It's Mental Health Awareness Month

Community General Discussion
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The issue with getting help:

Therapist: “How do you feel?..” …

Person: *talks for an hour about their life, trauma and feelings"

Therapist: “That’s awful that happened to you. No one deserves to go through that. You are loved. You are worthy. Here’s a change in perspective. That’ll be X amount of dollars for this session, thanks!”

… nevermind decent, affordable housing, or general life affordability and ease of living.

All we need is to talk to a therapist and pay them money at the end of it. Or if we’re lucky, have it funded but still get nowhere with our problems because “Hey! At least we talked about our problems just like society expects us to”.

All the real life problems still exist, people can barely afford to live, familial and spousal abuse still happen, jobs and employers as well as our general quality of life is, on average, poor, but now we can feel good about ourselves for talking to someone.

Hint: Talking to someone is nice (if they can even afford it)… but it’s almost never the kind of REAL help most people really need.

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I am hurt by this…

/cries

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Another big thing for me also. Most people with a mental illness, that are aware and working on themselves, are taking self-responsibility for their illness (no one knows how hard that first telephone call is,) and learn the difference from idjits being thoughtless idjits, from the idjits purposely and personally attacking. I try to be aware and not get on the forum if I’m feeling particularly fragile. Part of most of the illnesses is being hyper aware in any situation - developed it as a safety defense I’d imagine.

Super power creativity and energy to get a ton done - and existing on 4 hours of sleep…until the fall hits and the Abyss comes back.

I think I’ve mentioned it. Probably when the “dungeon” subject gets brought up. Like addiction mental illness can be brought up appropriately without using a bullhorn.

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Lol true. Sure the negative emotions suck but when you’re having a happier feeling, it feels really nice.

I’m not trying to pull that cringy youtuber “Ohmygod IM SUCH AN EMPATH YOU GUYS” thing but that is kinda one of the perks as well.

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Internal dialogue:

What comes out:
witty jokes.

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i think the darkest and funniest thing about modern mental health is that men get such a bad rap from almost all of our major institutions and thus it leads to parrots even here spewing the same rhetoric, hell, even employees here…

But think about the people you know personally who have ended their own lives. What is the gender of majority?

Seeing hypocrisy is actually very healing for the mentally ill, it means you weren’t wrong about everything during trying and distressful times.

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Mental Health is the worst crisis we face in the country in my opinion.

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Don’t you know? It’s easier to blame other people for your issues instead of practicing self control.

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Yes, I and many experience suicidal thoughts or ideation - amongst other things. Many turn to alcohol or drugs to self-medicate. People are objectified over both diseases - a one size fits all perspective that hinders help.

Suicide claims more lives than murder and natural causes combined. Throw addiction in there and the many lives each individual touches. Then add the people that are afraid to get help. I don’t know, but do you remember when you started figuring something was wrong? That you actually has to call a psychiatrist, therapist, psychologist or someone and not know what the hell was going on? How long one minimizes and acts like nothing is wrong.

The Federal and State governments don’t do much to help and States make it near impossible to get meaningful help and disability services. Finding a good therapist in your price range is like finding a needle in a haystack.

Yeah, to me the “high” part of bipolar just scares me. I’m on meds that have saved my life, but it doesn’t stop the occasional breakthrough of mental mania. All I know is the more “awesome” I feel, never would add empath to my list, I know the fall on the other side is black and extremely hard to crawl out of.

Mental health has many facets. I’ve dealt with it personally, family members, friends, people I’ve lost, and caretaking a close beloved that had a psychotic break. And yeah, it’s as bad as it sounds.

If people don’t know they can’t help us or others. We can’t change the perspectives of the way people even “hear” us! It’s important. Mental health and addiction are the number one killers surpassing even cancer.

You know, I went through breast cancer. If I mentioned it back then everyone acts like I was so brave, and yes I had to be, but when first recognizing mental illness and addiction (trust me, the two go hand in hand,) one doesn’t get near the same sympathy or support.

This month is supposed to help make people aware. Your loved ones need more help than you can know. They can barely admit it. All they know is what their brain is trying to tell them…and it’s pretty bad guys. Educate yourselves, please. You could save a life - that concept is more important than you can possibly know. Don’t give up on them. We’re trying.

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There are some people on this forum who definitely could use this information.

:paw_prints:

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It was back on the old forums actually. Someone was concerned ( I really wish I could remember their name ) about me after some posts and asked me if I had BPD. This eventually lead to me finding out I had it and getting a diagnosis. I was around…early 20s to mid 20s.

Ah you’re talking about bipolar. I’m talking about Borderline Personality Disorder. But I know we have very similar experiences then. ( I tend to jokingly say BPD is like Bipolar on fast forward )

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No troll, like what?

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I thought it was Pacific Asian Heritage month? If it is indeed both months at the same time, maybe we need to reconsider how many different ‘celebrate X’ months we actually have.

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Yes so much these thoughts, and I just had a guy in a thread talking about not really wanting to be good so I made excuses. Like man I raid tank weekly because I know I can do it, but M+ that thing scares me.

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I cant express this enough for counselors or even psychs. I was going to the process of trying to find one that didnt just push pills and the local country mental health system paired me up with a physicians assistant. In our initial exam I opened up becacause i know I really needed help and I spoke about the years of physical and sexual abuse and being raped. This lady suggested I go running and get in better shape and my problems would go away. I was so stunned I asked her is she would say the exact same thing to a woman who just told her what I did. She said well you are a big man and you can protect yourself…

As a 50 something man, looking back at my life, I wish I could just have the mania part. When I was in a mania part, I never went to far with much, but everyone loved me in that phase. I could get attention from the opposite sex easily, I was the life pf the party I was outgoing, funny and people wanted to be around me.

The minute I came back down and struggled to get out of bed, everyone walked away. Aint nobody got time for your problems. Get over it. Go work hard all day and make the money. Entertain us when you are around.If you cant do that come back when you can…

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I really don’t know the point you are trying to make, well I do but it is foolish. Lets talk about toxic masculinity, I know scary, scary. There are going to be kneejerk reactions just from reading the phrase. I am going to use Anduin as my main example here.

As a character he is mocked for being weak simply because he shows other emotions than anger, lust, or just being stoic. This is toxic masculinity when it comes to men at play. When men don’t conform to the very narrow definition of “masculinity” ,that many have, they face ridicule or being seen as gay. In turn men are less likely to seek out help when they need it, often facing mental health struggles alone.

Studies have shown that women attempt self harm more often than men but men tend to be more successful. Women on average seek help more often and some attempts maybe a means seen as cry for help. Men when they self harm is most often a means to an end, which is why they have higher death rates.

Overall as a society we treat mental health issues as a shameful secret to be talked about in hushed tones. Women have spaces they can talk about this with but men no so much. It is very interesting but also sad. The shame, fear, distress, and etc can sometimes cause men to act aggressively. Which makes people pull away further isolating them making matters worst.

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Depression and mental illness no longer has a stigmatism attached to it. It’s a personality trait for high schoolers and middle schoolers and tiktokers. Didn’t you get the memo?

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im not gunna read the rest rn but thanks for creating an example of what i was talking about.

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It’s definitely still a bit stigmatized in adults though at least in here. It’s not always easy to admit you’re going through depression and asking for help because some people will think you’re “weak”

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I guess it’s related; I have a functional neurological disorder, which is essentially the granddaddy of all psychosomatic disorders. My default mode network (aka “ego”) detects discrepancies in the rest of the nervous system and just… turns off access to those areas.

I have a tiny bit of hearing and vision loss on my right side, and my overall musculature doesn’t like to engage itself properly so my posture is a little like a forest witch. But the biggest issue is that after a period of intense emotional stress over a decade ago, I no longer have access to my emotions.

All of these issues are cured during experiences when my ego is turned off, and remain improved long afterward.