They're called mental illnesses for a reason. It's everything that goes on in your head that makes you feel or be a certain way. Now, this absolutely doesn't mean that there's something wrong with you. Your mental illness is a part of who you are as a person: but you can't also let it control your life. For example, I have social anxiety so if I'm feeling particularly anxious about an event, or even just meeting up with friends, I will often make up an excuse about why I can't suddenly go. This is because I over-think everything and in my mind I come up with all the things that could possibly go wrong with whatever it is I'm supposed to be doing.
This isn't the sort of person I want to be. I want to be the sort of person who can turn up to everything I'm asked to go to without having any insecurities about it or trying to back out of it. I hate being like this and, if you have the same problem, I'm sure you are too.
I think one of the worst parts of it is having to overcome your fears. Now, everyone has their own fears. Some people might make fun of someone else's fear because it might seem to them as something stupid or too small a fear to be afraid of. No matter how much someone makes fun of you for your fear, it's not something you should be ashamed of. They might have a fear that you see as something that is stupid to be afraid of. Just because you're not scared of something doesn't mean everyone else can't be scared of it. It's the same with other people being scared of something you're not. Just because they're scared of it doesn't mean you can make fun of them for it.
Another part of having a mental illness is that you can't see it. In fact, most people that you see in the street are probably dealing with some kind of mental illness: it's just that you cant see it. These complete strangers who you've never met before and will probably never see again are all dealing with something that you don't know about. It's also the same with people who you know. People who you go to school or work with could easily be dealing with having a mental illness and you have no idea about it.
The problem with mental illnesses is that a lot of people who have them never talk about it because society doesn't necessarily view it as a major problem because they can't see that you have it so just automatically presume that it's not there. I don't know why that is. I know that recently there have been more people in the media who have come forward and spoken about their own struggles with mental illness which has, in some ways, encouraged others to be more open about it. And that's a good thing because the problem isn't just going to go away by itself.
That's another thing about mental illnesses. They're always going to be there. I mean, if it's particularly bad then you can go to your doctor and get some medication for it and there's a variety of different people you can go to talk about it. It's always better to talk to someone about your problems instead of keeping them bottled up because you always feel better afterwards. It's like me with this blog. I quite often mention a certain problem I have and it always seems like a massive weight has been taken off my shoulders.
As many of you know there is a massive difference in how physical illnesses are seen to how mental illnesses are seen. The best way I can think of describing is if we imagine the physical illness being a broken bone and the mental illness being depression. If someone came into school with a cast on because they'd broken a bone, everyone will rush forward in order to try and be the first person to sign it. If they broke they're ankle and were on crutches, people might move out of the way for them so that the person on crutches doesn't have to try and get around them. They'll also open doors for them or maybe offer to carry they're bags to class. If someone else had depression and started telling people about it, not everyone would behave in the same way as they had with the person with the broken bone. Most people would probably start to ignore that person which would just make them feel worse about themselves. If they were walking past that person they might give them an awkward smile but wouldn't bother to check if they're okay or if they need any help. Granted, not everyone is like this and some people would go out of their way to make sure that that person is alright and just trying to take their mind off things; and most importantly trying to make them happy. I know it's not easy but if someone's ill then we automatically want to make them better. So why should this be different on whether the illness is physical or mental?
I hope that this post might have made it a bit clearer that the only difference to mental and physical illnesses is that you can't see mental illnesses whereas you can see physical illnesses. I also hope that it made it clear to you that that should be the only difference between them. The way in which they are treated should be exactly the same.
If you ever need to talk about anything remember that you can talk to me. All of my contact details are in the contacts tab at the top of the page.
Love Beth xx
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