MENTAL HEALTH: Things Ignorant People Say / What Not To Say.

by - 10:40

So, people always say 'people are ignorant towards the things they fear or do not understand', well please, start understanding, it's not rocket science.

I'd say this post is inspired by my dad, he's super ignorant when it comes to mental health and just doesn't really take an interest and doesn't bother to research it, whereas my mum has experienced it herself and it runs on her side of the family so she understands it a lot more.

So, one down side to having depression is the sheer lack of motivation you have, I know that recently it's hit me really hard so I've been finding it hard to do simple things like, take a shower, make dinner, get dressed. So there's pleeeenty of things my dad's said to me recently that I'd quite happily slap him in the face for if he says it again, like:

  • "For god's sake, how long have you been lounging on that sofa for? It's been a week now."
  • "WILL YOU JUST GET OUT OF YOUR PYJAMAS FOR ONCE?"
  • "Wash your hair, it looks beyond greasy."
  • "Stop feeling sorry for yourself and get some housework done."
  • Being called a 'lazy shit' is always a fun one.
  • My sleeping pattern is completely messed up, I'll sleep on the sofa during the day and then stay up all night downstairs so "If I come downstairs tomorrow morning for work and you're still down here I'm going to make sure you don't sleep."
Let me just get one thing straight here. There's no motivation there, it's not like you choose not to do these things because you just can't be bothered, when you have no motivation you're often mentally and physically exhausted, whether it's down to no sleep or something else, it's not laziness.

Let me move onto things not to say / things that I've heard been said to someone with anxiety:
  • "Is it just an attention thing?"
  • "Hahahah, you were shaking and everything!" (Yeah, a 'friend' once said that to me.)
  • "Is there something wrong with you?"
  • "Just calm down!"
  • "There's nothing wrong with you, you're being over-dramatic."
  • So, I've stuttered really bad since I was around 4 or 5, which I now realise was probably down to anxiety, so if I stutter and someone says "Yeah, spit it out." or "Isn't really that hard to say, is it?" I just want to crawl up into a ball and die. Obviously pointing out that I've just stuttered is going to set my anxiety off so much more, so yes, there's no need to be an arsehole.
  • "Why do you go to the toilet so much?" Well, there's this thing called anxious urination, which means you piss when you're nervous, bye.
  • "Just get over it."
Wow, I really do hate people sometimes.

Well, there you go! There's some of my experiences with ignorant people. I mean come on, it takes wait? 5 seconds to google something. Maybe if you all took time out of your day for 5 minutes to look up the definition of depression or anxiety, you may learn something and might realise that whatever it is you've said has made the situation 10 times worse or has triggered someone's anxiety.

I just really needed to let my anger towards ignorant people out, well I feel 100 times better after this blog post, woooo.

Okay, thanks for reading! And let me know if you've ever had an encounter with an overly-ignorant person! 
Rachel. xo
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