Should we be less open about mental illness?

[Give Her The D]

It seems like everyone is mentally ill now, and I don't know if we should be talking about it. It seems to be only making us unhappier to know we're fucked up, should mental illness be re-stigmatized, and placed under the "do not talk about" category? It just doesn't seem to help anything to say you have a mental health problem to me.

 

[Varg Did Nothing Wrong]

Only retards are mentally ill.

 

[The Sauce Boss]

It's a double edged sword, as someone who lives with a mental illness.

On the one hand, you have a bunch of dumb kids who go through a rough patch and decide they're 'clinically depressed', or you have people that milk the 'possibility' of having a disorder or what my therapist used to call a 'soft diagnosis'.

On the other, you have people like me, where I didn't confront my demons or seek help because I was convinced my mental illness was a character flaw. While it's not been a fun or easy experience fixing my life, it's most definitely been more rewarding, and I certainly would have had a harder time if there was more of a stigma against being open about your feelings and mental state.

 

[Give Her The D]

On the other, you have people like me, where I didn't confront my demons or seek help because I was convinced my mental illness was a character flaw. While it's not been a fun or easy experience fixing my life, it's most definitely been more rewarding, and I certainly would have had a harder time if there was more of a stigma against being open about your feelings and mental state.

Well yeah, speaking to your doctor and psychologist is one thing, but then it's another thing to open up about your mental illness to "raise awareness". That's what I mostly meant, the last part just feeling like an embarassment to people who actually have mental health problems.

 

[The Cunting Death]

Yes

 

[The Sauce Boss]

Well yeah, speaking to your doctor and psychologist is one thing, but then it's another thing to open up about your mental illness to "raise awareness". That's what I mostly meant, the last part just feeling like an embarassment to people who actually have mental health problems.

IDK, I feel like, again, it's a case by case things. Sometimes, really insecure or closed-in people might hear an authority figure or a person they respect being open about their problems, and it might inspire them to seek help. It's not a situation that has a simple answer IMO.

 

[Shield Breaker]

I think it depends on why you're talking about it. Like, if you are a writer or director, and you want to talk about how movies and books portray mental illness versus your own experiences, I think that is fine.

 

[crocodilian]

The entire goal of transparency about mental illness in the first place was to keep people from feeling defective, alienated or ostracized. In all but the most severe cases you can live a normal life with a mental illness, but you have to develop a sense of self-discipline, get the right treatment and feel genuine support from someone around you. Despite your flaws (which everyone has one way or another), you have to feel like you "fit in." These aren't unfair things to ask of polite society.

The problem with this is some people have decided to take advantage of charity. Stunted, wannabe opportunists beg for support when they don't need it. They have no urge to improve. They perceive sympathy and empathy as things to be used, like a perverted sense of power, and try to exert that power over the very same people they begged for mercy to start with. Then when people realize what's happening and try to kick back, the supposed "aggressor" is treated like the devil. They learn exactly why these charlatans feel (and in some ways, truly are) so powerful.

It feels like the plan has failed. Everyone feels broken somehow, everyone feels like they don't belong, everyone wears a mask because they feel like they need it to survive. Mental illness has become an us-versus-them issue, like every other issue seems to be nowadays. Just replace "mental illness" with sexuality or race, the same problems I describe arise every time.

 

[Francis York Morgan]

The problem isn't people being open about their mental illnesses. The problem is that too many people believe that being open about their mental issues gives them free reign to be an asshole and not have to face any repercussions for it while additionally not seeking legitimate treatment.

 

[WeWuzFinns]

The problem with mental illnesses isn't the open display of these disturbed individuals, but the improper treatment of them. Too often the mentally ill are just given some medicine, and sent on their merry ways. The way the gender confused individuals are treated is appalling, the "treatment" just caters to their delusions instead of properly training them to be comfortable in their own bodies.

 

[Edgeworth]

"There's a time and a place".

Twitter during your sister's wedding is neither of those.

There's also an "overexposure" problem wherein the more someone showcases it, the less people care because most people suffer from compassion fatigue. Also people turn it into a competition? That's especially common with younger individuals who conflate "personality" with "labels". Mental illness is, for lack of better terminology, "trendy" because it's so widely accepted relatively speaking and relatable. And some people use it to be cunts without having to fix their problems because "it's not muh fault".

I always have been and probably will always be in the camp of "mental illness is an explanation, not an excuse". Use it to explain, never to excuse because that's where the lazy, entitled pricks come in.

 

[Thumb Butler]

The way the gender confused individuals are treated is appalling, the "treatment" just caters to their delusions instead of properly training them to be comfortable in their own bodies.

This is how we end up with people like Fire. I don't believe he's gender confused at all. It's sad really.

 

[Petronella]

I don't think it's merely talking about mental illness that's the problem, but the way we talk about mental illness. I've noticed it's increasingly become a trend to consider mental illness to be a part of your personality, if not your entire personality, and so treating your mental illness is seen as erasing a part of yourself. It also factors into Woke Culture, as it's become considered ableist to seek treatment, or to even acknowledge mental illness is something that needs treatment in the first place.

 

[WhoBusTank69]

I don't think it's merely talking about mental illness that's the problem, but the way we talk about mental illness. I've noticed it's increasingly become a trend to consider mental illness to be a part of your personality, if not your entire personality, and so treating your mental illness is seen as erasing a part of yourself. It also factors into Woke Culture, as it's become considered ableist to seek treatment, or to even acknowledge mental illness is something that needs treatment in the first place.

The argument of "There's nothing to fix, you're not broken" is dangerous as hell. There was a retard with schizophrenia in one of my classes - lots of occasions we heard him mumble and whisper to himself right before going into tard rages nobody could do anything about.
That's not a personality, that's a clusterfuck in his skull.

 

[Lina Colorado]

Yeah romantisizing or even fetishizing mental illness is something that is happening more and more.
We shouldn't do that at all, nobody will get better from that. Talking about my issues has definitly made the burden less heavy for me and it warns people for why I act a certain way.

Stigma is still heavy here and accessibility to doctors who understand is still an issue.. But that's everywhere, really.
Alot of doctors think you are faking it.. Thanks to all the actual fakers that come over their floor.

 

[Idiotron]

I think that not being open about mental illness is what what we have right now.
There are places in the world where you will get into legal trouble if you speak your mind about things like transgenderism.
At the very least, you might get fired and/or have trouble with getting future employment.
That's not what I would call being open.
We're supposed to accept men turning their penises inside out as normal because......... BECAUSE!!!
We're supposed to accept Yaniv as normal.

People who put tattoos all over their faces, sexual deviants, obese monsters who weigh as much as 5 people and can't even walk, media addicts who literally die in their own feces because they've been sitting in front of a screen for 70 hours like zombies, the list goes on.
We don't talk about these things, we're just told to accept them and we do for the most part, that's why they're everywhere now.
If we all could openly talk about mental illness without repercussions, things would look a lot different.
A lot of us have to come to KF to talk properly about this because everywhere else, we're being told to be quiet or else.

Also, you can't learn about something without talking about it.
There's so much misunderstanding when it comes to various mental illnesses and other conditions, it's ridiculous.
There needs to be way more awareness.

 

[NIGGER ASS PEE POOPY RAPE]

accelerationist option: be more open about mental illness, including mental illnesses you don't even have. "I'm not misbehaving, I have autism." "I'm not racist, I have tourette's." also if you get good enough at faking it you can get prescription drugs for it.

 

[Petronella]

The argument of "There's nothing to fix, you're not broken" is dangerous as hell. There was an exceptional individual with schizophrenia in one of my classes - lots of occasions we heard him mumble and whisper to himself right before going into tard rages nobody could do anything about.
That's not a personality, that's a clusterfuck in his skull.

There's a Kelly Clarkson song that goes "can someone just hold me, but don't fix me or try to change a thing, I'm broken and it's beautiful" that they play fucking constantly at my work and it makes me want to stab my eardrums out every time it comes on. I feel it perfectly encapsulates this line of thought. There is nothing "beautiful" about mental illness.

 

[Pedosnake]

If you actually have a mental illness, better get help from someone who knows what it is that you have. Don't tell us about it on your Twitter about it and treat it like a social event, otherwise you just look like an attention whore that actually dosen't have an illness and is just being an annoying cunt.

 

[The Fool]

I'd be fucking embarrassed if I talked about my mental state to anyone.

I just wanna be normal.