People often misuse words like depression and ADD. Sure you might be having a bad day, but are you really depressed? Likewise, you might sometimes struggle to concentrate, especially if you're doing something boring, but does that really mean you've got Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)? We all have our little quirks and idiosyncrasies, but does that make us all Obsessive Compulsives? In order to differentiate between what people say about mental illness and what mental illness actually feels like for those who suffer from it, Annie Erskine has created these five useful comics for College Humor.
More info: Annie Erskine (h/t: CollegeHumor)
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Or being the first to finish a test in class, but waiting as long as you can to go and put it on the teachers desk because you don't want to walk to the front of the class and everyone stare at you.
I am diagnosed with social anxiety...I am afraid to go to stores, miss family events, weddings, funerals. Panic at thoughts of leaving home
And sometimes I don't leave the house for months.
Load More Replies...Jeez, I'd have a touch of this, but didn't know there was a name for it. Thought I was just being a bit 'odd'.
I feel like social anxiety is more severe than that. Like sometimes I won't do something like, but even though I'm shy and awkward, I don't think I have the severity to be diagnosed as socially anxious.
Uhm, both these are totally on point. If you hate attention, you also probably hate small talk.
Who in the heck claims to be "socially anxious" from not liking small talk? Just saying, but these comics are rooted in some very strange corner of reality seemingly just to claim that these illnesses are being trivialized at every turn..
Ive been diagnosed with Severe depression, Moderate anxiety, and ADHD. Ive seen every single one be misused and by the same people they say I dont have it. It happens more often than you would expect.
Load More Replies...Good stuff here. I can officially relate to some of them. (And few people even know what's going on inside)
It's annoying how people often mistake clean freaks with OCD. They are not always related.
People who suffer from depression sometimes only have a game or a show that helps them have some baseline of sanity, so ironically a show being cancelled for a depressed person might actually be a devestating blow to their state of mind
This is true! I'm currently re-watching Bones. It's kinda like it's the only thing that makes sense in a senseless world.
Load More Replies...Why do they never mention borderline personality disorder, in these kind of posts?
This is about times when people use mental illness words for their dumb things, and people don't really do that for bpd. I saw a post about mental illnesses as monsters, and that has bpd.
Load More Replies...Is that really bad if I act like the second person in the 1., 2, 3, and 4, picture but i dont think that I would have any illness?
Katalin, I think it means that THAT´S their hole lifes not just a month... or a week or a day...
Load More Replies...For me the main way articles like this help is to open discussion. I have several of these illnesses, but also make comments similar to those above. I don't think shaming people, or trying to make them feel guilty is going to help. The problem comes from the stigma surrounding them, and the only way to break that down is through talking, explaining and understanding. As hard as it is, we need to talk about the suffering we feel. Why and how it effects us, and how to be best understood and helped.
Mental I'll health is a very misunderstood issue. Some people spiral, some erupt, some people hide it, some can't but know this it's very real!!! We all say thing in the wrong context at times. Things like "I died laughing about...." or "I was killing my self laughing" or "I'm dying to see....." or "I would kill to have hair like that" all these things and many more, seem like harmless expressions but to someone listening it can be devistating. It can instantly bring horrifying thoughts to mind. Someone with a mental illness don't always have the time to reason things up before the bad stuff hits. My daughter has quite bad depression and I work at a PND clinic.
I just recently found out I have ADD, which can go hand in hand with depression. These are pretty accurate.
These are so true. Shows why mental illnesses are no longer taken so seriously.
You should do one for "trigger warnings" and PTSD in general. For example, certain politicians think they can get PTSD from a simple pop gun that a little girl plays with. They have no idea what it's like inside the mind of a soldier who just returned from the front lines of combat.
It's wonderful to read comments here where people feel like people who have diagnosed mental illness aren't stigmatized or being to told to bootstrap it up. I'm glad to read that mentally ill people are able to express to others that they are so lethargic and having such suicidal ideations that they can't get out of bed, and that admission is treated consistently with personal and professional sympathy. It's always funny to joke that when you moody that you are just bipolar, but I had no idea how easy it is to explain bipolar I or II to people that it's just a "little" more than a difficulty to just commit to a feeling! I'm so glad that this group of people commenting here have such a world of experience with everyone's mental health experience can realize and share with us that it's just us silly snowflakes who are too sensitive, given that the world basically hands us every medical and social understanding.
I feel that there is a lot of judgement about who does and doesn't have real mental illness and who has the right to comment on it. Please remember that no-one can know how another individual is really feeling. So judging someone's 'level' of mental illness from the outside seems a bit of a pointless endeavor. We all experience things in different ways, and what is depression to one may appear mild to someone else suffering from depression, but they don't know how that person is experiencing it inside. In summary, the kinder and less judgy we can be, the better it will be for everyone, I think.
Load More Replies...4/5 from the right side, ohh wow, I'm such a winner!!!... ohh wait.. ohh f**k.
When we are growing up, things can seem out of control. Nothing works out as we wished. And this is where loving parents are so important. They are the ones who help us in our frustrated youth, and show us by setting an example for us. When our parents are not there for us, this is when we experience our uncertainty and fears of the unknown. Most of us are fortunate, but there are so many who either did not have loving parents, or they somehow failed to help us through the struggles of growing up. And believe it or not, church is that added bonus that more are missing out on today.
Speaking as if it is a contest will get everyone nowhere or worse, further away from actually understanding each other, but I think people forget the varying degrees of each issue... we have spectrums for this same reasoning. You are major depressive? I am as well... sometimes it isn't so bad and other times I sink away from the world as far as I can... I don't shave or shower or take care to eat well and when I "wake" back up I'm starving and in dire need of cleaning up, but some people might be further down the spectrum where when they sink they literally are dangerous to themselves, in the way that I often only contemplate, they could be one sentence away from grabbing a bottle of pills or however they suddenly find themselves... and then sometimes you are on the other side where when you sink it is gradual and things lose their flavor and and seem a bit more dull. For some reason you feel blank and that you are just going through the motions. They are all valid...
People who suffer from depression sometimes only have a game or a show that helps them have some baseline of sanity, so ironically a show being cancelled for a depressed person might actually be a devestating blow to their state of mind
This is true! I'm currently re-watching Bones. It's kinda like it's the only thing that makes sense in a senseless world.
Load More Replies...Why do they never mention borderline personality disorder, in these kind of posts?
This is about times when people use mental illness words for their dumb things, and people don't really do that for bpd. I saw a post about mental illnesses as monsters, and that has bpd.
Load More Replies...Is that really bad if I act like the second person in the 1., 2, 3, and 4, picture but i dont think that I would have any illness?
Katalin, I think it means that THAT´S their hole lifes not just a month... or a week or a day...
Load More Replies...For me the main way articles like this help is to open discussion. I have several of these illnesses, but also make comments similar to those above. I don't think shaming people, or trying to make them feel guilty is going to help. The problem comes from the stigma surrounding them, and the only way to break that down is through talking, explaining and understanding. As hard as it is, we need to talk about the suffering we feel. Why and how it effects us, and how to be best understood and helped.
Mental I'll health is a very misunderstood issue. Some people spiral, some erupt, some people hide it, some can't but know this it's very real!!! We all say thing in the wrong context at times. Things like "I died laughing about...." or "I was killing my self laughing" or "I'm dying to see....." or "I would kill to have hair like that" all these things and many more, seem like harmless expressions but to someone listening it can be devistating. It can instantly bring horrifying thoughts to mind. Someone with a mental illness don't always have the time to reason things up before the bad stuff hits. My daughter has quite bad depression and I work at a PND clinic.
I just recently found out I have ADD, which can go hand in hand with depression. These are pretty accurate.
These are so true. Shows why mental illnesses are no longer taken so seriously.
You should do one for "trigger warnings" and PTSD in general. For example, certain politicians think they can get PTSD from a simple pop gun that a little girl plays with. They have no idea what it's like inside the mind of a soldier who just returned from the front lines of combat.
It's wonderful to read comments here where people feel like people who have diagnosed mental illness aren't stigmatized or being to told to bootstrap it up. I'm glad to read that mentally ill people are able to express to others that they are so lethargic and having such suicidal ideations that they can't get out of bed, and that admission is treated consistently with personal and professional sympathy. It's always funny to joke that when you moody that you are just bipolar, but I had no idea how easy it is to explain bipolar I or II to people that it's just a "little" more than a difficulty to just commit to a feeling! I'm so glad that this group of people commenting here have such a world of experience with everyone's mental health experience can realize and share with us that it's just us silly snowflakes who are too sensitive, given that the world basically hands us every medical and social understanding.
I feel that there is a lot of judgement about who does and doesn't have real mental illness and who has the right to comment on it. Please remember that no-one can know how another individual is really feeling. So judging someone's 'level' of mental illness from the outside seems a bit of a pointless endeavor. We all experience things in different ways, and what is depression to one may appear mild to someone else suffering from depression, but they don't know how that person is experiencing it inside. In summary, the kinder and less judgy we can be, the better it will be for everyone, I think.
Load More Replies...4/5 from the right side, ohh wow, I'm such a winner!!!... ohh wait.. ohh f**k.
When we are growing up, things can seem out of control. Nothing works out as we wished. And this is where loving parents are so important. They are the ones who help us in our frustrated youth, and show us by setting an example for us. When our parents are not there for us, this is when we experience our uncertainty and fears of the unknown. Most of us are fortunate, but there are so many who either did not have loving parents, or they somehow failed to help us through the struggles of growing up. And believe it or not, church is that added bonus that more are missing out on today.
Speaking as if it is a contest will get everyone nowhere or worse, further away from actually understanding each other, but I think people forget the varying degrees of each issue... we have spectrums for this same reasoning. You are major depressive? I am as well... sometimes it isn't so bad and other times I sink away from the world as far as I can... I don't shave or shower or take care to eat well and when I "wake" back up I'm starving and in dire need of cleaning up, but some people might be further down the spectrum where when they sink they literally are dangerous to themselves, in the way that I often only contemplate, they could be one sentence away from grabbing a bottle of pills or however they suddenly find themselves... and then sometimes you are on the other side where when you sink it is gradual and things lose their flavor and and seem a bit more dull. For some reason you feel blank and that you are just going through the motions. They are all valid...