[MotownJohnny]

Tell me your stories about the way people have treated you if they become aware of your situation.

I have experienced both.

I have honestly had no experience of being treated badly because of my mental illness. My family has been supportive. My work has been supportive and has respected my privacy. My supervisor was so genuinely respectful in asking about my illness. She admitted not knowing much about it and asked me to educate her a bit. It was a great interchange that was helpful to us both. Even my husband's work has been supportive. The last time I was in the hospital, they collected donations of money (ended up being a huge amount) to give to my husband, knowing we would be short on funds for a bit. It was moving that they cared so much about my husband and family.

[possum220]

In an nutshell (no pun intended) - My family don't want to know about my mental illness.

Strangers stare at me in the street for all kinds of reasons.

I feel like I can only really be open with my therapist and p'doc.

[Gus1234U]

the people who have treated me the worse have been pdocs, T's and staff. i go to public mh clinics, and they seem to be staffed with the rejects of the rest of the MH world. they are the reason i still have PTSD, i have filed complaints, and grievances and even gotten a clinic supervisor and 2 pdoc fired. but it doesn't change the system. rotten to the core.

[ocdwifeofsociopath]

I have had no real friends, and my family did not love me. I was diagnosed late, so I was criticized and the source of much frustration because of lack of understanding. Now I get nice, bad. If that makes any sense. Not good, but not mean.

I'll try to keep this short and it should be easy. Most of my family have been incredibly helpful and supportive. None of them have been what you'd call negative. BTW I come from a large, close family with rural, agrarian, poor roots. There were actually sharecroppers one of two generations back. I include that info because it may have some sociological interest.
Friends... again there were a lot. At my core I'm a very private person so I kept it on a need to know basis as a rule but I didn't hide it. And again it was all very positive. I made friends easily and I was blessed with many good friends over the years. Several were helpful and supportive over and beyond anything you could expect. Some were more helpful than the professionals.
I almost feel guilty posting this. I wish I could have shared.
Work... in the music world nobody cared unless it interfered with work. I also had some 9-5 jobs with bosses/supervisors who really didn't have any negative views of MI as long as it didn't interfere with work.

When my parents first found out they accused me of being demonized. Of course that's what causes mental illness. Oh brother.

[the sad queen]

my parents and my friends doesn't know, i have never been diagnosed but i feel the war inside of my head and bad thoughts i am sure that i have black and white thinking.
but if i tried to tell but not directly, my parents would say you dont have any problem. my friends would just look o.O? then laugh because they doesn't understand. so i get along and keep fighting by myself inside me

[Open Eyes]

It was horrible for way too long, everyone was angry with me and wanted me to "just snap out of it". I got so bad, worse and worse that I was in a dangerous state of mind.

It wasn't until I finally found a "good T" that basically called my husband in to talk to him and set him straight and that I was genuinely struggling and him and others had to be more supportive.

I wish other people could experience what I go through for a week so they would realize how challenging it is. It sure isn't anything I every imagined being challenged with.

OE

[gnat]

In the real world only two people- a former pen pal and good friend and my husband knew of my struggles. My husband didn't know the half of it because when I discussed it he would get irritated and tell me things like to "suck it up" or "pull your head out" so I quit talking to him. When I told him this summer I was going to seek out meds, something I refused in the past when my doctors had tried putting me on them, he got really upset and insisted I stay off them. He did finally a couple months ago suggest I see a counselor, realizing it's not going to go away unless I do something, but I have no interest in sharing my issues with anyone else in the real world. So far all it has done is hurt me.

[atomicc]

My mother told me there's nothing wrong with me, then proceeded to laugh at my use of medication and my supposed "weakness". My father says I should just relax and that he's got issues too. I haven't told anyone else in my family...I don't really have any more family besides a brother and he's emotionally cold and we hardly speak.
My boyfriend was absolutely sweet and understanding and sticks by every temper tantrum and crying episode. He loves me mental illness and all.

[eskielover]

Originally Posted by Gus1234U

the people who have treated me the worse have been pdocs, T's and staff. i go to public mh clinics, and they seem to be staffed with the rejects of the rest of the MH world. they are the reason i still have PTSD, i have filed complaints, and grievances and even gotten a clinic supervisor and 2 pdoc fired. but it doesn't change the system. rotten to the core.

I'm sorry you have had such a bad experience with the public mh clinics in your area....they must be similar to what they were like in Calif......however here in KY.....I have never received such thorough care, treatment & compassion & close knit DBT group that has grown over the several years I've been going to it.......I commented to my psychologist the other day.....as to how much better I really feel after seeing her & talking seriously in a logical way through the issues I am dealing with & sometimes even going back & touching on the issues I dealt with in the past when the situational depression first hit......because of the depresonalization & the PTSD from the trauma with the home care person when my mother was dying of cancer, they assigned me to one of the psychologists at the clinic......so I got the top notch quality.

What I got from the private mh community in Calif was REALLY NOT GOOD.....some was really bad, but most was just NOT GOOD.....didn't do any further damage.....but they also didn't have any idea how to treat me.....I ended up on medical leave of absence from the engineering company I worked for.....so I was forced to go to a pdoc & go to the pdoc & T that their insurance would cover. The first pdoc was also a pdoc at the air force base & he did have a lot of good experience.....but I felt like a guinea pig & that didn't go over good with me because of all the side effects I ended up going through including anorexia initiated by the prozac & Wellbutrin.....but I always lost weight when stressed all my life so he stuck me in an ED treatment center.

Everyone I saw thought like I did that it was the loss of my career & the inability to get any other engineering position back in 1994 when aerospace crashed in California....& at the same time we had the huge earthquake there & it was like living in a war zone with everything collapsed around me & the freeway drive was 6 hours to work & 6 home & I wasn't in a place where I could work from home & I hated the department I was working in anyway which was the initiating problem......but underlying it all was my bad marriage & feeling trapped....I felt trapped in the horrible department with a director that wouldn't let me take another technical engineering position when one came up & then trapped in my bad marriage especially not working I had no money if I did get divorced to take care of myself......so the suicide attempts just kept coming coming until my pdoc refused to treat me any longer & everyone thought I was just being stupid in my reaction to loosing my career......(didn't put the marriage issue into the picture until I finally left 6 years ago & found out just how bad it had been when I was finally free).....most friends didn't want to deal with someone who was suicidal....my horse trainer & riding instructor thought she had all the answers as to how I should get better......then I had to get a new pdoc....ended up getting assigned one after a suicide attempt & ended up in a private psych hospital I had heard was good.....he was good & better with natural meds after he tried more with even worse bad effects. People at church had no concept of what was going on even though they knew what was happening....my H was always visiting at the hospital & my mother would always visit.....but with H it was because it was the right thing to do & one has to be there even though there was NO emotional support (because there never had been anything between us from the beginning of the marriage other than fighting).....so it was a meaningless gesture on his part...but it made him look good to everyone else......& I really messed up my daughters life with all that during her senior year of high school.....even though I was finally home to drive her around where she needed to go.

In reality....I couldn't understand myself of accept what I was really going through.....why would I expect anyone else....I was always the logical one in my life who figured out the why of everything....& I had no idea why I was reacting in this way to the situation I was in while not realizing the marriage situation as part of it at all (until the very end.....almost).....so I was as evil to myself as everyone else.

[Webgoji]

Pretty much everyone knows I have Major Depressive Disorder and it's kind of a funny joke because I'm medicated so I can interact with society.

Now as far as insurance goes ... my medication is considered a "lifestyle" drug. Talk about a stigma. As if messed up brain chemistry is somehow a lifestyle choice whereas hypothyrodism is a medical condition.

[Charl S]

My boss has only ever treated me with judgement and discrimination