Mental Health Day

[OCDisTorture]

It's mental health day; I've seen so much on mental health, how we must talk it out etc and (I sort of know that I'm being unreasonable) it makes me feel so empty!

This is possibly unfair but I have never seen psychosis or schizophrenia included in these big national campaigns, it seems like certain illnesses are still so stigmatised.

Also, I have OCD and genuinely it is something I am deeply, deeply ashamed and frightened of. Recently I've seen that some consider it a neurodivergence and that it should be celebrated as simply a difference under the neurodiversity paradigm. I can't see it like this, it has destroyed my life and very nearly killed me once.

AIBU that mental health campaigns are a bit ... hollow?

I don't know if hollow is the right word but there are a lot of strange things about it, as you point out.

You could make it less whatever it is by telling people around you that your OCD is not a difference to be celebrated and telling them the impact it has on your and your life. That would be a real contribution to help other people's mental health. Someone's got to do it.

@Pollyputhekettleon someone was telling me how I should feel about it the other day, I let it go but I shouldn't have.

I feel like there's this rhetoric of 'just talk about it' but I wonder how people would react if I said 'I spent a year of my life convincing myself that I was going to be falsely accused of a terrible crime like murder and spent 9 hours a day ritualising over it so I lost my job and my husband nearly lost his.'

I was listening to the radio today, they mentioned it being mental health awareness day and reminded listeners to 'be kind', and that anyone struggling should reach out and talk to someone and not be afraid to talk about having a bad day when someone says 'how are you'. Which is all very good but a bit superficial. Then they swiftluly moved on to playing the next song.

It did strike me that a lot of mental health issues are far, far more complex than simply talking about having a bad day.

Mostly these raising awareness days focus on people with mild depression/anxiety and are useful to an extent but I can't imagine many people are going to easily open up and verbally explore their complicated life when someone asks how they are. I don't know, it does feel that media and companies do it as a bit of a box-ticking exercise. I'm not sure what they can do to help though. But I hear what you're saying!

Please do take them at their word and talk about it. Especially to the CFs who try to tell you it's a diversity that should be celebrated. Tell them about it until they awkwardly change the subject, burst into tears, walk away or apologize. It'll make you feel better and you'll be making the world a better place in your own small way. There's an ideological war going on around mental health and similar issues, and that's what you're observing. Most people are oblivious to it, so only those who notice it, like you, are in a position to turn the tide.

We wore yellow to school today and did activities around mental health with the children.

Didn't stop the Head being an arsehole to the staff though.

Yep, seen that! Sociopaths at work especially love these initiatives. And if you say that out loud they'll tell you to stop othering people with personality disorders. So I use the word all the time just to spite them.

You’re bang on. So many people (as well meaning as they may be) say ‘ah be kind to yourself’, ‘go for a walk’ etc etc…that’s if you’re having a bad day not an actual mental health issue. I had depression and going for a walk would have pushed me over the edge. I was so disappointed recently as I was referred for post natal depression to a mental health practitioner and I honestly got up and walked out when she said go for a walk. I was like wtf?? Are you not trained in this area?? bit of a tangent but these campaigns of ill-informed, albeit well meaning, people do my head in.

Why are heads like this?

Ours is up and down like blinking tower bridge… no one knows where they stand 🙄

@Littlepetites I chucked a relative out of my house once for suggesting I just needed to start jogging. I was on a shit load of sedatives for one thing!

The responses on here are making me feel a bit more validated. I'd started to think maybe I was just a bad person for being an awareness campaign sceptic.

You're so right. Mental ill health is such a wide umbrella

It's still great there is awareness though as years ago there was nothing and you felt isolated and alone cause it wasn't mentioned.

People are far more aware so it's a positive step.

YANBU at all. And the PP who said about these campaigns being more about mild depression/anxiety hit the nail on the head.

If you have a condition that is more severe, then people tend to shy away when you talk about. They don't like to hear about being sectioned by police, being restrained and injected against your will etc. None of these campaigns talk about being manic as hell and stealing a vehicle, or being psychotic to the point you set your flat on fire with yourself in it (both real life examples of people I have met).
I have EUPD, and I rarely encounter someone who even knows what it is. Awareness, my arse.

It was discussed. Here in Ireland people were described as 'suffering with their nerves', having nervous breakdowns etc. There was shame and stigma attached to it for sure, but usually sympathy as well. But, as with a lot of things, there's currently an ideological push to go to the other extreme by turning mental health issues into something to be proud of, something to celebrate, which denies and minimizes what real people are actually experiencing.

Public health campaigns also necessarily dumb things down, because the average person only has the attention span for something like 'talking good, exercise good, be nice'. Then some go off and bother their nearest clinically depressed acquaintance about jogging and bully people into 'being nice' to them. Colour me sceptical about progress.

Yes, I’ve got DID and even among MH practitioners and others suffering with mental illness there’s a real stigma about it.

It feels like it’s ok to talk about anxiety/depression, but there are so many more which just can’t be talked about - definitely schizophrenia/psychosis, but also OCD of any variety which isn’t just keeping your house really clean, any of the severe dissociative conditions etc

I've had psychosis it's not really what people are talking about when they go on a bout mental health.

There is a huge stigma attached to that and schizophrenia.

I feel people were sympathetic to me when I was accutely unwell but nobody really understands unless they've been through it.

Emotionally unstable personality disorder is another tricky one. Used to be borderline personality disorder.

My issue is it seems very focussed on big groups of friends all supporting each other and talking openly.
Many do not have friends to talk to and this pushing to talk to friends can make them feel worse about themselves.

Outsourcing to imaginary friends would be cheaper for governments than having to pay for treatment. That's probably where that comes from.

Oh the OCD = loving cleaning misconception is such an enduring myth.

Also, while people with serious mental illness should of course be able to open up and 'just talk' if they want to, would average Joe really be able to effectively navigate that kind of conversation? Many doctors get it wrong. I think it's more about what a PP mentioned and it being cheaper than properly funding the NHS mental health pathways.

I agree, these campaigns rarely mention mental illness. They are about self care and promoting good mental health, which is nice, but people with schizophrenia are treated appallingly.