How would you life be without a MH issue?

There is a Keith Urban song, "Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me":

I got no money in my pockets
I got a hole in my jeans
I had a job and I lost it
But it won't get to me

'Cause I'm ridin' with my baby
and it's a brand new day
We're on the wheels of an angel
Flyin' away

And the sun is shinin'
This road keeps windin'
Through the prettiest country
From Georgia to Tennessee
And I got the one I love beside me
My troubles behind me
I'm alive and I'm free
Who wouldn't wanna be me


His lyrics speak to the fact that life can be troublesome, we can have problems, yet we can also overcome.

Most of all, it says "if we look at all we have, not at what we have lost, we can appreciate our lives."

I have a LOT in life.

I am always extremely unhappy.

Because I dwell on what was lost to me - whether real or just in my mind.

I want to be more like the song ... happy.

If I took the MH issue out of the equation, I think I would be at this point - I have learned a lot in 2 years. I am still seeking the path towards that goal.

How about you?

i think i would be a mental health worker, maybe a social worker. I would be well liked, but quite dull. I would have a partner who is similar, and also a few friends. I would also be able to live on my own or with my partner.

Right now i have none of this.

With the no money in his pockets, how is he able to fuel up the device described as being on the wheels of an angel(assuming it means some form of vehicle) to be going down this road?

Guess my point with that it just goes to show, things can be more complicated than they seem. getting rid of mental health issues does not suddenly make people happy I don't think...and things like having no money and losing jobs still get people down even if they don't have mental health issues.

I mean don't get me wrong it would be cool if that song was more of a reality, but in reality...you at least need gas money to be going down any road unless someone is giving you a ride without wanting compensation or you've managed to create a self fueling vehicle or one that runs on something you don't have to pay for...or some people hitch hike.

A life without illness would be a new experience. I would accept the challenge.

With all due respect and appreciation to Johnny for posting this interesting food for thought question --- Princess is inclined to think about this more along the lines of Hellion.

My first thought upon reading the song lyrics to the above cited Keith Urban song: Oh yeah, Keith Urban can sing romantically about having no money, no job, just a car, a baby, and the open road ... As *if* the pretty boy from DownUnder whom we all love to watch has *ever* known such hardship and lack of TheBasics in his well-encouraged, well-supported childhood and life all along since well-earned fame and fortune with his first solo album gone Platinum in USA way back in his beginning here in the land of the free, the home of the brave, and equal opportunity ... with liberty and justice for *all* ...

That said, of course my life and I and others significant in my life and my former work in the greater world of humanity would be vastly better were I not having to be beset with depression/PTSD/anxieties/fear/night terrors/worries/financial and socio-economic disaster, uncertainty/poverty/sickness/aging/ old age/debility/losses untold/traumatic brain injury/incompetent, uncaring, inadequate medical care post-TBI (save for my fabulous PT/physical therapist, who remains the singlemost knowledgeable, caring professional I encountered in all of that traumatic ordeal, dealt with alone).

As Forest Gump would say, "And that's all I have to say about that. "

And in acknowledgement of Keith Urban's efforts for the betterment of lesser-fortunate humanity: https://www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/keith-urban

P.S. Johnny, please note: You are leaving the r off of your ...
" your life " ... Perhaps this is what smartphones do nowadays & I am just out-of-the-know. In any case, just so that you may know ...

I am not entirely sure what you mean with the first paragraph...but aside from that. I was not saying being without mental illness would not improve someones life point is it wouldn't necessarily cause happiness, that would also depend somewhat on other life circumstances, how much stress you're under and if someone is where they want to be in life or feels they are getting there.

Just my opinion though, I don't think if I was cured of mine it would make me happy, then again I don't there is a full on cure in the first place. I also don't think being in a much better economic situation would compensate for the depression, anxiety and PTSD either I'd probably still feel a lot the same, just more money to spend....but obviously those issues get in the way of my getting a job, and builiding a career which with to bring in a lot of income so its completely unlikely to happen.

...I'd find a way to muck it up just the same....

Well, I'd certainly be more productive.

Pretty productive and less stressful, I probably would become a pathologist if I had none of my mental illnesses.

I really don't know what my life would be like if I didn't have any mental health issues. I've had them as long as I can remember ever since the day it happened, and it's been so long that it has now become my personality. I think of being the opposite instead of having low self esteem, but, what if it was something entirely different than what I expect it to be?

I don't know. I was always a smart kid. I was in the beta club, I did all kinds of tutoring programs to help other kids, I was in the rocket club. Until mental illness struck me. Then, I lost interest in it all. If I hadn't... who knows? Maybe I'd have stuck with the beta club and got a scholarship to some fancy school, the likes of which I can only dream of now. I try not to think about it. Strangely, it triggers my depression further because I blame myself a lot for not continuing down that path. I might have been heavily bullied for it, but oh, the things I could have done..

I know for certain that I would not be living where I am now. And even if I was, I'm sure I'd handle it a lot better.

Pondering this issue - my thoughts go to "what if I were brought up in a different family" - who would I be? Would I have less wounds?

I would like to think I would go back to being the friendly, outgoing, positive, artistic and interested in doing new things. Instead of laying on the couch like a potato. Also, I might still be married to my ex-husband of 24 if I hadn't really screwed up during a really bad manic episode. I was unable to undo the damage. Those are all big maybes, wishful thinking, but I know I would feel better without waking up and saying 'oh no, not another day"

I don't know where I would be...by some standards I am very high functioning...have full timr snd partime jibs, bachelors degree, kid, married...separated now...I do know that I might have had much healthier relationships with people who value me as a persin and dont have to control me ot put me down...might have gone much farther in my career-masters or above. Right now, I'm just glad I get up and function each day because many manys yrs ago, it took me all day just to get up! Get dressed!!

I don't know how I made it thru college and a choppy work history of professional and menial work (engineering, cemetery worker, office cleaner). I was lucky I got all of that. I can't do anything anymore. I don't see family, etc. I had high hopes of playing music. I put a lot of time into music. I'm just happy now if I just get thru the day and no one gives me any hassles for no apparent reason. I'm just trying to enjoy basic things now and don't want to play games with people. (It doesn't matter what type of work you have there's always people making things difficult. I have plenty of stories*.)

Every Fall reminds me of school and how horrible I was functioning and the anxiety and the poor relationships. Embarrasses me.

(* I'm just rambling - I worked in a cemetery weed-eating 15 hrs/wk (Summer, 1996). I set up a funeral tent and broke it down and co-worker spit in the grave. (eg. It was a black funeral.) I went to Director and told him, my boss told Director he didn't see anything but was lying. Few days later I get ready to go home and my white car is badly dented in rear upper corner and car pushed sideways 8" on gravel road. Dent had green paint on it. Someone backed into car with (green) work truck and no one fessed-up to doing it.)

I dunno what my life would be like without MH in it. Like BubonicPlague I've had MH issues my entire life. I can't imagine what my life would have been like without them

That said, while I would never wish the problems I've had on someone else, I like the person I've become. I'm someone I would like to know. I don't think I'd be the same person if I had not had those experiences. I would not want to give up who I am today. Does that make sense?

I would become a hat maker using the old style of making them - Using a vat of mercury to get the hats to hold their shape. Of course the mercury make me quite insane and I would be in the middle of a mall running in circles and at the same time tapping one hand my chest and the other would be flailing wildly. Oh yea, I would also be yelling "Hand me that banana!".

Other than that it would be life as usual.

Much more enriched...

I don't think my life would *be* my life without my mental problems. It's not like I had a "normal life" and then I developed a mental illness that set it astray, I've had stuff going on for as long as I can remember, and I'm pretty sure that without them I wouldn't, well, be me.

If I had a different upbringing and it didn't end up with me becoming insecure, having social anxiety and having PTSD I think I would currently much further in my life. I always wanted to go to university and become something great like a vet. My mother was never disencouraging (I don't know if that's a word or not) about anything I wanted to do, even though we were poor, so I never had the idea in my head that I couldn't do something when I grew up, or that money was ever going to be a limit for me to do something.
But after being bullied in school, my mothers drinking and drug use, being abused, etc., my enthusiasm for things has gone down, I feel held back in where I could be, and my anxiety and insecurity about myself means I can't find the courage to do a lot of the things I have wanted.

more of a boor

I would have to another person and born into another family to not have any mental health issue.

Hard to predict. My mental illness came from difficult life circumstances combined with a sensitive temper and childhood issues. It's almost like asking what if I was a different person and lived a different life.

Well I was 15 when I first got diagnosed, so I'd probably be a cocky, arrogant little person in need of a good crack over the back of the head. And I would probably grow into a complete idiot and know-it-all who ignored the criticism and bimbled about life thinking I was awesome, when everyone else thought I was a moron. So I suppose it was for the best....ish.

I lost all of my favorite clothes recently. But if I put them on again It might feel like I'm stepping into unhappy times. I'm going to get new clothes. There's a lot of reasons to not like the things I lost and remembering how some never fitted right or didn't have pockets where I needed them or my ex picked them out, makes it easier to let them go.

I would be a robot if I didn't have any mental health issues. I'd be far more worse off if I refused to admit the brain is just another organ and it gets sick and has needs and is vulnerable just like any other part of a living creature. I'm afraid of, and for, people who insist they don't have any mental health concerns and never have and never will.