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

[Queen Boudica]

How you have twisted my comment about if you have one leg I don't think there is as much stigma and prejudice in ALL these areas, like if you are in family court no-one is going to remove your children because you have one leg or are disabled. I don't know. Obviously I have triggered a reaction. I again state I did not say no stigma or discrimination just a lot more in every area possible area in mental health. Including your right to refuse meds and be locked up, tied up. That is what I have observed and that is my opinion.

 

[Ronin]

How you have twisted my comment

No. I just disagree with it. Saying there IS prejudice in all these areas, and many more, it just manifests in different ways. Also that it's very depending on where you are. If an abuser wants to make a case against you depending on your disability and being unable to take care of the child and the court agrees with them, they will figure a way how to use whatever your life circumstances are just enough, and isn't about your actual state.

 

[oasis2003]

I know this is a bit off and not totally related to the post but it really stopped me in my tracks and made me think.

If you have cancer you just want to live ............
If you have depression you just want to die............

 

[Queen Boudica]

I don't think that is necessary right you want to die. It is like Stephen Fry said, you just want for those feelings to stop and the only way is to die. I also think with cancer, people want to live but once the pain is so much it is unbearable, as is depression sometimes (or our mind turns it into that) then some do want the option of euthanasia. If there is no other treatment and you are going to be in pain and suffering terrible side-effects of cancer treatment then some do want to die, and I guess depression is like that. You see no way out, no hope, the unbearable pain goes on and you want to die. If there was a way of removing that then you would want to live. Another thing is depression is very isolating, so many don't have the family support, there is no-one even to live for. That is my ideas on it.

 

[ms spock]

It doesn't bother me so much now but I remember for a long long time I couldn't bear to accept I was mentally ill.

I was stuck here for a very long time, because I didn't want to be mentally ill after all the abuse I had lived through, it didn't seem fair. The stigma really scared me. So I split it off and I went into denial.

 

[Teasel]

I know what you mean @Ms Spock
For a long time it felt like accepting the label would mean accepting that there was no hope for me, sort of its a fuzzy unknown awfulness..
Glad I feel differently about it now, though still got a way to go.

 

[Anarchy]

For a long time it felt like accepting the label would mean accepting that there was no hope for me,

That's actually a huge thing, both the concept of
difficulties in functioning being viewed as "illness"
and theories for the causes of those difficulties.

There's an academic paper somewhere looking at the differences in attitude towards, patience with and sympathy for people experiencing difficulty, by medical professionals holding differing views for the causes of mental illness (it was by Raymond Bergner and one of his research students - I'll see if I can find it and link to it).

put in very crude terms
If a professional believes that the difficulties are due to some mistaken cognitive assumptions, or damage due to abuse and bad experiences, and that helping the person to replace thiose assumptions with more functional ones will help - then they are going to be a lot more sympathetic and empathic with the person

than would be a practitioner who adheres to the "chemical imbalances" or "genetics" theories, who is more likely to take the attitude of "here's some meds, take them and piss off, you are faulty"

ok, the paper didn't actually say "Piss off" but you get the idea;)

 

[Born to Run]

I realized that there's a stigma around more things involving the brain than just mental illness.

but because we are wired to be worried about our heads, no matter what.

Very interesting. I agree from own experience. In case of job applications I believe I should never mention two things with regard to CV gap and that is brain surgery and ptsd. If it was knee surgery I would not hesitate to mention it, but brain surgery makes people doubt if everything is really functioning up there again. It is a grey and undefined area, also one that is not openly discussed. I believe the reason is that it scares people.

The whole magic component that is added on to matters of the brain is very odd. I remember seeing my neurosurgeon in the recovery room shaking hands with him, and the first thought I had, was oh my god, this guy was just in my brain and now I can still think, everything is working, this is a miracle, this is magic. Would I have thought about magic if it was my knee? I don't think so.

Maybe it is the human condition to fear what we are not able to fully comprehend, like our brain with a complexity that is simply beyond our understanding. Same for ptsd or other mental illness, I often feel the fear people have for it, probably because they can not comprehend it.

 

[Klo]

I don't think it matters much what words we use.

People who have the wisdom to do so, will want to ask questions and understand what we experience, what we feel and what we mean, specifically. They will know that anyone can write anything on the internet, and to take it all with a huge grain of salt.

People who lack that level of wisdom generally won't even think to actually ask you anything, but instead will cherry pick from the internet whatever fits with their own projection and confirmation bias.

We have no control over this factor in other people.

 

[Ronin]

Preach, @Klo.

(Cough, I mean: Very well said, and accurate.)