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Originally Posted by kindness
I broke free from mental illness when I accepted the fact that I'm mentally ill.
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Excellent answer, although far harder than it sounds.
The word of the day is
anosognosia:
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Anosognosia is a common symptom of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with psychotic features. Also called "lack of awareness" or "lack of insight," it has an anatomical basis that has been confirmed in multiple scientific studies. The word itself comes from the Greek word for disease (nosos) and knowledge (gnosis) and literally means “to not know a disease.” It affects approximately 50 percent of individuals with schizophrenia and 40 percent of individuals with bipolar disorder and is the most common reason that individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar do not take their medications.
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Eliminating Barriers to the Treatment of Mental Illness
Anosognosia is like a personal
normalcy bias: most of us are not raised or prepared or expect to go through life burdened with an incurable and destructive mental illness. Acceptance of this hard reality is made even more difficult by society's stigma and lack of empathy and understanding of mental illness.