I've been Facebooking way too much, and came across this lovely infographic everyone who thinks they have a problem has been posting since they had that raise awareness day/week/month thing about mental illness to remove the stigma related to it. Here it is:
First things first, "Depression, Anxiety, and Panic Attacks are not a sign of weakness." I get what they're trying to do, alleviate the stigma associated with mental illness. I just don't get why they need to lie to do that. If you have the flu and you say you feel weak isn't that o.k? If you have cancer and you say you feel weak don't we say that's understandable? Of course, that's what we do, I mean the people are sick, you could even say they have an illness. Oh, you mean you feel weak when you have an illness and that's totally o.k., but when you have mental illness you're not weak? When did being weak while being ill become unacceptable? They've done tests, there are things that are different in a mentally ill brain. The body is not functioning under optimal conditions much like when you are fighting a virus, or cancer, or any other kind of illness. It's o.damn.k to be weak when you are ill. Even when you are mentally ill. It is not, I repeat, not o.damn.k to give up. In fact, I'm going to give you permission right now to be weak while you are ill, mentally or otherwise, because holy shit did I ever want that when I was first fighting this thing. I really wanted to just have some time to feel like shit cause I felt like shit and it sucked. I am not saying give up in any way. I am saying if you give yourself permission to be weak when you are mentally ill you will be more likely to be kinder to yourself. That's what you do when you're ill, right? You do things to make yourself feel better, and you sure as hell don't feel guilty for doing that. Only with mental illness you can't be weak. That's fucked up version 2.0!
Next, we have the "signs of having tried to remain strong for too long." More bullshit. Plain and simple. If your life sucks at the moment and you're having a hard time with that, you feel sad, upset, hell angry even, guess what? You may not be depressed. You may have shitty life syndrome. It passes. Also, there are people in the world who have seen so much hardship and they are not depressed, or anxious in the illness sense of the words. They may feel those feelings, but there is a big difference between feeling that way cause life has dealt you lemons from pretty much the get go, and having a mental illness. There are also a lot of people who have had a pretty sweet life who still get mental illness. What are we telling them? What are we telling their families? Now, you can get run down, and that can make you more prone to getting sick. I believe the same is true for someone who becomes mentally ill. Only, there's evidence to suggest you would have gotten it anyway whether or not you've gone through a lot or a little, or have had to be strong or not. The evidence being the wide range of life circumstances of the people who have become ill. Also, learning new coping skills will help, but that shit will help you out under any circumstance. The only reason they teach it to people who have mental illness is because the medication doesn't make you completely better and you have to learn to live with it.
Last, the whole top portion of this stupid infographic suggests that you've tried to be strong and now you're just giving up cause you feel like shit. On the other side of the coin, if you don't get mental illness are you somehow stronger than the ones that do? Then there is, if you don't get mental illness you must not have had to be strong in you're life. Yeah, I realize now my coin has three sides. I guess everyone who hasn't had mental illness has had it easy in life. Let's look at it that way because it just makes so much sense, doesn't it?
I could go on, but I'm going to use some of my fresh out of the box coping skills and walk away. Before my anger gets the better of me I'll leave you with one P.S. to my previous last point, it is that the I share because I care, but that's all I got cause I don't care that much attitude has got to stop! If you care take action, and not friggin Facebook action. Awareness is good and all, but how aware do we need to be before we get off our asses and do something. You want to make someone you know feel like they aren't alone with their mental illness, pick up the phone, text, call, email and don't take offense when they don't feel up to talking. Heck, you want to remove the stigma, send them an ecard saying get well soon, and that you are thinking of them. It doesn't even cost anything, and it is exactly what you would do with any other illness.
My closing, only positive thing I can take from that piece of crap above, we are 1 in 3. If you've got it you are not alone! It can be beaten. Don't give up.
