Posted by seldomseen on July 8, 2009, at 7:19:39
In reply to invisible?, posted by floatingbridge on July 7, 2009, at 22:34:07
It's okay, you are not invisible, although people may chose to make your illness that way.
For some people, I think the entire topic of mental illness makes them uncomfortable, powerless.
I think there are well established societal responses to physical illness, thus people potentially are more comfortable in their response. We aren't quite there yet with mental illness.
In these kind of interactions, I think it is important to clearly convey what you would like the other person to do/say because they may *want* to do something to help, but have absolutely no idea what to do/say or even how to act.
When I think it is appropriate, or, especially for no apparent reason, I just burst into tears/freak out, I will reveal what symptoms I deal with on a daily basis. But I always end up giving the other person an "out" and say something like "it's a personal struggle, but I'm doing my best to deal with it". People still don't know what to say, but at least they are less uncomfortable about it.
I sometimes wonder what they think of me when I'm not around, but overall, I have much bigger things to deal with.
Seldom.
poster:seldomseen
thread:905559
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090630/msgs/905591.html