I find people often ask me what the difference between mental health and mental illness and I came across this response.. check out the link above as it gives a very simple explanation!
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Every one of you has ‘mental health’. It may not affect you the same way as it affects others and some might not even pay attention to it.. maybe you FEEL you don’t need to. The difference between ‘mental health’ and ‘mental illness’ is that everyone has mental health but not everyone has a mental illness.
Mental illnesses can include; obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, and eating disorders..just to name a few! Many people maybe including you have never heard of some of these.. maybe none of them at all. Let’s take a look at OCD, imagine small daily habits like turning off the lights, or locking your front door becoming extreme struggles. Having to wash your hands not once but sometimes 8 or 9 times after touching a door handle, just to make sure that your hands are ‘clean’. Or how about walking through the halls, and the thoughts running through your mind are; ‘why is everyone looking at ME?!’ ‘is something wrong with MY outfit??’ ‘Do I have something on MY face?’ And when you try to explain to someone these feelings, in response they chuckle as they throw their head back and say, “Not EVERYTHING is about YOU!!” and you may realize it’s true but you just cannot shake these thoughts. Or when you are too scared to walk through the door of your next class late that you can’t even bring your self to show up at all? These are just some examples of anxiety. The thought of life not being worth it. You think the bad day for no reason will pass, maybe you will snap out of this ‘funk’ but you don’t. You fall so deep that you start to distance yourself from friends and family, the things you used to get so much joy out of, have completely disappeared. Constant voices and worries in your head. These thoughts being so consuming that you can’t think strait or concentrate on anything? depression. Some of you may wonder why i chose this topic to talk about today. Most of you probably realize that mental health is a very popular topic especially over the past couple years but 3 years ago my sister was diagnosed with severe contamination OCD and clinical anxiety. Since then she has received different medications and an immense amount of help from Kelty Mental Helath Centre at Children’s hospital. Before this happened I had no idea how serious especially OCD was. I always used to hear people joke about it, sometimes I even did. Now, having seen my sister suffer I realize it is definitely not a joke. I think that the scariest part of struggling with a mental illness is how consuming it is. Functioning on a daily basis is a battle in your head that only you can hear. VOICES ordering you to do things, VOICES telling you different and fighting your opinion, VOICES yelling so loud you wonder if people can hear them outside of your own head. ‘Snap out of it’ ‘Just be happy’ ‘Your crazy’ Hearing people say things like this don’t help if anything they make things worse. Reminding you constantly that you are struggling like you don't realize you are already. Not only do people joke about OCD but many other mental illnesses. There have been many controversies over the past years, many shirts being sold with slogans making light in the most negative ways possible of depression as well. ‘Stressed depressed but well dressed.’ ‘Got depression?’ a copy of the ‘got milk?’ ads or ‘OCD: obsessive christmas disorder’ plastered across a christmas sweater sold in Target this past holiday season. Panic attacks come hand in hand with anxiety and mental illness. They are described in many ways, you feel as if you can’t breath. Or ever had one of those dreams where you are trying all your might to scream but you can’t seem to get it out. You have the weight of the world on your shoulders and it feels as if it’s never going to end. But it will… and sooner than you think. It can get to the point where you are so exhausted it’s paralyzing. You won’t even see a point in getting out of bed in the morning and you can’t find anything to motivate you. Don’t let it get to that point and don’t suffer alone. If someone you know is struggling all they want is for someone to listen. Be that person. It could make their day that much easier knowing they have someone to talk to. |
About MeI'm Sophie and OCD plays quite a large part in my life even though I don't have it, my sister does. I want to share the resources that helped me and my family get through and most of all raise awareness for those struggling. Archives
February 2017
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