What do you think of mentally ill folks?
Question:
Do you know people like this and do you treat them differently?
Answers:
People with mental conditions such as bipolar, depression, schizophrenia, and schizoaffective disorders are like other ordinary people. The difference is in brain chemistry.
Mental health consumers (that is, people diagnosed with mental illnesses) are some of the most creative and intelligent people known. Check out the book (or movie), _A Beautiful Mind_, the story of mathematician, M.I.T professor and Nobelist John F. Nash Jr.
His autobiography is here:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/econo...
Also check out _An Unquiet Mind_ by Kay Redfield Jamison, a psychology Ph.D. with severe bipolar disorder having experienced extreme highs and lows.
Patty Duke Astin of the show _The Patty Duke Show_, and wife of John Astin of _The Addams Family_ (Gomez), wrote _Call Me Anna_ about her bipolar condition.
Winston Churchill had chronic clinical depression (no reference).
A friend of mine has anxiety attacks, and when she does, she curls up and puts her head in her arms and doesn't respond. I know this happens, and I know she does it only for a limited period of time, so I don't try to get her to respond. I just wait it out. I don't ask her, "Are you alright?" nor do I get help. I know she is dealing with it.
Most times, mental health consumers are outgoing and personable, like you'd expect from anyone else. Treat them as you would anyone else. You don't avoid other people, and you don't let other people walk all over you. Same with mental health consumers.
If someone makes you uncomfortable, by all means avoid that situation. If you are not a caretaker or advocate, you shouldn't be expected to be one.
Mental health consumers can take care of themselves and interact with the public. Many are stable on psychoactive medicines which treat their brain chemistry.
DBSAlliance.org is the web address of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, a group that has all kinds of information on what goes on with a mental health consumer.
One friend I have talks a little louder than many people I know and gets within 10 inches of my face when he talks. His talk is intense, and he is very interested in what it is he talks about (his latest interest is in his new computer system, Windows Vista). It took some getting used to, but I know it is just part of his way, and whenever we talk, I lean in to converse with him and give him my full attention. He is also a bicycling enthusiast, traveling long, cross-country distances at a time, like local bicycle clubs do.
I am a mental health consumer; bipolar to be exact.
I, personally, like to play word and pun games, and I am very fond of Trivial Pursuit and Isaac Asimov. I hold a B.S. and a Master's degree, and I am currently the editor for a regional newsletter.
One thing that I do is what I call "default." This is a personal term, not a technical term. In a conversation, I will agree with a person on a time and date to show up for a particular activity. The conversation will go on. Then we agree to change the first circumstances and agree on a second plan.
When the time comes, I will have reverted to the first plan, much to the dismay of the other person, and I will swear up and down that we agreed to the first one, though we agreed to the second one.
I will know I am right. Until I think about it really hard. Then I realize, after a long squeeze on my brain that, yes, we did agree to the second one.
Medicine helps this a lot. So does a low-stress environment: I.e. not working 14-hour days, not going to work by night and to school by day, both of which I have done. I cannot do it now.
I know that I cannot at this point keep up the pace I used to keep in university when I got my degrees.
Mental health consumers cannot be talked out of anxiety, depression, or mania. The best thing to do is to learn about these disorders. DBSAlliance.com has many resources for this.
Most likely something in their neurology isn't working quite right. Or overly right maybe,I don't know then. I've suffered all the above and some!
And the Lobby says:
"i would say its okay for crim to play slinki, hes not that bad"
"I think Phantom's mom is a swell person, with such an obvious mental handicap.."
"Mentally ill people are awesome."
My mother suffered from mental illness until her death.
As a child I could not be anything more than narcissistic.
I try to have more compassion these days, for everyone,
especially those who want/need/ask for it more.
Depression, I try to act normal, but am careful not to mention bad things.
Phobias- my mom is. She can't drive on highways, and she is afraid of many many things. I make fun of her because, well, she is my mom, but I know she can't help it and I respect that.
Mood disorders.. I guess I'd just be normal, and try to ignore mood swings or whatever, and remain calm, and kind.
The Lobby says:
"Your mom is Awesome."
I think we have conclusive proof that mental illness is indeed a disease which cant be transmitted via viral forms.
Mentally ill people are suffering from brain disorders. Something in the chemical make up in their brains is not normal. therefore, mentally ill people are actually sick. That is why they must take medications like any other sick person does. Some may 1 day be able to stop taking meds and some may have to take them for all of their lives. They should be treated like any other indivdual. They are not freaks...they are people just like us.
I know someone with schizophrenia I don't treat them differently unless they are having an attack..of course you are supposed to be careful. I don't treat anyone differently unless they have to be treated differently. People with depression and things of that sort can't always control it, but sometimes you get sick of them acting the way they act so sometimes you just have to tell them to get up and do, or do what is needed to be done, because by them just sitting there being depress does nothing...I like to tell them that the devil is just trying to take over them and they shouldn't allow it. Mainly I just think they are normal in a way but then again no one is really normal so I just be careful around them in the things I say and do.sometimes you words can put a person so low they just sink into depression or you words causes the phobia or mood swings etc...this might not sense to you or anyone else but if you look at it no one is perfect and we all go through some type of mental illness in a way...we all act different, feel different, on certain days we just know how to control it unlike some mentally ill...
Do you know you probably know some one with a mental illness right now and don't know it. It could your teacher, a work associate, a neighbor, the person who waits on you at a restaurant, it could be your Mayor, state Representative, your doctor, any one.
They come across like everyone else, and deserve to be treated like everyone else.
I lived with a person for ever who had anxiety, depression, and phobias. During the anxious times, the person could barely leave the house. During her "dark moments", she would feel either void of emotion or want to die. She drank too much sometimes. Her life had boiled down to being a prisoner in a dungeon in her own mind. But one day after contemplating suicide, she went to see a doctor...finally. She had a mood disorder. One pill a day and no more panic attacks, no more dark moments, no more OCD of having to silently count everything, no more fear of leaving the house. That made her loved ones happy and her joyous as well. That person is me..
Yes, I know a lot of people who have mental illnesses and I also work with people who have mental illness, as I work on a psychiatric unit. I have a mental illness - depression. I treat them just like I treat everyone else. You don't always know who has a mental illness and who doesn't...I bet you would be surprised by the number of people in your life that have a mental illness and just don't talk about it.
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