4 Lies People Believe About the Mental Health Community

It’s no surprise that there’s a stigma against mental health, but it shouldn’t be a battle mental health patients have to face.

I’ve battled with depression in my past, and not even a year later I was diagnosed with a rare disease. I also live with anxiety. Lots of things have probably attributed to my mental health like emotional abuse, my ex-relationship, toxic family and things that have been hard for me to overcome.

I, along with millions of others in the mental health community, are tired. We’re tired of the bias, the lies that people believe about our mental illness and the endless excuses we must make up for missing work or a gathering because most people won’t take our mental health seriously.

I believe that in shedding some light on those lies below, it will help de-stigmatize mental illness and open us up for more unashamed conversation.

Lie #1: If we share our reality, we’re seeking attention.

Whoever has said that someone is seeking attention because they’re struggling mentally lacks a string of empathy — empathy that could mean a matter of life or death for someone. Our reality is real — and our feelings are valid.

Any kind of “attention” we’re seeking is because we’re seeking help. And we certainly do not have to struggle in silence. We know that just because no one else can heal or do our inner work for us, it doesn’t mean we have to do it alone — therefore we vulnerably share what we’re going through.

Lie #2: When we make some improvement, we were faking our mental struggle all along.

Don’t forget that at one point, our only relief was sleep. Our struggle was real, is real and faking a mental illness is of no benefit to us or anyone else’s life. Making improvements in our mental illness is beautiful progress, and it is not to be misinterpreted as faking a mental illness. Some of us have fought for our lives while battling our inner demons. Some of us, like myself, had suicidal thoughts in our darkest hour and have self-harmed multiple times. So when we make an improvement, we’ve realized our life is worth living and you can’t fake that kind of reality. These things are as real as anything else in the world and the progress matters to us.

Every time you think someone is faking their mental illness, you’re a part of the problem, not the solution.

Lie #3: When we’re struggling with our depression, anxiety or other mental health issues, we’re not trying hard enough.

It’s OK to have bad days and be less than perfect. It’s OK to do what’s best for our mental health even when that “looks like” we’re not trying. Everyone’s effort looks different. For some, it’s going outside and feeling the sun on their face. For others, it’s getting out of bed for the first time in a week and drinking a cup of coffee.

And for some, it’s merely an effort to stay alive.

We’re trying. Trying is not giving up — and that’s all that matters.

Lie #4: If we keep the struggle to ourselves we’re not really struggling.

Just because we keep our feelings to ourselves, doesn’t mean we wish to heal alone in our mental illness. It’s not easy to open up about what we’re going through because we feel we’ll be rejected.

Mental illness is not easily seen. We don’t have a runny nose, fever or a rash where someone will easily run to us with a warm towel or Tylenol. We long to be able to express something we can’t explain, and we ache for help.

People with a mental illness know what it means to feel alone no matter how much support we may actually have. We struggle with accepting help from those who love us because we don’t want to be a burden.

Mental health will always matter. Everyone is going through something and everybody has had something they’ve had to overcome.

There is hope, even when our minds tell us there isn’t. The fact that we’re still making it to work, caring for our families, being there for our friends, while still battling inexpressible pain, is strength, not a weakness.

People will believe what they want to believe about those with mental illnesses — no one can really change that.

But we can let people know how truly precious they are. We can be a part of the change for good and give people a reason to have hope again.

Because hope should never be lost.