not able to function as any other kid (school etc.). It's really bad imho

Reply 3

Anonymous #1

OP

Original post by BohemianPhysics

There definitely is. Anxiety is talked about but as normal everyday worries, but when it impacts your functioning is when you have a problem with anxiety, which is not as accepted. The biggest problem is that people view the parents as bad if the child's problem becomes bad enough that they are not able to function as any other kid (school etc.). It's really bad imho

Yes

There's misunderstanding sure but the stigma around anxiety and depression has reduced drastically from what it used to be. That is a positive but also it comes with people using the moniker of anxiety and depression as inappropriate descriptors for normal emotions and then that leads to people not taking legitimate sufferers seriously enough.

People seem to equate 'mental health' with these two conditions which can be frustrating at times when your diagnosis lies outside of these two things. Every world mental health day at uni made no mention of things beyond those. Usually most neurotypical people can empathise and understand to some degree depressive feelings and anxiety, when you get into the realms of things like schizophrenia and personality disorders its something a lot of people simply cant comprehend.

This leads to us being unfairly demonised, as a BPD sufferer the amount of vitriol ive seen online aimed at personality disorders seems in stark contrast to the fluffy positive quotes that get shared about anxiety and depression on social media. Not saying it's not hard still but it has been normalised in recent times.

If you're family are a brick wall then stop talking to them about it as you arent getting any benefit from doing so. Seek other therapeutic outlets or if you feel you need to then seek medical advice and treatment.

Reply 5

IanDangerously

20

Original post by CoolCavy

There's misunderstanding sure but the stigma around anxiety and depression has reduced drastically from what it used to be. That is a positive but also it comes with people using the moniker of anxiety and depression as inappropriate descriptors for normal emotions and then that leads to people not taking legitimate sufferers seriously enough.

People seem to equate 'mental health' with these two conditions which can be frustrating at times when your diagnosis lies outside of these two things. Every world mental health day at uni made no mention of things beyond those. Usually most neurotypical people can empathise and understand to some degree depressive feelings and anxiety, when you get into the realms of things like schizophrenia and personality disorders its something a lot of people simply cant comprehend.

This leads to us being unfairly demonised, as a BPD sufferer the amount of vitriol ive seen online aimed at personality disorders seems in stark contrast to the fluffy positive quotes that get shared about anxiety and depression on social media. Not saying it's not hard still but it has been normalised in recent times.

If you're family are a brick wall then stop talking to them about it as you arent getting any benefit from doing so. Seek other therapeutic outlets or if you feel you need to then seek medical advice and treatment.

The double meanings of anxiety and depression drive me crackers. Technically the people who use them to describe normal emotions are correct regardless of their reasons for choosing them. Depressed is an adjective for both sad/upset and a person with clinical depression. You can also be anxious and not have an anxiety disorder. The conflation of language has hurt everyone’s case when it comes to mental health issues being taken seriously imo.

I used to describe myself as “having major depressive disorder” rather than “being depressed” to make the distinction that I’d been diagnosed with a medical issue and wasn’t just having a bad day.

I think society is taking steps forward though, and I hope eventually we’ll get to the point where all mental health conditions are taken as seriously as physical ones.

Reply 6

Sabertooth

20

There's a hell of a lot of stigma. When I was at university in the UK, I was purposely excluded from all group work, conversations and sitting next to people in class. They called me crazy, dangerous, and a freak. I spent 3 years totally alone. People would whisper when I entered the room and sometimes just outright laugh in my face if I dared sit near them before moving away.

Even now, people refuse to believe me when I say something out of the ordinary has happened. They immediately say I'm mentally ill, paranoid, delusional, and not to be trusted.

Mental health stigma

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