Posted by hyperfocus on April 7, 2011, at 5:10:17
In reply to Condescension, posted by mtdewcmu on April 6, 2011, at 14:53:13
Condescension, sure. I've had to endure the "it's all in your head / snap yourself out of it" monologue more times than I can remember, from multiple family members. It gets a lot worse than that, unfortunately, outside of your family. At least one manager of mine called me lazy. Then it can go to the other extreme. Apparently for some people finding out you take psych meds is worse than having a criminal record. It's getting much better now though because so many adults are being put on meds, for better or worse. But condescension and stigma are just two indignities, out of many, you're going to need to bear with from other people, even people who are closest to you.
But the people who really care about you will see you're in pain and have a genuine illness, I think. The rest don't matter. Even among MI patients there can be some level of condescension: if you've never had paranoia it's very hard to understand how somebody else feels, even if you have to deal with ADD or depression or something else.
If you have empathy and compassion for other people - and having MI in many cases will add to what's already there - then the best you can do is be compassionate towards her. It's hard for her to understand mental illness because she's never had it. It's hard for doctors too - if you're arm was broken they could see the fracture in an Xray, but there's no scanning technology for ADD or paranoia yet. So I guess all you can do is be compassionate towards those who care but don't understand. Just tell her and anyone else that regardless of how they feel about your illness, you need their support and love because that's what family is about
Being down the well teaches you a lot of things. Hopefully when you're above ground again those lessons will benefit you.
poster:hyperfocus
thread:982098
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20110407/msgs/982167.html