mental health

People won't understand. I know I didn't before I finally had to face my own. I went my entire life without knowing I had anxiety attacks. Yes, I knew there were times I just shut down and had to basically fake my way through until I felt ok again, but I didn't know that's what an anxiety attack was. I thought everyone felt that way at times, we all just didn't talk about it. Then it built up too heavy and I started passing out for no apparent reason. I couldn't work as a paramedic anymore and they medically retired me from the Wisconsin Army National Guard. They didn't even diagnose Burnout until years later when another paramedic brought it up. When people say things like "snap out of it" or "it's all in your head", I just laugh and ask them how often "snapping out" of diarrhea works for them. ;~D

Mental health is still a stigma and people are still not so aware and sure about it. I know it is tough.

Oh, how well I know this. I could go on and on and on about the way society has reacted and the resentment it has caused a lot of the time. I have OCD and anxiety issues. I have also suffered from clinical depression before. Most of my issues center around the neurotransmitter serotonin. Anyway, the hardest part is that for most of my life, I have had a lower threshold for life than other people, meaning others could seemingly take years and years of the stresses of everyday life before they would have a breakdown. whereas it would only take me a few hours. Certain things (mostly other people's words) would cause me psychological torture that most would consider totally over the top relative to the situation. For the longest time, people only focused on how my emotions affected them. Never once, until fairly recently, did anyone consider that it was ten times more painful for me. Once, in college, I became completely non-functional and my college counselor would not even allow me a medical discharge because she thought my issues were self-inflicted. She would also make a lot of other assessments about me that were incorrect and when I'd try to correct her, she'd call her assessment her "opinion" and say she was not discussing whatever the issue in question was anymore because I "can't handle different opinions." There are plenty more such instances where that came from. I have been doing much better, to the point where I am almost normal now, and without medication, fortunately. I have been taking a mineral supplement, which contains large amounts of the minerals and vitamins needed to make serotonin. It turns out the main reason I was the way I was was because I was deficient in some of those chemicals. Even though the worst of my issues are behind me, I still have a hard time forgiving all the people in my past and the things they said and did, as well as some of the things they accused me of (some of which were absolutely absurd). Those saying it is near impossible to grasp for people who have never gone through it themselves are correct. I have a friend who used to think I was just being a brat and wasn't trying hard enough... until she, herself, started experiencing anxiety and was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder some years later.

@apes123 I am sorry that people do not understand. Is there a support group that you can go to where you can share you thoughts and feelings?

I know how you feel. I have the same issue.People are not well informed.

I understand you. I have also been dealing with mental issues and sometimes talking to people doesn't help. This days I find reading books, learning and implementing what I learn is more therapeutic.

I noticed a lot of people have been suffering from mental illness. Why is this? I known mine started when I got pregnant without financial support and I wasnt able to achieve my dreams. I suffered so much. Just last night I was fighting with all my might not to slit my wrists. But now I am okay and hopeful that I can make my life better.

Only Physical pain is the pain that people think, the trauma that goes within isn't much talked about. It's still something that people don't discuss much... There is a serious need to educate people about this as well....

This is really a serious problem. But nobody is there to understand it properly as they are not gone through it. I had seen one movie about mental problem. It was solved with the help of a psychiatrist or may be by the counsellor.