To think that "mental health/illness awareness" is bollocks

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Before anyone reads the title wrong, I believe that it's incredibly important to bring awareness. What I mean by bollocks is that society gives the impression that it cares about mental health but it's only restricted to depression and anxiety.

My friend is a therapist and when talking to her, she doesn’t believe in ADHD but believes in other mental illnesses/neurodevelopmental disorders. It’s a sentiment that’s echoed by many people in society but I was shocked that a mental health professional refused to believe it.

I also have a cousin who became schizophrenic during her time in college and all her friends slowly drifted away from her. These would be the same people that posted “Mental Health Matters” on their Facebook page.

I don't think society cares about depression or anxiety either tbh. They want people to "open up" about their MH but then if they do they'll probably be accused of being manipulative or selfish for putting their depression on someone else. People don't really know how to deal with a depressed person venting.

But why would people necessarily know how to deal with a depressed person venting? I’m no more a psychologist than I am an oncologist or endocrinologist - it’s a serious condition and needs professional help.

Supporting a person with mental illness can be a huge mental health burden for the supporter. I supported a parent with significant mental illness as a child and was woefully underskilled. Being raised by a mentally ill parent wasn’t walk in the park for me and correspondingly I have extremely firm barriers around how much I’m prepared to expose myself to someone else’s illness.

I am so sorry that you are going through that.

Encouraging awareness, empathy, and shame-free discussion of MH problems shouldn't come with any other responsibilities. It can be incredibly difficult to deal with other people's MH problems. Of course there needs to be support available, but not everyone is in a position to offer help. It depends on the situation.

Well you were wondering if/how several people from different generations showing the same symptoms could be trauma and I gave you an explanation. I understand you didn't actually want to hear it.

If there truly was “ mental health awareness” there would have to be a commonly agreed upon definition of health. At the moment histrionic personality disorder is widespread and unrecognised, body dysmorphia is barely acknowledged, paranoia wanders amongst us disguised as political correctness.

“mental health awareness” appears to mean “ bear in mind some people are sad, or worried easily.”

Alrighty then …

Absolutely this. As with many ofvthese ' awareness' memes ( for want of a better word) it seems to be an excuse to pay lip service and going no further.
If someone is suffering from anxiety or depression they need swift, professional intervention. Colleagues, friends, even family cannot be expected to shoulder the burden of listening to 'venting' which just ends up burdening others with something they cannot do anything about. A huge amount of work needs to be done by the person with depression/ anxiety. They need professional help to be able to guide them to do that. What can their friends and family do that is not going to end up with them suffering mental health problems themselves? Especially if they are an unpaid carer, trying their best to keep someone safe, for example if they are suicidal. They dont know what to do and its unfair to expect people to take that burden on themselves with absolutely no training in knowing whether what they are doing is right or if they are just making things worse?

Can’t really see how I am speaking from a position of privilege- I would hope that understanding and awareness in everyone becomes less focused on the labels and more focused on the individuals difficulties, needs and goals.

Symptoms that look like ADHD can actually be caused by trauma -
Not by a neurodiverse brain from birth -
it’s a fine art to differentiate between trauma / neurodiversity and takes a skilled / experienced assessor who is very thoughtful and considered

I think some of the problem with anxiety and OCD in particular is there needs to be more awareness of what treatment can and can't do.

I went round the CBT merry-go-round so many times, each time declaring it "Didn't work".

I was a lot older and wiser when I realised that I needed to treat it more like going to physiotherapy. They helped to identify what needed work but I had to do the work if I wanted to see changes, not sit back and wait for someone to fix me. It's hard, uncomfortable work.

I was diagnosed with depression for the first time in my teens about 25 years ago.
Back then there was a big stigma around it. It changed the way people treated me when they found out I’d been in a psychiatric hospital. Family members used to avoid me. People constantly tried to tell me there was nothing wrong with me because they couldn’t see anything wrong with me.
Increased awareness and acceptance has been a double edged sword imo but, all in all, for me it was actually better then than it is nowadays.
Over the years it has become impossible to access local psychiatric services.
It used to be reserved only for people who literally couldn’t function in their daily lives.
I used to attend a day centre and I remember that few people attended and those that did were very ill/ very heavily medicated.
People used to whisper and gossip and feel sorry for anyone getting the minibus up to the centre.
I went there again fifteen years later and there were groups of people of all ages laughing and smoking outside and everyone was very able to talk about their problems - the difference was unreal.
It’s obviously a good thing that people feel able to go and get help and be open about their mh problems nowadays but I’ve literally watched all of the services available become completely overwhelmed to the point where nobody can get access to proper treatment as a result.
In general, people are more aware and that can be good but years ago even though there was stigma and ignorance around depression, anxiety etc, at least there weren’t people rolling their eyes when they hear “anxiety”, like it’s just some sort of buzz word or they think because they know a little bit they’re experts.

Thank you for this thread. I've suffered from mental health issues for over 20 years and this is exactly how I feel.

I haven’t rtft. I am a mental health professional. I think there is a lot of virtue signalling about mental health, and unfortunately the tiktokisatiok of mental health means that the terms are frequently misused. You CAN’T be “a bit OCD” for example. I also think most people posting have no idea of the difficulties of having psychological distress. FWIW, I also think the term mental illness is really unhelpful, so purposely use alternative phrases. It doesn’t mean I don’t believe the distress. Of course I do - I see it every single day.

That said, I am not sure I believe in ADHD, or indeed the vast majority of diagnoses. That doesn’t mean I don’t believe people are suffering, or don’t need support, but there is an excessive number of diagnoses, most of which have no diagnostic test a require someone to accept that they are disordered. Who decided what “ordered” is? . They are all based on observing behaviours, which were largely defined by white American men. You may have read about ADHD brains being different. There is literally no evidence of this. And the symptoms of CPTSD are almost identical. The main difference is ADHD is considered a disability and CPTSD isn’t and also that there is medication approved for ADHD but not CPTSD. The DSM does not recognise CPTSD as a diagnosis, and I can’t help but be curious about the role of pharma in the diagnostic criteria process.

the other big issue is that most people need a diagnosis to get support, and that is so wrong from
my perspective.

your therapist friend believes in suffering, I am sure. Just not pathologising distress.

Well that's kind of my point. People struggling with their MH these days are encouraged to open up to friends and family, when nothing has changed in terms of people knowing how to deal with that.

Although most depressed people know they're a burden so they choose to stay quiet about how they feel as it's not worth the hassle.

Agree with this.

Having someone in your life with a long term mental health condition can be extraordinarily draining. I’ve had to back away from a friendship recently because she had become such an energy vampire. Constantly dumping on me - it wasn’t sustainable.

Yes she is incredibly unwell, but there’s only so much one person can take!

Thanks for your contribution. I wonder about this also from a personal point if view. I had significant childhood trauma (in the words of my consultant 🙄), and was also assessed for autism, or maybe ADHD too I'm not sure, and because of my childhood they decided my sensory/behaviours issues are trauma based CPTSD, but I have certainly have a lot of similarities with people with ASD and ADHD, and also family members with the same behaviours which suggests genetic.

It is so difficult to separate cause and effect. I wonder if neuro diversity is traumatising in itself? Maybe that's why theres so much overlap between ASD/ADHD/CPTSD?

We know vulnerability is a risk factor in abuse - disabled women are more likely to be victims of DA for example - so as well as the difficulty of trying to live in a world where you dont do things the way most people do and dont quite 'get' it in the same way, there is increased chance of being victimized by others.

@MsWilmottsGhost
yes I have certainly heard that. There is a view from some neurodivergent people that living in a neurotypical world is in and of itself traumatising. I totally get that it is hard to grow up with difference (significant childhood trauma here too). The part I struggle with is the idea that we are in a neurotypical world. So many of the people who have shaped our world would likely be diagnosed with autism or ADHD that I find that narrative hard to believe.
If you have family members with similar traits, it could also be inherited trauma, not only genetic.
fwiw, some people also see a diagnosis of CPTSD as neurodivergent (including the NHS). It is treated differently though as it’s not considered a disability the same way AdHD and autism are. Which of course makes no sense if the suffering is the same.

@angryatbpddiagnosis I'd say the world is neuronormative rather than neurotypical exactly. I'm not really sure "neurotypical" is always a helpful term.

There are indeed powerful people who are autistic and ADHD, but that doesn't preclude them from internalised ableism or conforming with neuronormativity, or expecting that of others. In fact, some of the most ableist people I've met are high masking, highly intelligent ND folks. I get why, because of us autistic folks who can survive in neuronormative workplaces mask and perform neuronormativity, even if we can't pass for neurotypical. I know I do, even though in relative terms I have a good employer that is understanding and accommodating, particularly in the last year or two they have made a lot more effort. It is difficult to unlearn that, and it can honestly make you a bit resentful sometimes when you get younger workers who walk in and just go "yeah so I have ADHD so I can't be on time and I can't organise myself" and things like that. I never had the option of "can't". And yeah...trauma.

PTSD/CPTSD would count as neurodivergence, because these are divergences from neuronormativity and essentially that's all "neurodivergent" means.

This conversation sits really deeply with me. My DM after many years of sections was diagnosed with schizo affective disorder. When I was born I spent the first 6 months of my life on a mother and baby unit (I have no memory of course). Many of my first memories are of me happily at home but every weekend we would visit my nana (my mums mum) she was on a geriatric ward in the psychiatric hospital she'd been there 20 years. As I grew up my mum did all the expectations dinner on the table, took me to clubs, dance class and church whilst dealing with my alcoholic dad and weekend visits to see her mum. Then one morning she told me she was pregnant, I was worried I didn't know why. I could see everyone else was scared too. She went through pregnancy really well but two weeks after giving birth she was psychotic. I was eleven and alone with my mum and a new born. My dad was in the pub because he couldn't cope. Nobody was there all her friends just didn't want to or couldn't cope. Im now a mum and one of my children has had to help one of there friends deal with psychosis at a music festival. They were sectioned and my DS visited them every day. You can try and make people aware but you can't make everyone able to cope with situations. Sorry for the long post.

@CrazyGoatLadyabsolutely agree with everything you have said! No notes!