Posted by Tomatheus on March 2, 2014, at 15:59:32
In reply to Severe Mental Illness is treated like a joke, posted by poser938 on March 2, 2014, at 13:10:43
You wrote a good post, poser938, you really did. I somehow doubt that you deserve to be told the things that those closest to you have told you, but unfortunately, I think that those of us who have mental illness symptoms that we'd consider to be "severe" hear comments similar to those that you've been told all too often.
To the credit of those who make comments such as those that you included in your post, I think it can be difficult for those who haven't experienced significant impairment from a mental illness to understand what's really going on with those who are badly impaired by mental illness. A lot of individuals with mental illnesses don't have anything that's visibly wrong with them, so when they don't function at a level that's similar to the level that most others function at (or the level that they used to be able to function at), those observing the mentally ill individuals oftentimes conclude that those who are mentally ill just aren't trying hard enough and that the reason why they're not doing the things that they once did is because they've given up. As someone who's experienced significant impairment from a mental illness and still does to some extent, I think that individuals who jump to such conclusions are terribly misguided, but then again, one of the reasons why I think that individuals with mental illness have difficulty functioning because of the impairment caused by their illness and not because they're just not trying hard enough is because I've been there and still am "there" to an extent.
So, how can we convince more people that the reasons why we're not functioning the way we used to have nothing to do with not trying hard enough and/or having given up? I think that the answer rests with finding proper treatment so that we can thrive once again and prove those with the misguided ideas wrong. Unfortunately, doing the first part of what I wrote (finding proper treatment) can be so difficult for some of us. The treatments that we have available to us don't seem to have the best success rates and may even make our physical and mental health worse -- and I know that for you, they seemingly have. When the treatments that we try don't work, those who say that our problems are due to us not putting forth enough effort or failing to "pull ourselves up by our bootstraps" will see the fact that we didn't respond to treatment as a confirmation that they were right all along. But that's one reason why we have to keep trying. In my opinion, we'll have our best chances at proving those whose ideas I think are misguided wrong if we find the right treatments and then go on to truly recover from our illnesses.
Now, I know that not everybody with severe mental illness symptoms will necessarily go on to recover, and I also think that education can help others understand what we're going through better, but I still think that the best thing that we can do to show that we are indeed doing the best that we can do is to find proper treatment and then get on with doing what we really want to do with our lives. Is this attainable for all? Probably not. But I think that if more of us will recover and share with others the difference that proper treatment can make, we'll be in a better position to change attitudes.
Tomatheus
Has schizophrenia with strong negative and cognitive symptoms
Taking Abilify, niacin, & vit. D3
poster:Tomatheus
thread:1061683
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20140214/msgs/1061686.html