Despite great strides in the public's understanding of mental illness, there remain many stereotypes and misconceptions. And often times these stereotypes and misconceptions have a compounding negative impact on people who are already struggling.
Linked below is an excellent article on myths about mental illness, from the perspective of someone who has walked the walk.
The misconceptions that he challenges:
- Mental health problems last forever.
- Only violent or unstable people have mental health problems.
- You can’t handle relationships.
- You can just snap out of It
- Treatment is a waste of time.
From Lifehacker:
The Misconceptions About Mental Health That We Need To Unlearn
by Eric Ravenscraft
Mental illness isn’t like a sinus infection. You can’t just wait it out or take a pill to make everything go away. Our brains are complex and enigmatic, and mental illness is no different. This leads to a lot of misconceptions that make recovery much harder. Here are a few things you should know, whether you’re a sufferer or not.
Before we talk about misconceptions, it helps to identify just what “mental illness” means. Everyone has stress and difficult emotions from time to time and this is normal. Mental illness, on the other hand, is any condition that makes it difficult to function in daily life. It can affect your relationships, your job, or prevent you from reaching any otherwise attainable goal.
If that sounds like a pretty wide definition, it’s because the human mind is complex. Mental illness can range from anxiety and mood disorders that have a severe and tangible effect on your emotions and motivation, to psychotic disorders like schizophrenia that affect your perceptions or senses with things like delusions or hallucinations. Living with any of these can be debilitating. We rely on our senses, emotions, and perceptions to get us through the day. When any of those fail, it can make life difficult.
Read the rest here: link.