“My painting carries with it the content of pain.” ― Frida Kahlo
Mental illness appears to be the most misunderstood thing in the planet today; may be the second most after Feminism! My pal, who is an illustrator, and a mighty good one at that, and that i often take long walks away from the quaint town we reside in. We talk about everything on the planet, everything that we feel, but find it hard to express to people who have trained hard to misunderstand and judge. One particular topic that keeps finding its long ago into our conversations is mental health, or the lack of it.
We talk about depression, we talk about anxiety, we try to reason great pain produces great art. “Van Gogh,” he states, “cut his ear off, went to an asylum, and in his room, created A Starry Night.” I return home, Google this up, and find out that the highest price the painting has have you been sold at was $82 million, and that was 26 years ago. I also find out that Van Gogh died in 1890 and he was impoverished. I shut my laptop with a thud because I know this is a trigger.
We happen to be going on these trails for a few months now, and in these months, we've lost two powerful voices, both literally and figuratively, to mental illness. The day Chris Cornell takes his life, my friend loses his favorite singer; the day Chester Bennington hangs himself, we both lose part of our teenage. I remember the night time when the news started pouring in about Bennington's death; how I checked different sources, to be certain this wasn't a hoax; oh, the way i hoped it was one!
Mourning flowed in after Bennington's death, but there is also an overwhelmingly loud noise of disdain for the singer; noise that tried to drown our wails. Some spoke of how Bennington and other metal heads are in fact a bad influence on children. Something my pal and I couldn't stop laughing about. There have been others who attacked the dead singer personally, calling him a bad husband and a bad parent. Yes, he'd left behind 6 children, but why did no one seemed to be interested to understand the reason behind the suicide? Suicide may be the ultimate thing, but what drives one there, why is one take their own life? It is strange how people “get” suicide, but refuse to even recognize the mental illness causing it.
We humans have always needed proof, haven't we? How else can you explain the pictures that flood our Facebook walls of individuals eating, going on drives even if it is to the sabziwala, wanderlusting, trying on new clothes, getting into relationships; we need to give and get an evidence for everything, even our happiness. When someone says I'm not well, you expect scars, marks, a broken bone; when someone says I had been hospitalized, you expect some reports, some scans, some blood tests. You aren't mental illness has nothing to provide. Would you ever tell a person with cancer to stop being so selfish; you'll need a vacation; didn't you just purchase a car; when I had fever this past year, I fought it so bravely, therefore if I can why can't you; it's all regulated in your head? You wouldn't, right? Then, important okay to say these things to people with mental illness? It can make it okay because you have not a clue how their suffering manifests and what it actually feels like. But, guess what happens, today we will give you some proof.
Vijay has illustrated 8 of the most common mental illnesses and I will try to tell you whatever little I know or have studied about these. We actually hope these answer some of your questions.
Anxiety
“Anxiety is love’s greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might whenever a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic.”
― Ana”is Nin
Anxiety is amputating, to say the least. It chills you to definitely your bones. It empties you of the strengths. It is makes you fear everything. It can make you question everything. It makes you doubt every single thing. Every day becomes a struggle. You avoid forging relationships, because you fear you are going to lose them. Better shut them out right now, eh?
Dependent Personality Disorder
Dependent personality disorder is the excessive need to be taken care of. People suffering from this disorder tend to be submissive. They have a clinging behavior, which comes from their fear of abandonment.
Patterns of this mental condition, which is one of the most common mental illnesses, begin during early adulthood. It arises from one's perception of not being able to function properly without the assistance or advice of others. The submissive behavior gets chronic as time passes, if not treated. They are constantly handicapped by anxiety about losing the support of these they are dependent on. Hence, they've difficulty in expressing disagreement.
Depression
“I didn’t want to wake up. I was having a far better time asleep. And that’s really sad. It had been almost like a reverse nightmare, like whenever you wake up from a nightmare you’re so relieved. I woke up into a nightmare.”
― Ned Vizzini, It’s Kind of a Funny Story
Depression is not sadness. Depression isn't a sense of feeling low. It's not something that can be treated by creating a stronger will power. It is debilitating. It gnaws to you like a serpent. It feeds on you. It digs a deep pit in your heart, and fills it with a feeling of hopelessness. It makes you want to not continue.
The taboo around depression makes it a topic that should only be discussed as something that happens to others. You aren't supposed to tell your own experience of living with this monster lest everyone thinks you are mad.
It is very human for people to feel low every so often, but depression is more intense and is available in waves. It can last for weeks, months, and in some cases, even for years.
A person going through depression finds it difficult to operate. Ironically, depression is the most common mental illness today, but, it is one of the least talked about. According to statistics, one in every five persons in the world suffers from depression at least once in their life.
Bipolar disorder
“Bipolar robs you of that which is you. It will take from you the very core of the being and replace it with something that is completely opposite of who and what you truly are. Because my bipolar went untreated for thus long, I spent a long time looking in the mirror to see a person I did not recognize or understand. Not just did bipolar rob me of my sanity, but it robbed me of my capability to see beyond the space it dictated me to look. I no longer could tell reality from fantasy, and I walked in a world no more my own.”
― Alyssa Reyans, Letters from a Bipolar Mother
Bipolar disorder or manic depression is a recurring condition which involves several moods that oscillate between your highs of obsession and also the slumps of depression.
The most pervasive feature of the mental condition is depression. It calls for emotions of irritability and anger, at some things mixed with a sense of euphoria. The person tends to exhibit an unusual bout of one's and confidence, and during this period of ecstasy, they might overspend or go overboard on celebrating life.
Insomnia
“When the black thing was at its worst, when the illicit cocktails and also the ten-mile runs stopped working, I would feel numb as though dead to the world. I moved unconsciously, with heavy limbs, just like a zombie from a horror film. I felt a pain so fierce and persistent insidewithin all me, I was tempted to go ahead and take chopping knife in the kitchen and cut the black thing out. I would lie on my bed checking ceiling thinking about that knife and using all my limited powers of self-control to stop myself from going downstairs to have it.”
― Alice Jamieson, Today I’m Alice: Nine Personalities, One Tortured Mind
Sleeplessness is a very common condition among millennials, and social media hasn't been of help in that regard. However, insomnia and bouts of sleeplessness won't be the same thing. Being anxious concerning the future or mulling over the past can rob you of sleep, but that's not insomnia.
If it takes you more than an hour to fall asleep at night, at least three times a week, for a year, then you have insomnia. Based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 70 million Americans have this disorder.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
I want her back so bad-
I leave the door unlocked
I leave the lights on.
-Neil Hilborn, OCD
The term OCD has been utilized so often that people do not realize how debilitating this mental illness actually is. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder takes many forms. It traps its prey in repetitive thoughts and rituals of behavior, which disables them completely.
If not dealt with, the condition tends to get more chronic each day. It can last for decades, and the harshness of the symptoms can intensify with time. It gets them sucked right into a state of mind where they fear the something bad would happen if they don't follow their compulsions in the order that they're used to.
Schizophrenia
51 million people around the world have schizophrenia. This mental condition causes delusions and hallucinations within the patient. It lowers a person's ability to think, focus, and comprehend. With medicine, the symptoms associated with schizophrenia can be cured with time.
According to experts, by studying genetics, conducting behavioral research, by making use of advanced imaging to look at the structure of the brain and its function, you can come up with more efficient therapies to treat the condition.
Schizophrenia is not split personality; it is also not multiple personality disorder. People with this mental condition are not always dangerous or violent out of the box portrayed in pop culture.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Even in times of trauma, we try to maintain a sense of normality until we no longer can. That, my friends, is called surviving. Not healing. We never become whole again … we're survivors.
-Lori Goodwin
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is really a chronic mental condition that is defined as a psychological reaction to an extremely stressful event, like surviving a military combat or a period of physical or mental violence. The recurring memories of those events create a feeling of prolonged anxiety and fear within the patient, who finds it hard to believe that they are out of danger. The flashbacks and nightmares are other symptoms associated with this condition.
To battle the stigma around common mental illnesses, it's important to understand it better. We have to educate ourselves about these conditions rather than spreading misconceptions. Apart from that, we also need to show compassion; compassion, and not judgment. Only then will people be encouraged to talk about their condition openly, which will facilitate better diagnosis and treatment.
“Give a little bit of love and you get it back,
Give a little bit of pain, you caught in a trap.
For every little thing that you say or do, give a little bit of love and it'll return to you.”
