What Do People Think About The Term 'mental Illness'?

[Kimberley]

I struggle with the whole 'mental illness' thing. It is linked to all things horrible

I dont like the look on peoples faces when you say "mental illness" more than the word. but the more people talk about having it the more acceptance there is. I always take it to a funny place to relate to people. I just say I'm a mental. if they give me a funny look ect... I just say not a mental huh... oh well. we can talk about the weather if you like. but thats me, its a coping mechanism. most people give you a smile then & not pity... ohh pity its the worst thing ever.. thats what makes you feel like a freak.
I also hate the term "Im in a bad place ATM" I like to say having a stay at the Manson Bed&breckfast. I just find making it more relatable people feel more comfortable talking to you about it.

 

[Ronin]

I have illnesses, they aren't contagious, that's where it ends.

Basically I'm less concerned with people's ignorance & more with healing my body or keeping up what can't be healen together. That and if whichever communication will limit my freedom, if that is likely, I'm zip mouth and just say disabled.

 

[Anarchy]

Mentally ill [at ease].

 

[Queen Boudica]

Problem with the disabled thing is people then start making judgements about you look fine (as they do with complex trauma) and that you are a scrounger etc, (as they do with mental illness).

The attitude of the community does affect us whether we try to ignore it all not. There are all sorts of ramifications, from people shunning you, to family court where you could lose your children, to jobs and attitude of bosses, to even being able to be employed to health professionals who ignore you because they see that label, to teachers who when you talk to them about your kids. If you are disabled, like if you have one leg I don't think there is as much stigma, and prejudice that affects all these areas.

The thing is 1 in 5 people suffer mental illness at any one time or another, so it should be like a normal thing that we expect a lot of people will go through, just like we know cancer is likely in a large percentage of us. If you get cancer, nothing but sympathy, if you get mental illness a whole minefield.

 

[Anarchy]

Problem with the disabled thing is people then start making judgements about you look fine

My memory from childhood and teenage of media portrayals of people with mental illness, was that their faces were flapping all over the place as their whole bodies fidgeted, and i could hardly make out what they were saying... they really looked and sounded like there was something very badly wrong with them.

I didn't realize that I was seeing the ill effects of them being brutally over medicated with drugs which messed with their dopamine system. The "tardive dyskineasia" is permanent.

I saw a poor little guy with it in town a few days ago. his mouth and feet fidgeting away.

 

[Queen Boudica]

oh yes @Anarchy when I saw my sister in hospital that time doped up with anti-psychotics and like a zombie, I didn't know that was due to drugs, I thought it was a nervous break down and that is what it could do. She was like that for months I thought it was her brain had been damaged or something. She was now mentally retarded.

 

[Queen Boudica]

One of the advocates who talks about mental illness and is bipolar herself was on Q&A during mental health awareness week here. Her hand was visibly shaking from the drugs. Anyway she told the story of when she was going to some town out in the outback to talk about mental illness at some conference and she was being driven there in a taxi. She sat next to the taxi driver and they were chatting and he was asking her why she was going to the conference. He started talking about mental illness really derogatory comments about people with mental illness thinking she was a mental health professional come to talk to the town about mental illness:
"And he said, 'Jeez, do we need you out here! I tell ya, great load of freaks and lunatics running around out here. Complete spazoids and schizos. Stab you in the back as soon as they look at you. We ought to round them all up and stick them on an island and let them kill each other off like we used to with the lepers"

She then told him she was a nutter but she was OK unless someone said the word "kangaroo". She then got her back on him Somehow on that journey she managed to get him to say kangaroo, and then she went into this crazy psychotic act telling him she wished he hadn't said that word. She said he bolted out of that car and was pinned against the wire fence terrified.

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment...s-qa-of-horror-taxi-ride-20151006-gk1vst.html

Hilarious but just goes to show what people do think about mental illness

 

[Ronin]

If you get cancer, nothing but sympathy, if you get mental illness a whole minefield.

I'm personally not quite sure about this, honestly. People tend to still divide cancer types by worthiness & victim blame some, have jack of understanding of just how darned complex cancer is & how cyclical it can be, assume X therapy will be a fix-all for everything, assume people for whom that therapy isn't an option are just non-compliant assholes whose cancer 'isn't that bad', et cetera et cetera. This isn't about what you're suffering, it's about people that voice their opinion in a particular way.

 

[Anarchy]

We ought to round them all up and stick them on an island

:hilarious::hilarious::hilarious:

This is going back 20 something years when, whatever the European super state was called at the time, was forcing the Isle of Man parliament to legalise homosexuality.

One of the news programs was seeking opinions on the street and a woman said "If people want to do that sort of thing, they should all go and live on a little island somewhere"

Last time I looked, the Isle of Man was exactly such a little island
and Oz, a somewhat bigger one.

 

[Ronin]

If you are disabled, like if you have one leg I don't think there is as much stigma, and prejudice that affects all these areas.

Oh, yeah, sure, people just assume there isn't stigma literally everywhere you go, pardon the pun, assuming you can /go/ there.

Along with access problems to the most basic resources, even in the so called civilized places.

Along with safety problems because you can't get to shelter in time just because of your body.

Along with being seen as a burden by so many.

Along with random people remarking on how a f*cking cripple you are.

Don't get me started on disgusted looks.

Or the physical assaults because a cripple won't go defending themselves, right?

.... I could continue quite a long time on the very same rant.

Point being: It really isn't about what one is suffering from. This comparing disabilities and saying people with other disabilities don't 'have it as bad' is not helpful.

& Lacking a limb would of course be ALSO effecting mental health. People with obvious physical disabilities also have mental issues in relation to their disability and societal perception, this is not an either/or situation.

 

[Queen Boudica]

I disagree @Cashew if you lose a leg you are unlikely to be locked up and put on drugs and not listened to and forced to take them for the rest of your life. Yes I never said there wasn't stigma and discrimination if you are disabled or have cancer, but mental illness is one where you lose all your rights. Yes I am comparing, because there is a difference.

And it is helpful, in this country those with mental illness are not even funded for adequate mental health therapy sessions on medicare, it is capped, so they can't get better unless they have money. If you have cancer you get the chemo you need. That is just one difference. People most certainly do not shun people with cancer or losing a leg as much as they do those with mental illness. you would not get comments like they should be rounded up and put on an island where they could kill each other. There is a difference

 

[Ronin]

Yes I never said there wasn't stigma and discrimination if you are disabled or have cancer

Compared to:

like if you have one leg I don't think there is as much stigma, and prejudice that affects all these areas.

And people ARE commonly treated as children & as incapable of making their own decisions when physically disabled. Even more so if their disabilities manifest in stunted growth, childlike voice or movements, or associated 'childhood' traits.