After a request from a friend i've been asked to do a blog post about Mental illness. At first I didn't want to do this, Mental illness is something that I've have to deal with personally and externally my whole life I'm not going to talk about every illness because there isn't enough time in the day, but I will be picking out the ones closest to me and things I have experienced. My own personal experiences of it have been terrifying at times and this blog is probably the most difficult I've had to write. 1 in 4 people suffer from a mental illness. Just let that sink in, how many of your friends or family do you think have suffered? It's a frightening statistic that gets scarier as time goes by.
Depression is the most common mental illness and affects 17 million people every year.1 in 33 children suffer from depression as do 1 in 8 teenagers. Forms of depression include Dysthymia, Bi-polar, Post-natal depression and Seasonal Affective disorder. A lot of people think that Depression isn't a real illness and that it just means you're in a bad mood or feeling melancholic. Let me tell you this, it isn't like that at all. It can begin that way, especially in teen years but often this passes. When it lingers however and it begins to affect you life in drastic ways, this is when it can be diagnosed as clinical depression. For me, it was a constant feeling of worthlessness, that I was never going to amount to anything. Everything seemed bleak and it was difficult to find pleasure in things that I used to. It interfered with my sleeping and eating patterns and I found it hard to find anything that made me believe that it was worth trying to keep going. People think that you can just snap out of it, or that you're just being stupid but that isn't true either. Depression is a proven medical issue caused by a lack of serotonin in the brain. It is hard to deal with and it is easy to push away anyone who wants to help you deal with it. I lost friends and I almost lost my boyfriend because of it. I've seen it affect my friends before and it's hard to watch them suffer without knowing how to help them.
With Depression often (but not always) comes Anxiety. Research suggests that as many as 1 in 6 young people will suffer from anxiety at some point in their lives. In America, 40 million people suffer with some sort of anxiety disorder and it is estimated that only a third of these people get treatment. That means almost 25 million people in America alone are suffering in silence. Anxiety can also come in different forms such as Social Anxiety, phobias, Post-traumatic stress and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Anxiety isn't something that can be controlled, it isn't an 'over-reaction' as it is often perceived. It can make people imagine that things in their lives are much worse than they actually are and can sometimes stop people from confronting their fear. It's like being in a constant state of worry. The physical symptoms of it can include increased heart rate, 'jelly legs', shaking, dry mouth, nausea, hyperventilation, dizziness and difficulty breathing. The psychological symptoms include, feeling like you're losing control, thinking you might die, feeling like people are looking at you all the time, feeling like you want to run away and escape, feeling detached from the environment and the people around you, feeling on edge. On a personal level, I have seen people have to deal with the more difficult forms of anxiety and have been there through the difficult times. I've seen people have panic attacks, break down in tears shaking, telling me that they don't know how to deal with it. From this perspective alone, it is one of the most difficult mental illnesses to deal with, I can hardly imagine how hard it must be to be suffering from it.
The final thing I want to talk about is eating disorders and body dysmorphia. Until recently this was something i'd turned a blind eye to, I didn't understand it, until recently I didn't think I knew anyone that suffered from it but I was shocked to find it was closer to me than i ever thought. Eating disorders can often go hand in hand with Anxiety and/or depression. They can be triggered things including, a traumatic experience, stressful situations or having a history of eating disorders or substance abuse in the family. Anorexia and Bulimia are the most well known eating disorders. Anorexia usually develops between the ages of 16-17 and affects 1 in 250 women and 1 in 2000 men. Bulimia normally develops later between the ages of 18-19 and around 90 percent of its sufferers are female. Many people who have an eating disorder will not seek help because they don't believe that anything is wrong with them. They just think that their weight is an issue and set out to deal with it. Anorexia and Bulimia can be easily hidden in it's early stages and in many cases are not noticed until it begins to seriously affect the health of the sufferer to the point where it can cause death. Recovery can take a long time, and things like Counselling and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy play a huge part in the recovery process. When I found out that a close friend of mine was suffering this way it was a very sobering experience.
They say that you don't fully understand something until it's happening in front of you and I can not emphisise enough how true this is. Too many people have a lack of understanding of mental illness, a lot of people think that just because you can't physically see the effects of the illness, that it doesn't class as one. Others think that mental illnesses are just cries for attention. They aren't, mental illnesses are a serious problem affecting more and more people each year. The mind is one of the scariest and terrible things at times, how long before people realise that these illnesses can not be helped? How long before we start to do something about the millions of people suffering in silence every day?
The final thing I want to talk about is eating disorders and body dysmorphia. Until recently this was something i'd turned a blind eye to, I didn't understand it, until recently I didn't think I knew anyone that suffered from it but I was shocked to find it was closer to me than i ever thought. Eating disorders can often go hand in hand with Anxiety and/or depression. They can be triggered things including, a traumatic experience, stressful situations or having a history of eating disorders or substance abuse in the family. Anorexia and Bulimia are the most well known eating disorders. Anorexia usually develops between the ages of 16-17 and affects 1 in 250 women and 1 in 2000 men. Bulimia normally develops later between the ages of 18-19 and around 90 percent of its sufferers are female. Many people who have an eating disorder will not seek help because they don't believe that anything is wrong with them. They just think that their weight is an issue and set out to deal with it. Anorexia and Bulimia can be easily hidden in it's early stages and in many cases are not noticed until it begins to seriously affect the health of the sufferer to the point where it can cause death. Recovery can take a long time, and things like Counselling and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy play a huge part in the recovery process. When I found out that a close friend of mine was suffering this way it was a very sobering experience.
They say that you don't fully understand something until it's happening in front of you and I can not emphisise enough how true this is. Too many people have a lack of understanding of mental illness, a lot of people think that just because you can't physically see the effects of the illness, that it doesn't class as one. Others think that mental illnesses are just cries for attention. They aren't, mental illnesses are a serious problem affecting more and more people each year. The mind is one of the scariest and terrible things at times, how long before people realise that these illnesses can not be helped? How long before we start to do something about the millions of people suffering in silence every day?
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