Link – Mental Illness Symptoms Can Make Communication Difficult
I want you to think about this quote –
The reality of mental illness is it affects us in different ways. Sure, some of us do fit that crying on the floor in the middle of the night image, but some people become irritable, angry, and completely unreasonable, just to name a few examples, and seemingly lack a redeeming quality. Some people are already like that before the mental illnesses come into their lives. Does it make it more difficult to have compassion for someone struggling? Sure. Does it mean they’re less deserving of it? Absolutely not.
First off, let me just say that I agree 100%.
I also want to talk about something else, though, and that is the idea that depression does not, in fact, look the same in every person. Recently on Twitter, I reacted to a news story that was going around with this thought:
It also refers back to some other posts I’ve linked to on this page in recent weeks about how depression oftentimes get missed in men because it doesn’t look like the depression we see in the media. Usually, depression is portrayed by a young woman who looks sad, cries easily, lacks energy, etc.
That may be the case for some people, but there are a lot of people dealing with depression who don’t fit that description. Some people with depression, let alone other mental health issues, are very irritable, hyper-alert, unable to focus, moody, and just not very much fun to be around. They don’t come across like someone who just needs a shoulder to cry on, they come across like jerks who could care less about you.
Yes, jerks deserve treatment and help too. You wouldn’t tell someone with heart disease that they just aren’t nice enough to get help and support. We shouldn’t do that with mental health either.
