WOW do I hate how the media portrays mental illness! From reading the news you would think all sz’s are rapists or serial killers! I seriously think there’s less stigma attached to having HIV. Do any of you actually tell anyone irl that you’re diagnosed with sz? I sure the hell don’t! I’ve done it once and was shunned by the person afterwards!
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I don’t tell people. I’ve made the mistake before, but I’m pretty sure the person didn’t like me much in the first place. I have other friends that are supportive though.
You just have to use your instincts and feel a person out before telling. The first time I was asked directly about it I was honest. Now I just dodge the question.
It’s nobodies business. Who goes around advertising they got cancer, STD’s or AIDS? Maybe celebrities do but they got money as a cushion to soften the blow of stigma. We have nothing to gain by telling and everything to lose. Why tell someone something that will just use against you?
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Today one of our grad student conductors for band was joking about how he didn’t know how he was going to conduct the last measures and said “I’m schizophrenic! Who knows what I’ll do??”
It’s always slightly upsetting to see people joke about serious mental illness, same as people who say “lol I’m so OCD” but I mean what can you do.
I turned on cable news one time, and found a respected well known anchorman describe someone with psychosis - possible schizophrenia as having “psychological issues”’ - I mean come on man, psychological?
Severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar are biological based illnesses - psychology plays a very small role in my opinion.
i agree with nick,its my mind/world that I deal with everyday so it’s my business
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My thesis in on stigma. I’m using imagined interpersonal contact for six different stigmatized illnesses and comparing them to see if neurological disorders are more or less stigmatized than psychosocial disorders. I predict it will go either way. On one hand, neurological illnesses take away the origin factor yet they are more often seen as perilous and shitty. Psychosocial illnesses are all in people’s heads and the origin is clear, the average idiot assumes that anorexia is ones own fault, for example. I.e. “It’s all in your head”
So I’m just testing the waters to see how stigmatized we are compared to others even after an efficacious intervention was administered.
■■■■■■■ science
Yes, our problem is how and what we are thinking. Just like “normal” people. "Normal’ people hide what they think, why shouldn’t we? We probably walk around thinking weird stuff. But who cares? We’re only hurting ourselves with our thoughts. So why shouldn’t we be able to walk in a store and buy a gallon of milk without being bothered?If they just HAVE to know what I’m thinking, I will tell them:, " Hey, I’m thinking about paying for this gallon of milk. End of story. And life goes on. So they should leave me the hell alone.
Yep im all for being left alone.
Every time I see someone with a mental illness in the news for violent crimes i cringe. I found the coverage of the Germanwings plane crash especially painful. Tons of people were angry that someone with depression was allowed to get a pilot license.
mental illness scares anxious old bags too LOL
My mother will never admit it; but she stigmatizes my mental illness and thus me. In addition to the biological/biochemical basis of mental illness; I am now inclined to believe that most mental illness are caused by some sort of brain damage inflicted at birth or in early childhood. As for me, I had seriously high fevers as a “toddler” but then a physically strong and healthy childhood and adulthood. I ask you this; just consider how much trouble you have processing information from reading or any other source, I have a college degree in psychology; yet, I have to read the books, etc aimed at “teenagers” to understand something. Basically, it’s not our fault; yet, we are treated as if it is and that does increase the damaging thoughts, feelings, mood swings, anxiety, etc. and suffering.
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I have told two people I had sz and I have never heard back from either one of them. But I worked most of my life and had a 24 year work history but now that I am on disability when old friends or coworkers talk to me and ask me what I’m doing I am a little stumped as to what to say. What do others on disability tell people when they ask what they do?
I never know what to say when someone asks what I’m doing too…
One time a man at the telephone company asked me what my disability was when I told him I was on disability and I refused to tell him. I was too afraid of what he might think.
I hate how media portrays mental illness too, that’s why I started my blog the Schizo in me to give people a second point of view on the illness. What pisses me off the most is someone trying to use the insanity defense when they have never shown a history of mental illness. Or if the media quickly jumps on the fact that someone who has done something bad “may-have” shown signs of illness in the past. Schizophrenia attacks people in various ways. Some hear voices inside their head like I do, others hear voices outside their heads. Some of us have learned how to control these delusions and hallucinations by learning how to react or not react to the voices we hear, but once we do that people start forgetting we have an illness and mistake those of us who can’t work as just being lazy.
I rarely tell people up front about my illness, many of my family members knew I’ve been to the hospital in the past but no one fully understood the reasons, at least when I was talking with one of my cousins who usually knows everything about everyone and she didn’t know why I was in the hospital it made me think my secret was safe. When I worked at a temp place I never put that I had an illness. But it was the reason I gave them that I had to take time off because of the delusional thinking, hallucinations, and panic attacks I was having nightly and couldn’t focus on my job. I didn’t exactly explain what the illness was just that I had to leave.
I agree with @Greykitten that is some sort of brain damage from birth. I was born two months premature, and had a couple of minor head accidents like when I fell off the monkey bars and got hurt one time, or when I was riding my bike and I went head over handle rail and hit the sidewalk rather hard. (This was back in the 80’s when we didn’t think too much about wearing helmets and protective gear).
Then when my brain was still developing as a teenager it completely broke from reality, which really screwed me up mentally. I have horrible memory and I think this may be the culprit as to why. I could understand things and learn new things but had forgotten a lot of what I knew as a kid. My friend gets mad at me when I can’t always remember the same things she does. Though I do have to admit I found a little pleasure when I was with her cousin and her and her cousin’s kids one weekend and the cousin’s daughter told me “You’re the sanest adults here…” I almost had to stifle a laugh because I didn’t want to explain to her as to why she should think twice about that comment.
I’m on disability and started working part-time 7 months ago. I just tell people that I am still looking for work.