Mental illness isnt like a sinus infection.
You cant just wait it out or take a pill to make everything go away.
Our brains are complex and enigmatic, and mental illness is no different.
This leads to a lot of misconceptions that make recovery much harder.
Here are a few things you should know, whether youre a sufferer or not.
Before we talk about misconceptions, it helps to identify just what mental illness means.
Everyone has stress and difficult emotions from time to time and this is normal.
Mental illness, on the other hand, isany condition that makes it difficult to function in daily life.
It can affect your relationships, your job, or prevent you from reaching any otherwise attainable goal.
If that sounds like a pretty wide definition, its because the human mind is complex.
Living with any of these can be debilitating.
We rely on our senses, emotions, and perceptions to get us through the day.
When any of those fail, it can make life difficult.
Ivestruggled with mental illnesses for decades.
Over the years, Ive had diagnoses ranging from depression to Aspergers and Ive encountered a ton of misconceptions.
Here are some of the ones that still seem to stick around.
The problem is, this is often interpreted to mean that thesymptomsof mental illness never go away.
If this were true, therapy and treatment would be pointless.
Like many people, I first learned about this idea just a few years ago.
It was the first time in decades that it seemed like there was hope for my situation.
However, over time and with the help of therapy and treatment, your brain can adapt.
Both of these correlations are untrue.
Mental illnesses are, by their very nature, disruptive to a persons life.
However, the way they manifest can vary wildly from person to person.
Mental illness is not the only factor that determines how a person behaves and interacts with others.
Anxiety can make a personirritable or simply avoid social interactions.
Thats not to say that there is never any overlap.
People with mood and anxiety disorders can still be violent.
So can anyone else.
Everyone, regardless of their personality, lifestyle, or background can suffer from a mental illness.
However, quite the opposite is usually true: isolating from normal relationships can be ahindranceto recovery.
As mental health journalist and schizophrenia suffererLisa R. Rhodes explains, having supportive relationships can aid in recovery.
Relying on friends and loved ones to provide outside input helped to counter that perception and keep me grounded.
Relationships can certainly be hard for someone with a mental illness.
Having a mental illness certainly makes relationships a challenge, but it doesnt disqualify you from having them.
The thing is, the inability to just get over it isexactly the problem.
Its what separates mental illness from normal, day-to-day stress.
Everyone has problems handling their emotions and could use some encouragement sometimes.
So they try harder to make you feel hopeful and positive about the situation.
The positivity starts coming out in a spray a giant, desperate happiness sprinkler pointed directly at your face.
And thats the most frustrating thing about depression.
It isnt always something you’re able to fight back against with hope.
It isnt even something its nothing.
And you cant combat nothing.
You cant fill it up.
You cant cover it.
Its just there, pulling the meaning out of everything.
Having mood or anxiety disorders isnt just having a particular feeling.
Its losing the ability to feel anythingelse.
you might tell yourself not to think about it, but it doesnt work.
Put another way,if you could just get over it,you wouldnt have a mental illness.
This misconception is particularly insidious because people with mental illness succumb to it too.
Your inability to control your anxiety makes you more anxious.
You cant stop yourself from feeling hopeless, so you feel more hopeless.
Also like the last section, it only serves to get in the way of genuine recovery.
Of all the misconceptions in this article, I personally relate to this one the most.
Talk therapy might seem like a waste of time, but youre not paying to talk.
Like most other services where you hire a professional, youre paying for expertise.
This process can be very long and involve what feels like a lot of wasted effort.
Your first few sessions in talk therapy are likely going to involve a lot of explaining your past.
And thats to say nothing ofnewer types of treatment still being developed.
Thats a lot to handle if you feel like your only problem is getting worried too often.
However, as we established earlier, just trying to feel better until youre cured doesnt work.
Getting help, on the other hand, might.
Even a small chance is better than none at all.
My personal journey took nearly twenty years.
Later the diagnosis changed to Tourettes Syndrome, then they added ADHD and OCD.
Depression got tacked on after that.
Ive tried toughening it out, Ive tried praying it out, and Ive triedreprogramming my brain with computers.
There were a million moments where that journey felt pointless.
In fact, one could argue that some of my experiences actually made my issuesworse.
Sometimes you try something and it doesnt work, and I dont want to give anyone false hope.
However,doingnothing was the only thing I ever tried that was guaranteed toaccomplishnothing.
Illustration by Sam Wooley.
Photos byA Zillion Dollars Comic, andHyperbole and a Half.
