I feel like mental illness is treated like a cold, when really its more like cancer. It makes me so sick people do not think it is a real illness. It kills people. Its something that those of us with it face every day. Its very real to us and it is painful. It makes me cry to have people joke around about it because its nto a joking matter.

its also something that is not accepted well by other people. if your suffering from the flu or cancer than you get sympathy and support and presents and cards to cheer you up, but when youve got depression people frreak out and back away. you gte no support and often times its quite the opposite. it makes me so frusterated, but worst of all. . . .it makes those of us with depression to afraid to speak up and recieve the help we need. and i hate it. each and every day.

i hope yall know where im coming from.

 

 

I whole heartedly agree,

In the UK there is very little done medically for people with mental illness, many treatments have to paid for out of your own pocket where as even simple things like Flu Jabs and general shots are provided for free, let alone the expensive cancer treatments etc...

It's no wonder so many people suffer in silence, like I have and do

x

I completely disagree with "In the UK there is very little done medically for people with mental illness" as I've had the best help possible from the nhs with my problems and I'm still recieving help week by week. They've never let me down, saved my life a couple of times and are always there for me when I need them. This is in Sheffield, I don't know what the services are like in other parts of the country. I havn't yet had to pay for anything regarding my treatment. Flu Jabs and others are provided free because these diseases they stop can be caught from other people and animals, I'm guessing the goverment doesn't want a pandemic. Mental illness isn't contagious, and there isn't a cure for it, and again I havn't had to pay for anything for the services I've had and am still getting.

As for friends and family and the public. I guess if they can't see it they don't think its there or less serious. This can be frustrating at times, like with my family, as much as I explain it to them they still don't understand and I don't think ever will. I think my friends do know whats going on but sometimes dismis it, "You'll grow out of it" "there's nothing wrong with you". But they don't see me when I'm on my own, or know how I'm feeling.. Thats why I have breaks from them at weeks at a time making no contact because they do piss me off and they don't know they're doing it.

 

Love

 

With regards to the UK side of things I guess it all depends the stories you hear. Hearing your story it gives me faith in them, but I know a few people who have been in and out of places and now just left feeling let down, neglected and alone all because of the NHS, but I guess with most anything in life there are good and bad sides to every story.

As for the shutting people out, I do that alot too, it was alot easier when people were at uni, I've had to employ the good old "grin and bear it" mantra many times, We have to accept the fact that some people will never understand.

But there are lots of people here that do.

You're not alone

x

I'm in the US, so I don't know much about the UK's health care system, but I know that here mental health parity is a big concern.  I plan on researching this and other pieces legislation and making a formal 'Legislation Section' on the site, because I know these legal terms get thrown around all the time.  (If anyone is interested in researching for the UK, please let me know!)  Parity basically states that mental health problems must be equal to other medical problems in terms of money allotted by insurance.

Anyway, I agree with Bryna.  Depression and other mental illnesses are often treated even worse than colds.  Even with a cold you get chicken soup, but with depression you just get told to 'toughen up.'  However, when you think back to a few decades ago, illnesses like cancer and HIV/AIDs were treated similarly to how mental illness is treated now.  They were rarely talked about and were almost always hidden.  Today, survivors of both are celebrated.  People are proud of their resiliance and are eager to help others in similar situations. 

It's time for mental illness to make that jump, and that starts with us.  We have to show others that we are not ashamed and that we deserve to be celebrated for being survivors.  One day we will be, but let's make that day soon!

DBSA (Depression Bipolar Support Alliance) has a section on their main page entitled ADVOCACY IN ACTION which provides information on upcoming legislation in the U.S.

Hello people i just wanted to say for the usa they are helping many people!!! i know i am one of them.i have been bipolar all my life and untill two years ago,i thought it was normal to feel this way.but the truth is i had to see a couple of doctors and be put on some med so i would reach a point so i would let people help me.and it is true many have died from not getting help ,but it don't have to be that way when i did ask for help it was there and still is every week. it has been some time now and i stay active around our town with people that want to help me,i like to think of it as recovery i am never going to be healed of this but i can live a normal life as other people do.i just need to stay aware of what i am dealing with every day of my life.but i all so feel that many of us cover it up with drinking or drugs or eating many different ways.for me and i aint pointing fingers for me i had to address the drug problem,i lost my left leg six years ago and blamed the world for it.then i got hooked on the pills because they allowed me to forget about the problems i had,so i thought and that i am clean i can see the problem of being  bipolar its up one day and down the next scared some times and crying the next.but with help i am getting through it one day at a time,i go to a step program for the drugs and i go to the mental health center for the bipolar,i wright about my true feelings and don't hold it in any more, and i don't stay alone in my head.now i work with young teen that have a drugs problem and i talk to people my age 43 who deal with bipolar every day of there lives too..staying active helps me to deal with life on life's terms,i am not saying i don't still act out i do and i am not saying my thoughts don't get twisted they do,and i am not saying i am healed or better than any of you,because i am not.what i am saying we can help each other and most of all get out of our selfs and help the youth of this country.its not all just about me it is all of us dealing with this bipolar and depression,depression had me on the floor feeling sorry for myself and i seen no way out and it got to the point that it all most killed me,untill i reached out and asked for help did i get it.bipolar and depression are a part of my life i know this,but it don't have to take over my life,and for many of us this has happend.if no one has told you today that you are loved and that you matter too. i am saying it to all of you that read this.the only way this site or myself or anyone can help is if you reach out and ask for it.if i said something to hurt anyone i am sorry and if i said anything to afend anyone i am sorry if you need to talk to me i am only a click away  your friend Roberto

I'm from Canada and this situation here goes both ways, depending where you live, who you are and if yo have health insurance.  

 Like most countries, as BrynaJoy has pointed out, people see depression as a laughing matter and almost like a plague.  Everyday, I have to listen to classmates, coworkers and family, joking and making fun of people who have depression and it makes things worse.  It's like getting stabbed in the chest more than ever before.

I don't know about you guys, but I hate doctors.  I'll never go to them unless I'm consciences and I have no will power. 

yea, i know what you mean... my mom walked in on me cutting and just asked me why i do that... she claims to be this powerful Christian and everything... but she doesnt try and help me... no one does... my friends know i cut... but they just joke around about it.. they dont think its a serious problem or anything... sometimes i wake up and just want to go back to sleep... no one is there that i can talk to... and i just want to scream so someone will hear... but they look at me like im a freak already... what else is there to do but try and act like nothing is wrong... when every day i am slowly dying... people have no idea that depression is serious and i hate it

It's tough to deal with these issues when friends and family truly don't understand what it's like to go what you're going through. I'd encourage you to go seek help as cutting can be like an addiction. Some people have died from cutting because they cut too much and too deeply before they were able to get some help. There are treatments, but you'll probably have to go searching for them yourself as your mom seems too frightened and shocked at this point to get the ball rolling for you. You might want to see if there are some local support groups in your area as the members there might be able to give you some solid information about where you can start to look.

 Best of luck in getting help for your suffering,

Paul
 

I agree 100 percent with you, my wife had suffered from bipolar disorder since 1992 and this year she attempted suicide 4 times, each time she was commited to a mental hospital and was kept there for 2 or 3 days each time, even after I begged them to keep her in longer till she started feeling better, but they kept telling me she wasn't bad enough to keep her in, and she could get the same care at home. All they did was give her some new meds and send her on her way. After her fourth attempt, 3 days after she got out of the hospital, I came home to find she hung herself. I feel she would still be alive today if the doctors would have taken her more serious and given her the help she desperately needed. My wife commited suicide, but I feel our medical system killed her because they just ignored her cry for help. Now after 27 years of marriage, I am by myself, and I will never forgive the doctors, the hospitals, the social workers and the insurance companies that turned thier heads on her. If she had cancer or some other terminal disease, I guarantee she would have gotten a lot more help then she did with her mental illness.

I find a lot of the problems are rooted in the fact that people just don't understand. If you have a physical illness, even someone who is not a doctor can understand that something made this person sick and may even be able to empathize with the person in regards to the symptoms. "I feel nauseous" is far easier to understand then "I feel depressed and anxious for no real reason." My boyfriend told me that he just can't comprehend that I feel depressed without something bad happening. I tried to explain, and he's a very intelligent individual who can understand complex workings of a computer, yet my depression is too alien for him to really understand.
Furthermore, it's a long and very difficult process to get someone committed. They can only hold someone for a few days otherwise. Far easier to get into a hospital and get treated for a physical illness.

I live in the UK and i'm 17, ive had depression since i was 10 but only in the last year and a half has it become severe depression and ive got other things as well like paranoia and i think i'm starting to become agrophobic. Anyway i only first saw my doctor about how i feel in the first week of November, i had to wait a week and a half before the appointment, i've only been contacted by the mental health department the week before christmas and ive got to ring them to make an appointment and talk about how i feel so its going to be something like 10 or 12 weeks before i start to get help from when i saw my doctor, you should be seen by a psychiatrist within a week if you might have depression like it is if you have cancer you only need to wait a month at the most before you start to get treatment i think.