I'm glad you posted this. I feel the same way. it is very unfair.

very true...good point.. sometimes life just sucks...

How very true.

People are so illogical. I've had doctors tell me I need to take personal responsibility and take my meds faithfully when manic - so manic I don't even know what day it is and I think I have had a miracle recovery from depression and will never be sick again.

I was hospitalised for a month when I was manic and when I returned to work I had to feel guilty for leaving them in the lurch and making others stressed for having to pick up my workload. Not allowed to mention my illness or talk about my recovery. Shame and secrecy and guilt.

At the same time my boss was hospitalised with a heart attack and he was lavished with sympathy, love and caring.

The contrast couldn't have been starker.

I always try to act as "normal" as possible as to not embarass family members or friends. I have a daughter whom I believe is embarassed that I have this illness, but I try to do my best, like I work and go to school, go to therapy and also see my doctor. I also have a sister who never has spoken to me since the time that I started having the illness (I guess if I was a famous actress, she would speak to me) but I am not, and I have had many problems surrounding the illness but it is not my fault.

How very true.

People are so illogical. I've had doctors tell me I need to take personal responsibility and take my meds faithfully when manic - so manic I don't even know what day it is and I think I have had a miracle recovery from depression and will never be sick again.

I was hospitalised for a month when I was manic and when I returned to work I had to feel guilty for leaving them in the lurch and making others stressed for having to pick up my workload. Not allowed to mention my illness or talk about my recovery. Shame and secrecy and guilt.

At the same time my boss was hospitalised with a heart attack and he was lavished with sympathy, love and caring.

The contrast couldn't have been starker.

Hi Heretic
Your message reminds of a rhyme I thought of some years ago. Don't want to say its a poem since its only a couple lines.
Mentally ill, nuts, nutzoid, loony, loonytunes, psycho, sicko, lazy,
mad, demented, not playing with a full deck, crazy
Why is it when both physical illness and mental illness can bring such misery and pain
the former is viewed with such sympathy and understanding
and the latter with such derision and disdain.
Hopefully with groups like this and anti stigma assns such as NAMI Mental Health America, formerly Nat. MH Assn, Empowerment Center this is slowly changing for the better
Your DS friend
mugwort

I totally agree and is unfair. life sucks being mentally ill.

Yeah I am disabled and when people ask me what I do I don't know what to tell them because I have seen the look on their faces. Also a lot of my family doesn' t understand what I go thru. My mom and dad try to be supportive and try to understand but my sisters just don't really believe I am bipolar. My husband had a stroke and is diabetic and is disabled and they understand that but no one can even come close to understanding what I go thru. They think I am a freak and stay away from me. LIke what am I going to do freak out in front of them or give them mental illness?

I totally agree with this! I dont know what the stigma is about..
I wonder why people are so unforgiving on mental illness, where does that stem from? do they honestly think we're involuntarily ill to try to cop out of living life?

Agree.

When I was Dx with cancer..my fellow co-workers showed a lot of concern.

When I was Dxed w BP..they all avoided me.

I don't mean to be ugly, but the normals can bite me. I just don't care anymore. I stay in my office and I just live my life trying to survive. People can just bite me-seriously. I think personally, that normals are far, far more dangerous in their prejudice than most folks with mental illness. EKC

Yes EKC, normals can and do bite - hard! The pain they cause people who are already suffering is obscene. They are very ugly in their prejudice and it is a horrible injustice. It makes me want to scream and cry at the same time.

I agree my husband doesn't believe in mental illness he thinks the doctors are just as bad as the patients. He thinks that us patients are all in control of ourselves and that we set our own lives by our attitudes, try living with that...yuck!

I have a sister who is bipolar but also borderline personality disorder and I too have been guilty of understanding the bipolar but not the borderline personality stuff. So I have been prejudiced myself. I think it is just that people do not understand the disease and even my own family, my two older sisters and mom, refuse to talk to me anymore because of it. They just cannot face how self destructive I have been and they believe I had choices and it's all my fault. Well yes, I did have choices but no some of it is my brain is severely imbalanced. Also, I lost two children one from cancer the other stillborn after five months and I have been sexually assaulted and had a loaded gun held to my head by an ex so trauma has invaded an already imbalanced chemistry. But they understand the deaths and they are sympathetic but anything else no, I'm just making excuses. And like my last ex boyfriend used to say, everybody thinks I just need to "suck it up". Man I wish it was that easy. I honestly wish I could just "suck it up" and my brain would respond appropriately. I wish I could just say hey brain stop racing and it would or I could say hey brain stop freezing and focus and it would. Man life would be so great. And everybody would then love and respect me for how strong and tough I am right?

You are very right and I think of that topic almost all the time, because they can't see mental illness they assume its a show we are putting on every now and again to get supposed attention, I dont see any difference between having heart disease and having bipolar disorder, it is a physical malfunction of the brain and heart disease is a malfunction of the heart, diabetes of the pancreas and so on, so again what the fuck is the difference. People who don't have mental illness are ignorant to its effects on all the aspects of an individuals life, it pretty much rules most of my life and when a therapist or a p doc says that i have bipolar and i am not bipolar i say BULLSHIT ON THAT!!