‘Mental Health’ still has a stigma

[Theweedygarden]

I’ve seen a few threads recently where people have been rude or made degrading comments or said even worse about mental health. Referring to people as ‘mentally ill’ etc. I’ve also heard some pretty unpleasant RL. Moments about mental health ‘she needs to cheer up’ about a person colleague with depression etc.

This thread is not about those threads or even the comments, but it is inspired by both.
About ten years ago it really felt like we were taking a step forward as a society and viewed mental health illnesses or disorders with more empathy and sympathy. People understood SAD and depression and PND were not choices or excuses and people weren’t ‘mentally ill.’ But recently, post-2020, it’s really felt like we’ve taken a step back as a society.

AIBU to think we, as a society, have backslid on support, sympathy and empathy towards people with mental health illnesses or as my DB puts it ‘challenges.’ Because they are challenges and we fight on; we’re not weak, or lesser or ‘mentally ill.’

Agreed.

I partly blame this trend of calling people who are a little bit blue "depressed", and someone who is a going through a phase of overly worrying "anxious". And too easily medicating them. The terms have become too common, and too talked about

It's made people lose sight of what actual depression and anxiety are. The actual, life-limiting clinical conditions are common enough without the overdiagnosing.

It's happened to me too. I have multiple mental health conditions, but I do not have depression. I have worked supporting people with depression before, and I know for sure I do not have depression. Yet... Every single doctor or medical professional I have spoken to about my mental health say I must have depression. Because I feel down and hopeless sometimes, because I fill out the little questionnaire they give and it results in "depression". I feel down and hopeless because my other conditions cause life to be quite shit. Not any depression.

Im here telling them that I definitely do not have depression, but it's so easy for them to just diagnose it apparently if you feel a bit sad about things. And so they do.

I hate telling people I have a Psychiatric Assistance Dog, they side tilt their heads and look at me as if I'm a child and tell me how wonderful my dog is for helping me and what a wonderful thing it is that he supports me and allows me out of the house. I mean, of course he is the most wonderful thing in the world, but I ain't no weak shit momma. Mental health issues doesn't equal weak!

Mental health is a big problem. I understand that, and don’t think modern life is particularly conducive to good mental health. But the number of self-diagnosed people who use it as an excuse for inaction and an avoidance tactic is significant. They may have problems and difficulties, but it’s their responsibility to deal with a work through, not everyone else's responsibility to accommodate them.

100% agree, OP.

Didn’t take long for people to chime in saying ‘we don’t have to accommodate them.’ It’s not about ‘accommodating’ and no one has asked for that. This thread is literally about the stigma, which PP has just proved by automatically assuming we all want people to bend over backwards for it, really does exist. Whether or not it was meant that way, that sort of thinking is part of the problem - the fact it was even mentioned, on a thread where no one has asked for it (just that people stop being anti-mental health) is sad.

After my husband, father and mil died within a few weeks of each other I was off on sick leave.After a month I was referred to occupational health and was intrigued at how much emphasis was placed on whether I had mental health issues.I said I didn't have mental health issues and that was correct in that I'd never been treated or medicated for mh but obviously the bereavements and arranging 3 funerals has been v difficult.
The report back to my employer really stressed that I claimed to have no MH issues.
I was left entirely paranoid by the whole situation.One of the deaths had been sudden, the other two were lengthy and difficult involving psychosis and aggressive behaviour.
As a woman in her early 60's in a local authority job I'm still convinced that they wanted to pension me off due to MH issues rather than give me a few months to recover.

It's really awful. Just today a thread was hidden - the entire thread was doubting the entire existence of a symptom of neurodevelopmental disorders, saying people were using it as an excuse and making it up. Post after post of people with no experience saying it sounded like nonsense and debating whether it was 'real' or not.

As I am a person with one of these disorders and experience of this symptom, which is debilitating, it is so frustrating when people just hand-wave away the importance of naming a condition or phenomenon, understanding it as a symptom rather than an immutable character failing and taking steps to manage it.

This issue, for me, caused me a lifetime of confusion and judgment and shame, it meant I left jobs, ended relationships...just understanding and managing it has been so helpful. And then people with absolutely no understanding have the audacity to ponder whether it's just an excuse, or not 'real' at all, or not severe because they may relate to certain elements and can't understand that that doesn't mean that's all there is to it.