Myths About Mental Illness: Why Can't They Understand?

Mental illness is surrounded by a plethora of half-truths and untruths. If you tell someone that you've been diagnosed with, for example, bipolar disorder, they are likely to roll their eyes and say, "I don't believe it - you don't look mentally ill...?"

So what does a mentally ill person look like? King Kong with a hangover? A rabid dog from India? The Mummy? The folks from Night of the Living Dead or some filthy transient who lives under the bridge?

No. They look like your Aunt Martha, like Queen Elizabeth of England, like my mother, like me. To look at me, you'd never guess I'm bipolar and have AADD. There's no sign around my neck, my skin isn't green, or puce (whatever that is), and I'm hardly violent at all. But if you worked with me, for example, you'd soon notice that I'm "different," a little "odd," "outrageous," or "bizarre,"

For one thing, I find it difficult to interact with other people and on a bad day, might show hostility toward them or believe they "have it in for me." I'm extremely negative, so people don't enjoy being around me. I can't follow instructions or directions if there are more than two - I have to write them down. Much of what people say seems trivial, ridiculous or challenging, to me. I can't keep focus: if I'm working and the phone rings, it breaks my concentration and it's tough getting it back - it may be half an hour before I do. Everything distracts me: footsteps out in the hall, a light turned off, a distant radio playing. I will appear to be excessively moody, giddy before lunch and all but catatonic after. You may think, or even say, "She must be crazy."

When Will They Understand?

Credit: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=view&id=285980