For sure awareness has come a long way, but not as long as I thought. Your story is important to tell because so many went through something like that. Certainly I understand you not wanting to tell anyone, because crazy once applied to everything not considered normal. Hopeless is a good word for what I felt, as if every day was going to be exactly the same. Thank you for reading and sharing your comments.
I think the stigma is less now than it was 20 or 30 years ago, when I was a young man in the 80's I had a severe social anxiety disorder. I tried my best to keep it to myself and I worked through it by subjecting myself to my own form of exposure therapy. I did not want anyone to think I was crazy so I spent years dealing with it alone in a variety of healthy and not so healthy ways. If I had sought professional help I may have found a much quicker and more effective way to deal with it, or at least someone to share my burden with and not feel so alone.
I wholeheartedly agree that mental health needs to be less stigmatized and although we have made progress in that direction, it is still very misunderstood by people who never had to deal with a serious mental illness. They have no concept of the terror or hopelessness such an illness can bring. They have never had that awful moment of asking themselves "Am I always going to be this way?"
For sure awareness has come a long way, but not as long as I thought. Your story is important to tell because so many went through something like that. Certainly I understand you not wanting to tell anyone, because crazy once applied to everything not considered normal. Hopeless is a good word for what I felt, as if every day was going to be exactly the same. Thank you for reading and sharing your comments.
I think the stigma is less now than it was 20 or 30 years ago, when I was a young man in the 80's I had a severe social anxiety disorder. I tried my best to keep it to myself and I worked through it by subjecting myself to my own form of exposure therapy. I did not want anyone to think I was crazy so I spent years dealing with it alone in a variety of healthy and not so healthy ways. If I had sought professional help I may have found a much quicker and more effective way to deal with it, or at least someone to share my burden with and not feel so alone.
I wholeheartedly agree that mental health needs to be less stigmatized and although we have made progress in that direction, it is still very misunderstood by people who never had to deal with a serious mental illness. They have no concept of the terror or hopelessness such an illness can bring. They have never had that awful moment of asking themselves "Am I always going to be this way?"