What’s it like having mental illness? Well, it depends on which mental illness you’re inquiring about. There’s a spectrum of mental illness you know. However, if you want to know what it’s like to have depression, anxiety, BPD[1] and suffer from self harm… I can tell you about that.
Having depression isn’t just experiencing lethargic moments or being “lazy.” It isn’t just being “extremely sad” as some people describe it. It’s living in a body with a mind that wants to quit. It’s not having energy to get out bed because all you can do is think about dying.
And not everyone who’s depressed is suicidal, but the majority are. What does it feel like having anxiety? It’s that little feeling you get in your stomach when tipping your chair back and nearly falling, but you don’t. Imagine feeling like that every second of the day, accompanied by things like sweating, overwhelming nervousness, paranoia and more.
Imagine being perceived as crazy or insane, just because you have lines running down your arms and thighs. Which brings me to my next thing. Self harm. Have you ever walked into an unfamiliar place and everyone stared at you as if you’re naked? That’s what it’s like barring scars on your flesh the days you wear short sleeves.
You can feel the eyes of strangers, and maybe even loved ones feasting their unwelcoming stares upon the lacerations embedded in your skin. If you’re sensitive, this is enough to trigger your anxiety and potentially cause an anxiety attack.
Some days you feel fine, most days you don’t. You spend most your time isolating yourself from others and creating excuses as to why the scars on your arm doubled in size and deepened in infliction. “The cat did it.” is a common lie for pet owners.
Trying to explain why you’re depressed is never easy because you’re told things like “you’re too young to be depressed” or it’s passed off as “sadness.”
Sadness lasts a time period of 5 to 10 minutes. Anything more is emotionally self damaging. Often fatigue, lack of motivation, suicidal thoughts, self harm urges or unexplained “sadness” are signs of depression. Not many people know this. Last but not least, what’s it feel like to have Borderline Personality Disorder?
It’s a mix of things.
It’s more than just depression, self harm and anxiety. It’s being emotionally unstable. It’s being either under-reactive or over reactive, no in between. It’s living in a world painted in black and white with no grey. It’s not knowing who you are or what you are. It’s being mentally, emotionally and sometimes even physically conflicted.
It’s like living but you’re not really alive. An everyday, internal struggle between heart and mind is fought. And in silence, you suffer. The littlest things trigger you and you have to pretend that you’re fine, or if you’re on the really impulsive side, you have episodes. Enough episodes to be called a season.
It’s an awful, unwanted feeling. But it’s something you have to live with until you either get better or get used to the numbness.
There’s people in the world who don’t even believe in mental illness for “religious reasons”, which is a pity. If you’re having an anxiety attack, people say you’re being over dramatic. If you reach out for help about your self harm, they say you’re an attention seeker. You just can’t win no matter what.
But what’s wrong with a little attention? As humans is that not what we need? We thrive off attention and social interaction. It’s what makes us… us. But as someone struggling from all these different illnesses, receiving attention or even knowing someone’s aware of my troubles, makes me feel like a burden.
Detriment as is, this only adds to the stress. That’s why people like me bottle it up and pretend to be fine and cry it out in the heat of the moment or later alone at night. You develop trust issues and continue to grow distant from those around you.
You lose sight of reality and what really matters, and convinced by the voices that it’s better to hurt yourself as nobody don’t care, you do it without actual conscious. But sometimes, we don’t lose sight of reality. We know what’s reality; our reality, and that’s why we do it. Some people recover and others don’t. You can’t help everyone. You can’t save them all.