It was only a few weeks ago my T and I had a chat about people using diagnostic terms for things that do not fit the diagnosis. So many people use the word 'depressed' when they are really just sad, or even grieving. Sadness is not clinical depression. My T is a senior professor of social work at a local university. Due to Covid-19 he is in many virtual meetings that bring up the mental health of the students. The other professors were shocked that he had little sympathy for normally mentally healthy students anxieties due to Covid. He rejects that most need assignment extensions because of the inconvenience and changes to life and the relatively mild anxiety it brings. He finds it insulting to people like us, who suffer from diagnosed serious mental health issues, are lumped in the same basket as the healthy people who are simply struggling to adjust to self-isolation. It was an interesting discussion that helped me see just how passionately he stands up for the rights of the mentally ill. He thinks people pathologise normal emotions. Like when people say how depressed they are when they are just sad and still very functional.

Anyway, yeh, it annoys me too. When relatively healthy people think their experiences of emotions in the normal range are example of what a mentally ill person experiences peoples perception of those who have mental illness is warped. They must think we are weak to be so crippled. My pdoc told me that in a meeting he and his colleges agreed that they were not sure they would be able to survive what a lot of us go through. He has had PTSD in the past but recognises that long-term severe mental illness is only for the bravest(and fortunate enough to have support) to survive. I think most average well people are weak and would fall apart and give up after a week of what I endured for decades. Sadly, only those who have been there, or walked with those suffering closely, understand the difference between a normal human experience and true mental illness.