they are, though. My nerve pain, dysautonomia, and chronic fatigue from long COVID are all dismissed as being just in my head
this post was submitted on 09 May 2025
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It's not comparable. Whenever I see these posts, it always feels as if the author is suggesting that mental illness is just like a flu, you just get it accidentally and can't help it and you just need to rest to get over it.
But that is completely wrong. Unless you have developed schizophrenia or bipolar etc, that's a whole different kettle of fish which will likely require medication for the rest of your life. You need to help yourself out of depression and anxiety etc. You can't wait around for it to disappear, you need to see a therapist, take your ass outside and force yourself into uncomfortable situations.
You'll have days you can't do anything and that's completely okay. But I feel like the 'nurturing' of mental health can do some harm.
I feel you might be missing the joke, from my interpretation of it you are in agreement.
My read is that it is implying that mental illness are real diseases, but they're treated like you should just get over them, which would be ridiculous if you were bleeding out, but since they aren't usually visible people will just tell you that you should just be better.
See Soteria Houses. Schizophrenia or psychosis is not always a permanent state that requires medication for the rest of the patient's life. Soteria Houses achieve remission in individuals with little to no psychiatric medication. They use antipsychotics for stabilization, in controlled doses, and usually (to the best of my knowledge) only for a few months - though every case is different.
Okay, see 'likely'.
Agoraphobia is a really fun one. “Just go outside! You’ll feel better if you hang out with people!” I’d love to! I’d love for my brain to not put up a great big roadblock that says “you are not going to be able to go into Walmart” or “you cannot complete that piece of paperwork.” That’s the problem I have. If it was as simple as just doing the thing, I’d be doing the thing.
Who is going to tell them?
(I have seen a few of these very examples.)
Especially the first one
Where's the sports ball coach saying "walk it off" to a person with no legs?
Yeah, about that... my Depression-raised dad didn't even think physical problems were an excuse for slacking or being negative. I think it was the general mood of the 30s when he was a teenager. There was very little public help for people in trouble - basically you could turn to charity or starve. So people were highly motivated to keep going in spite of whatever happened. Bouncing back from problems ASAFP was a survival trait. I always said if my dad saw me get my leg cut off by a chainsaw or something, he would probably run over and say cheerfully, "Oh well, you've still got your other leg, just hop!"
If you have a physical illness you go to physical therapy, so if you have a mental illness you should go to mental therapy.
Yeah definitely feel like at least in America we treat physical illness that way a lot of the time too
I agree with the message but its not entirely true becsuse once you treat the gaping wound, going on walks and just basic physical activity actually helps. It sounds stupid but touching grass is one of the best things you can do when youre in a bad place. Also this one adresses like one of the slides, the rest is bullshit people constantly tell eachother. Actually looking at the person on a deeper level and not just the surface helps a lot. What doesnt help is most people depressed nowadays arent depressed from some personal thing but from the cold hard truth that the world is a horrible place thats falling apart.
As the closest friend of someone depressed, I have to say such illness isn't the same as physical illness. Sure all those advices won't change anything, but that's just because the person doesn't have the will to make them happen. People around the depressed person can definitely help, just by spending time with the person, and encouraging the person to accompany them to activities. Biggest danger is insisting too much as you might turn into a burden. Sometimes I think it's just better not to talk
People act this way because they know how cold and callous the world is. No one cares if you have a mental disorder or psychological difficulties and if you are unable to hold down a job your future will take place living in the street. It is a harsh and brutal reality. Good luck.
I care, and I know a lot of other people do as well.
Caring is something you do not something you feel. What exactly do you do to help them?
Well considering that a lot of people suffering are experiencing economic problems in my country or problems with their environment; like not being able to receive health care and suffering from treatable physical illness, not being able to get out of sticky situations with abusive people or dynamics, having employment issues, or being homeless/in debt and so forth - I can't exactly give them a place to live or give them money because I really have none to give.
In those cases, what can I personally do for them? Of course I can listen, I can give solicited advice, and I can point them to the resources they have access to.
I advocate for those resources to be more accessible for all. Health-allowing, I want to volunteer my time and become more politically active.
Oh I'm sorry i misread your response. You're saying you don't do anything to help them but you want to seem like you do. That you're a fake ass poser, pretending to care in some virtue signaling fraud so others will think favorably of you even though you haven't actually done anything to deserve it. Now I understand. Like I said at the start of this waste of time of a conversation, the vast majority of people don't care.
You’re saying you don’t do anything to help them but you want to seem like you do.
I am not doing well. It's not an excuse and it doesn't make me lesser. I am working to be healthy. You are free to perceive reality however you wish, I choose to believe the world is a friendly place. If I was healthy, I would be able to do more for myself as well as others.
I have experienced some pretty terrible things. I know very well that life can be unkind, but I still persevere and I'm working towards healing. Thanks for your feedback, not everybody is the saint you expect them to be, but it doesn't make them lesser or bad.
So you are saying that you go to homeless camps and explain to them what resources are available to them and personally assist them with applying for those resources?
Considering that I have volunteered my time to help and feed the homeless when I was healthy, and have volunteered a significant amount of time in my life, I'd be willing to if I had an organization alongside me.
Why do you feel the need to purity test me?
None of this has anything to do with our conversation and I have no tests for you. I hope you the best and good luck.
Hope probably requires action too, otherwise nothing backs it up and grounds it into reality.
Thanks for chatting, sorry it wasn't worthwhile for you - it was worth it for me.
I'll keep working on myself, and when I am the shining beacon that even you could stand beside, maybe we could have another chat about caring and action.
You don't need to pretend you are some victim and I'm judging you. You believe caring without action is meaningful and helpful while I think it is how people pretend to help without actually doing anything. We disagree and that is ok. It's really not a big deal.
I believe action can come in a lot of different forms. I very often give advice online, barring my ability to do anything in the real world - due to my body not cooperating. There's a lot on my list for myself, the people I love, and the community around me.
Advice still isn't the same thing as direct support and intervention, despite giving helpful tips and (hopefully) life-changing advice to probably hundreds of people by now.
If I was pretending, I would've already deleted my account. I don't choose to lie. I recently moved to a new area and I have checked out my opportunities for volunteering, but unless I travel to a major city (which I am unable to currently do), my impact will be minimal unless I spearhead an organization or group myself. I live in a very rural area with relatively few homeless or overtly disadvantaged people.
But, of course, it's okay to disagree. And, it isn't a big deal at all. I chimed in to not virtue signal, but to be the person that I am, and to show that the world may not be as cold as your (valid) perspective sheds light to.
I believe your experience is what you make it. I could easily fall into doom and gloom and let that be my reality, or I can open myself up to the idea that people who care are limited by their reality, but given the time, opportunity, and means would help others out.
A vulnerable person could read your perspective and hurt themselves or worse. That was my specific reasoning for response. Hope that makes sense.
The medication stigma is based on basically magic thinking: That medicine is alien, external, unnatural while the human body is pure and natural. Therefore any difference between medicated and unmedicated is artificial and caused by the medicine.
No, the body is fucking dropping terror chemicals in my bloodstream. It is changing my personality from easygoing and outgoing to snippy and reclusive. The body is malfunctioning and changing my personality for the worse.
The medicine is reducing the amount and effectiveness of the body's excess of terror chemicals. It restores normality.
For me, I have a stigma to medication because the side effects are terrifying. I almost died from SSRIs, I got very ill and also suicidal. On benzos, I got paradoxically anxious and angry after cessation/when I wasn't taking them (I am not an angry person). I took them as prescribed - always.
I only got more and more unstable after taking various psychiatric drugs, and everyone in my family who has taken psychiatric drugs was not better off for it. Seems like suicidal ideation is a common reaction for those in my family. Perhaps there is a genetic cause for it, like how we metabolize drugs.
I don't know a single person in my life who has had a good experience, but if you or someone you know has had a good experience, I'm happy for you. It's just unfair to say it's magical thinking when there are real life reasons why people are hesitant.
But no one thinks the same about statins, for example
It's not medication, it's medication that addresses mental illness
Nah, I ran into it going on thyroid hormones too. My parents had a couple church friends that were absolutely adamant that I needed to take the 'natural' desiccated pig thyroid instead of the 'unnatural' synthetic thyroid hormones. Their faith said that their god doesn't make mistakes, that either he wants you to have this condition, or he's provided a perfect natural remedy, so synthetic medicines existing is hubris.
It's more common with mental health meds, but it's not like there's a law saying it's the only meds people can be shitty about.
hugs you
I know this doesn't change what your body is doing to you, but I hope it at least makes you feel loved.
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If you say 'mental illness' 3 times in the mirror, someone with a Live Laugh Love t-shirt will appear behind you and ask if you've tried going outside.
Haha brilliant 😄
And now the cropping is fixed, so the comments deriding the cropping don't make sense anymore.
The confusion it will cause...
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ok, but in america this IS how physical diseases are treated
Me: Doc, I'm in constant pain, my lower back is killing me, my hips are killing me, and random parts of my body go numb or twitch and randomly hurt for no rhyme or reason.
Doc: You need to lose weight and see a therapist, this is most likely depression and anxiety.
Therapist: Yes, you have depression and anxiety, but the 7 years of therapy you've had shows it's not just anxiety or depression causing this, advocate for yourself.
Friend: Have you tried yoga?
In the four european countries I’ve lived in as a physically disabled person unable to work, this is exactly how I’ve been treated as well.
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I'll be honest, going outside does help. The problem is when you don't have a compelling enough reason to (in my personal experience. This might not be everybody's experience)
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