Thursday 20 June 2013

Mental disorders

One in four people will experience some sort of mental health problem this year. Whether it is a type of depression, anxiety, schizophrenia or something else entirely... a quarter of us will have some form of experience with the symptoms of mental disorders.

The thing that mystifies me is not how many people are affected by the symptoms of mental health issues, but rather, why society still struggles to treat sufferers with the respect that they both need and deserve. It's all too common to hear "cheer up!" being shouted at someone dealing with depression, or for an anxiety sufferer to be told to "snap out of it". 

Shouting cheer up to someone suffering from depression is like telling someone with a broken leg to walk it off.
Telling someone with anxiety to snap out of it is like telling someone who is bound by ropes to cut themselves loose.
It isn't as easy as telling yourself that your pain does not exist. For it does exist. And it is incapacitating. The sooner we realise that this is not something that we can simply ignore, the better. 

The truth is, the majority of society are painfully uneducated when it comes to mental health issues, resulting in misconceptions that have become all too common a sight.

For example, I find it terrifying that so many people believe that you can snap out of a depressive state with positive thought alone, that you can deny that you are in a great deal of emotional pain and that it will go away if you don't give it the attention that it craves. Stephen Fry described it best when he likened depression to the weather. If it rains when you are outside, do you deny that you are wet? If the sun disappears behind a cloud, do you insist that it is still a beautiful day? If the temperature plummets and you find goosebumps lining your arms, do you still convince yourself that it is warm? No. Because it's not under your control. 

And that's precisely what mental disorders are like. They are not under your control. 

Positive thoughts and denial will not cure you of your issues, so we should stop pretending that it can.

I think that the thing we need to remember is that no matter how terrible we may feel right now, no matter how hopeless, or useless, or just plain hurt we are at the present moment... this feeling shall soon pass. The clouds will have mercy on our tiny bodies. The sun will come out once more. The temperature will rise and allow us to bask in the light. And we shall live to see this day, with weathered minds, and we will be stronger for going through these experiences.

To the lucky three quarters of society who won't have to personally deal with mental disorders this year...

You will know someone who is going through this pain, and the likelihood is that they are going to need you at some point. Educate yourself on their issue, regardless of whether that is depression, bipolarity, anxiety, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder... whatever it is, just have a quick google and try to familiarise yourself with their disorder. It makes it seem a lot less daunting if you get the facts, instead of the insane lies that are often spread from person to person about them. Other than that, just be there for them, remind them often that you are there for them (it's so easy to forget that) and above all else, don't pass judgement on them. 

The more we talk about various mental disorders, the more the stigma surrounding them shrinks, and the sooner we can get help to those who truly need it.
  
If you want to find out more about the many different types of depression, click here. 
If you want to find out more about the many different types of anxiety disorders, click here.
If you want to find out more about schizophrenia, click here.

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