Tags
ADHD, anxiety, bipolar, brain disease, depression, mental health, mental illness, metnally ill, schizophrenia]
I don’t know ninety percent of my friends on social media in real life. I can tell you that I have watched some of their children grow from birth to toddler. I have seen them adopt puppies and cats, and I have frequently read about the loss of a loved one. I don’t know most of the people on my “friend’s list,” but I would recognize them at a writer’s conference (which frequently happens) or in a workshop.
All that is to say, I read what people are posting, and I have been for years, and the level of comfort that most people toss out about anxiety and depression is amazing. It seems like the majority of people I connect with on social media have a diagnosed anxiety disorder or depressive disorder, or they have diagnosed themselves.
In the circles I am a part of it is perfectly natural and well accepted to discuss social anxiety and panic attacks, it is a little less prevalent to discuss depression, but I still see a post about it almost every day. The way people toss out these two disorders has always left me wondering if people are “claiming” them or if they are taking medication for them? If everyone who is posting about social anxiety and panic attacks or depression is being treated for those disorders then the statistics on mental illness are far from accurate – it is a crisis.
I suspect that not everyone who uses the phrase “panic attack” actually means that their heart was racing, they thought they were going to die and thought about going to the emergency room. I also suspect that not everyone who uses the word depression to describe their mood has trouble with daily activities like showering and brushing their teeth. Please, don’t get me wrong, I know that many people suffer and suffer quite silently or we wouldn’t lose famous people to suicide and drug overdoses as often as we do. I simply think that phrases and words like panic attack, depression, social anxiety are incorrectly and way overused.
The point, I want to make though, is can you ever imagine a time when people (lots of them) would casually throw out that they have schizophrenia? No, you can’t. Schizophrenia is like crossing a line. Depression is acceptable, anxiety is acceptable and isn’t that bipolar disorder the one that makes you so creative? I am so tired of reading people’s essays, and books where they say, “At least I don’t have schizophrenia.” Well, an article came out today (link here) that claims that research shows that ADHD, bipolar, schizophrenia, major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders share a lot of similarities genetically.
I’ll be waiting for the day when people are also self-diagnosing themselves with schizophrenia the way I suspect some of them do with anxiety and depression, and that schizophrenia is openly talked about, acceptable, and almost the cool thing to be. If current attitudes are any indication, I will probably be waiting a long time, but still, I will be waiting.
I wish that my 24 year old grandson could write as you do.. he was an honor student Ian’s was accepted into our local University when he started having delusions and psychosis.
He never started college and doesn’t read much ( he had read many books by age 4)or write .
Yes, he is on injections and oral meds and yet he had no goals or anymore except for more cigerettes and snacks.😓
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I am going to post (maybe tomorrow) ways to help overcome a lack of motivation. It is a symptom of schizophrenia that I suffer from too.
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Beautiful and truthful post… Thankyou x much love barbara x
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Thank you!
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To quote you Rebecca,i will be waiting for the day when schizophrenia is the cool thing to have.I will be waiting for that day too.You’re right,we will be waiting for a long time though.Do you ever hate your schizophrenia? Sometimes I hate mine,but I have mostly come to terms with it.
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Having an illness, any illness is difficult. I have days that I feel low and other days when I feel sorry for myself, but that doesn’t change anything so I prefer to spend my time looking for ways to better my life.
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This is such a hopeful post! I enjoyed how you addressed the social stigma. I can relate to this! I’m diagnosed as a severe depression with borderline personality. I think I’m lucky. I’m here and me because my parents didn’t care and were abusive. I think the social stigma hurts a lot… I’m not a schizophrenic but I hear a voice in my head . It says it’s from God and I can’t argue with this, but because I’ve chosen social honesty I’m like a leper to most beliefs. I think that our mental illness as a society is an attitude of apathy. There’s so little emotion for wrong doing. I enjoyed reading this, you’re a talented writer!
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Thank you!
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Oh I know,i have days like that too.But yes you’re right Rebecca.It does not change anything.And most of the time I feel pretty good.Just sometimes I get kind of low.But it only happens now and then.But that’s life with any illness.Ours just happens to be schizophrenia .I really wish it wasn’t so stigamitzed by society.
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My transgender daughter who is diagnosed with social anxiety, PTSD , Aspbegers, depression and recently schizophrenia. She is struggling more than one can imagine. My hope and dream for her is to get to a place where she. Can understand and acknowledge these diagnosis and be ok with it. I want her to have goals and try to accomplish them. I want her to be happy and productive. I want her at peace and to learn to love herself. Mental illness is everywhere. We have had a lot of hard times trying to get help and finding good people that work in this profession are hard to come by.
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I wish you and your daughter the best! Hugs!
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I agree that the level of stigma schizophrenia receives is pretty stinkin’ high compared to anxiety or depression. Gosh, I was listening to a kid in college, who didn’t know my diagnosis, talking about how if he decided to be a psychiatrist, he’d want to work with the sociopaths, schizophrenics, “you know, the real lunatics.” He was completely ignorant of how his comments affected me, but really, that level of misunderstanding of what it means to live with schizophrenia is (I think) rather common. 😦
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I know this scenario all too well.
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I’ve been researching alternative treatment for bipolar and I look at a lot of studies that focus on schizophrenia also because they’re all related. It’s more important we figure it out for all of us. They’re all illnesses that we need real cures for and for to be out in the light instead of the shadows. I feel the stigma daily since my last relapse. It’s a shame
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Yes, stigma is real, painful and something we can all work against.
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