If any of you met me (Libby) you would think I'm 100% just a normal geezer. Then if you saw my GP and mental health recordd you'd be very surprised. It's a hidden illness in many cases. I'd rather have 1 leg than suffer from certain mental illnesses. I'm fortunate that I don't have bi-polar or schezephrenia (sp?) or one of the real serious ones. But my Mental health seriously ****s with me at times. Usually don't post on here when things get hard.
True, but there's a difference between feeling down and depressed and clinical depression which is an illness. The psychiatric nurses I worked with used the Hamilton scale to determine depression, but there are several different tools available. They are useful because they also help to determine if there are other psychological issues underlying the depression, like psychosis etc. It's also true that some of the same treatments might be used for somebody who's depressed or feeling low, CBT and talking therapies (which anybody can ask their GP for) and somebody who is suffers from clinical depression, but the later will usually be referred into mental health services for a full assessment.
I used to suffer badly with anxiety, I was almost embarrassed of it because it’s not really taken as seriously as stuff like Bi-polar and depression, so I didn’t ever talk to anybody about it. It’s not nice lying in bed with a swarm of irrational thoughts going through your head at 100mph, am I gonna die in my sleep, have I got cancer, am I having a heart attack, are my family safe, will my girlfriend get run over by a bus. Then it gets out of control, lack of sleep means even more irrational thinking, sitting on the end of your bed assessing whether it’s easier to just end it all. I don’t normally go into personal detail on here but my dad killed himself when I was a kid, and it devastated the family, and that was the only thing that pulled me back up when I was ready to end everything. The fact that I hated him so much made me never want to be like him. One thing I did learn in my recovery that helped me is that no doctor or friend or family member could help me unless I made the effort first. I had to make the first move, which for me was punishing myself physically in the gym and wearing my body down. It become an addiction in my fight to regain control of my life. I was doing Muay Thai, combat training, fartlek interval training, weights and hill runs religiously for about 2 years. I actually developed an obsession with recovering from painful endurance as I knew no matter what pain I felt physically it never even registered vs the pain I was in sat at the end of my bed. It kills people every day, and those who self diagnose make it 10x harder for actual victims of these diseases to find and get help. Sorry for the long post innit.
I know all of those things about you, but then again we've got on great for the last 7 years and had some right laughs on here. Ginge suggested ditching social media, and he may have a point. But then i thought about it, and concluded that this site is a form of social media, and if people can talk and have a laugh etc, then surely that has got to help in a small way?
Well no, everyone will get sad at sometimes whereas not everyone will get depression. I waa diagnosed well over decade ago, but most people who meet me wouldn't have a clue.
There's folk who will always be ignorant towards it. Maybe that is just because of the way they were brought up, but times are changing and thankfully those attitudes are dying out.
But the fact that 1 in 8, and rising to 1 in 6 suffer from mental health health tells us that there are massive underlying problems?
The underlying problem is it's an area that's been largely ignored for years, there's a noticeable change in recent times though and I'd expect a huge difference in the next generation.
Good post mate and a more detailed one of my post I'm the complete opposite of your last sentence though, I'm more likely to post here more when really low due to me ignoring every **** in 'real' life. It shows that everyone is different though and there's not a one fits all solution (poor choice of word but can't think of how to phrase).
Mental health was largely ignored for years due to being 'unseen', there's probably adults now receiving treatment that they could have done with probably 15-20 years ago. I'd like to think that with time and with people able to access services earlier then it should set them up better to cope later in adult life. @PISKIE probably the best person to ask as will know much more detail than me.
Ignoring it doesn’t make the numbers go up mate. There are a multitude of reasons why numbers are increasing and one of them is definitely diet. The amount of unnatural chemicals the human body processes nowadays vs 50 years ago is huge. There’s literally hundreds of reasons why numbers are increasing.
My issue with folk who suffer from the less serious mental health issues is those who sit and wait for a magic bean to help them get better. Some people seem to think everything should be curable with no effort. I literally put my body through a gruelling routine to fight my way out of my own personal hell and I know for sure if I didn’t do that I’d still be where I was back then.
Your post above really resonated with me ... not the same experiences as you but some of the feelings ..... my dad died of a heart attack at 49 when I was 19 and I realised some years later that there had been part of me that really resented him for dying... I mean WTF! like he could choose ... ... what it did do however, was make me stronger ... when things have got really tough for me ... and there have been a couple of occasions ... and the darker thoughts come - I think about my heartbreak and anger at losing him and know that I want to be here for my kids for as long as I can be no matter how ****ty my own life might get ... because nobody else cares for them as much as I do ... and that's about it ... Wish you all the best with your fight with the demons buddy
Yeah I take your point and agree that there's multiple factors at play. I didn't mean to infer that It's the only issue but it's undoubtedly a big one imo. For me when you're talking MH and particularly depression then it's not about a cure but controlling it and if you learn to control it at a younger age then it sets you up better for later in life. For example I've had access to services from a teenager which undoubtedly helped me hugely in keeping things under control when it feels like I'm losing it all. A lot of people older than me would have never had that option meaning their issues would fester and become worse over time. Great post and agree with every word
Mine started when I was 19. I was in the back garden with my old man just chatting and he took a heart attack and died in my arms. I seen the paramedics shocking him in the garden for about half an hour trying to bring him back, but he was gone. It was so unexpected, he was my hero and I've never fully recovered from that. What I witnessed that day brought out a demon in me, I literally changed overnight from a shy friendly lad to a psychopath who didn't give one single **** about life and who I hurt on my journey. My best friend died a few year later and these last two years, I've lost my Mother and Nana. That's the last of my family, so I'm hoping now that I can put my past behind me and concentrate on living a normal life now. It's been tough, I've found myself in brutal situations where I've hurt people and a major suicide attempt in April 2015. My daughter keeps me going now, if I **** up, I can't bare to think how her future will pan out. I'm trying to run two businesses now but it gets challenging at times and I know that my life imploding is just around the corner at any given moment. Mental health sucks, but people should never be judged because there's always an underlying reason with folk. I can't get my head around people wanting to live with a mental health condition, it's literally the worst thing ever. That is why I struggle to agree with folk when they say some people just act it.
****’s sake Fosse On a real, good post and thanks for sharing. If you ever want a chat over a vegan burger, you know where I am bro.
