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

[Queen Boudica]

So I just walk around the park constantly on lunch and break in the name of exercise

Oh that is so familiar, except I did want to socialise but just felt total freak and couldn't. Amazing all the things you try to find to do at lunch-times.

And it casts a pall on all of us who never hurt anyone.

Yep

 

[Queen Boudica]

Timely this article about misconceptions about mental health. Note when senior managers were asked what comes to mind when the researcher says mental health. I actually did not think mental health means mental illness, don't get that one.

Dead Link Removed

 

[Queen Boudica]

This one blog says it all:
https://bipolarbandit.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/i-have-a-dream-re-mental-illness/

 

[RavenGirl]

@Go Hungry , I agree with you on the lunch thing. I found an empty office in the school where I could eat all by myself with the door closed. Aaahhh, 30 min of no people, peace and quiet! My favorite time of the day. Also, I don't like the term mental illness very much. After all had I not Been abused I wouldn't be the way I am today. I'm a survivor! ! ;)

 

[Deleted member 29920]

I personally think it's not me that's mentally ill, it's the people who traumatised me that are. Still resent having to seek treatment for the effects that those people had on me. Those people are out in society and viewed as mentally healthy :banghead: epic fail!

Oh, and I'm another who used to spend lunch and breaks alone, although winter was a nightmare walking around outside. Just didn't find socialising with particular people rewarding.

 

[Queen Boudica]

Well yes, I find that ironic, my ex he was the one who was the raging violent lunatic, yet abusers and DV perpetrators do not seem to get very much stigma at all.

 

[Nevermore]

It is more than an emotional reaction. Childhood trauma leads to changes in brain development and a...

Yes, sorry - you're right. But what I mean is its a natural reaction to trauma that no one is immune to!
Under the right (or wrong) circumstances it could happen to anyone - that's what I was meaning to say!

 

[Queen Boudica]

no need to apologise @jojo88 :) . Yes it is a very natural reaction it is a survival mechanism. There is no shame or guilt we survived but like in a war we got wounded. We were in a war zone effectively.

 

[SabrinaB]

I hate it. Have gone back and forth and all around on this, both as a sufferer and someone who has spent over 30 years working in healthcare. My main frustration is the horribly fragmented way we approach health and illness. While it's great we've developed expertise in many fields, the downside is that we've chopped the body up to fit our evolving medical model.

The body is a unified whole so it seems absolutely absurd that we have created arbitrary divisions along physical vs mental lines. And where do those lines begin and end?? Many specialties deal with brain disorders, neurologists, neurosurgeons etc, so who decided which disorders psychiatrists handle and which ones others do?

My body does not know about or align itself with a hospital's organizational chart. It is a complex, integrated physical body system. If I am ill or injured my entire body is affected in one way or another by this. To cut my care and treatment up to meet the convenience of a created medical model is absurd and crazy-making.

And don't get me started on the term "behavioral healthcare"! That one actually triggers me because I find it so condescending and paternalistic. Who gets to decide what is or isn't appropriate behavior for another adult? Think about it, really think about it.

 

[Tinyflame]

Yes @SabrinaB lack of knowledge & understanding is astounding. :(

 

[Stickler]

...I marched around with Queer Nation in 1991, in Texas...

Generally, if somebody wants to give me a stigmatizing label I will take it and wear it like a fluorescent rainbow feather boa as I go sashaying down the street.
I am a functionally mentally ill person.
I KNOW that I do get up and fight the good fight, I do try.
I am worthy of respect even if some clueless asshat ain't giving it to me.
I am worthy of love and respect even on the days where I despise myself.

...I'll admit I feel sad and angry that I am stigmatized, frustrated that I can't effectively fake being not weird very well, angry at myself that things that OUGHT TO BE EASY are so, so NOT easy.

Yeah, I am mentally ill.
I wish the people who want to stigmatize me for that would try walking a mile in my concrete shoes.

 

[Rosewater]

The most helpful thing I saw was a description of PTSD as a psychological injury, because it originates in something happening to a person. It was distinguished from a mental illness as something originating in the brain without being caused by external injuries. I guess things like complex PTSD might blur that distinction a little, but I've found it very helpful to think of the condition as an injury - which requires treatment and which can heal.