I've been told this several times. I know partly of it is because of my brain but some of it is caused by people. It makes out that I'm making up my mental health problem. I really hate this sentence. Not all of my problems are invisible or not real. It makes me mad.

[Teddy Bear]

Sorry people think you're making up your mental health problems

Maybe this isn't the best tactic but I usually say something along the lines of 'apparently so because I had shock treatment for it'. That stops them in their tracks.

[MickeyCheeky]

Sorry. Your feelings are definitely valid.

[All Is Revealed]

This is one of the worst things that can be said to you.

When someone tells me that, they prove they are no longer worthy of bring my friend.

[Grath]

I would look at that from another angle:
"I know that a lot of other people don't feel like I do, but just because my feelings may sometimes not seem rational to other people, doesn't mean they're not real."

That was the key lesson I've learnt this year. Appreciate that your feelings are real, they do not need to be analysed. Lots of people who don't have to deal with mental issues don't understand this.

[avlady]

i feel that people don't understand me as i am schitzophrenic and they sometimes use it against me and i need a weapon to help them see that I am myself, not who they want me to be. One old boyfriend of mine said "what are you, Schitzo? This was even before i was diagnosed and i can forgive him now because i really am, but didn't know it then. Maybe people saw it in me and I didn't know it?

[pappydaddy]

Some people are very perceptive to mental health issues in others, some are not. But most do not even realize what they are registering. They just sense something amiss, if you will.

I have given up on trying to explain or defend myself. It is a fruitless, no-win battle that will only serve to further my own frustration.

Originally Posted by happycheeks

I've been told this several times. I know partly of it is because of my brain but some of it is caused by people. It makes out that I'm making up my mental health problem. I really hate this sentence. Not all of my problems are invisible or not real. It makes me mad.

my mother loved that sentence

she still does

urg it's annoying

[teacat]

The brain is incredibly powerful, so being "in your head" is not only untrue but nothing to scoff at.

[Fuzzybear]

[eskielover]

Got told that about my migraine headachs that were continual too....just do more exercise. Come to find out those headaches come from a neck injury in my college days & I needed a neck fusion which didnt help the headaches. More exercise could have damaged my neck worse at that time.

Lol, I never buy into that crap.

The gottcha though is that while YES, our feelings are real to us, they are in our own PERCEPTION to the reality around us HOWEVER that reality may not be anything close to what the rest of the world knows as reality. We cant FORCE others to accept our reality the best we can do is get others to accept that those are the feelings we have based on our oen perception of reality we see

When I asked my husband years ago about what our phone plan was....he felt he was 100% sure that we had free calling after 9pm....well his feeling was 100% WRONG which was proved when I ended up with a $400 phone bill callibg my mom after 9pm to check on her after her DX of cancer. My feelings of anger toward him after getting the bill were 100% real & founded on the reality that his reakity was no where close to being REAL. (He knew where he filed everything but was too lazy to go find it so he went with what he felt was true in his mind.

We need to take care to UNDERSTAND our feelings & know exactly where they come from so we can validate what is in our head

[mugwort2]

"Happycheeks" Your feelings, emotions are as real as everyone else's I empathize with you. I know the feeling.

[Loose Screw x 2]

I deal with this garbage from "norms" too. My brother will do this silently by shaking his head when I express certain feelings or ideas even on things that have nothing to do with my illnesses. It really gets to me and pisses me off. How dare him! I can't *stand* for someone to tell me that something is "...all in your head." To me that is a way of dismissing it because they don't want to be bothered with it.
I also hate when someone insinuates that your perception of something isn't real or didn't really happen that way and that it just 'seemed' that way to you because you're paranoid. As if being schizophrenic means that everything we perceive is 100% BS! I can tell reality from delusion just fine because I've learned how to but, that's another story. Yes, I can definitely see why it's so insulting to be treated this way as if what you're dealing with doesn't really matter or that you have no idea what you're talking about or something is wrong with the way that you think. Sorry for the rant. I just understand a little *to* well I suppose. My way of dealing with it is to just shake my own head internally as I look at them with a sort of pity. Sometimes it seems that we are the normal ones and they are the ones with a sickness, doesn't it?

[Nammu]

Back in the eighties I had this problem with doctors. They all communicated with one another even the ER. So when I would complain of the pain they would pat me on the head tell me they believed I was experiencing pain but that it was body memories. Here have a bottle of pain pills, goodbye. They did that for a year. Finally I told the ER dr that if they didn't look for the cause of the pain I'd take all the damn pain pills they'd been giving me cause I couldn't take it anymore. His reaction.....72 hour hold on the psych ward. The psych nurse took one look at me and knew my problem was physical, called the on call pdoc and got an ultrasound ordered. Within 2 hours there was a surgeon in my room with papers to sign for three procedures. I had so many gall stones they were backed up into my esophagus. So much for it being all in my head!

In theory they are supposed to rule out psychical disorders first....ha! Had they same problem when I developed a bowel blockage...because I had a MI it was in my head! I could have died. Doctors are the most guilty of doing this, I find.

Originally Posted by happycheeks

I've been told this several times. I know partly of it is because of my brain but some of it is caused by people. It makes out that I'm making up my mental health problem. I really hate this sentence. Not all of my problems are invisible or not real. It makes me mad.

Care to give an example?

[meetlaw]

Mental illness is sometimes considered an invisible disability along with a host of other disorders. There are many ignorant people in the world. Keep fighting on.

[mugwort2]

Your feelings and everybody else's are totally valid Feelings are real be they emotional or physical or what ever aspect. Its wrong to let anyone discount your feelings.

[PassionateFlower]

I hate that, too. My parents told me that from a very young age(14) so I just ignored what they were saying and dealt with it. They’re just not coming to terms that I have something wrong with me at age 19, now that they found out my biological father is unwell.

[Medusax]

Originally Posted by eskielover

Got told that about my migraine headachs that were continual too....just do more exercise. Come to find out those headaches come from a neck injury in my college days & I needed a neck fusion which didnt help the headaches. More exercise could have damaged my neck worse at that time.

Lol, I never buy into that crap.

The gottcha though is that while YES, our feelings are real to us, they are in our own PERCEPTION to the reality around us HOWEVER that reality may not be anything close to what the rest of the world knows as reality. We cant FORCE others to accept our reality the best we can do is get others to accept that those are the feelings we have based on our oen perception of reality we see

When I asked my husband years ago about what our phone plan was....he felt he was 100% sure that we had free calling after 9pm....well his feeling was 100% WRONG which was proved when I ended up with a $400 phone bill callibg my mom after 9pm to check on her after her DX of cancer. My feelings of anger toward him after getting the bill were 100% real & founded on the reality that his reakity was no where close to being REAL. (He knew where he filed everything but was too lazy to go find it so he went with what he felt was true in his mind.

We need to take care to UNDERSTAND our feelings & know exactly where they come from so we can validate what is in our head

I heard that until about four years ago about my migraines. i suffered all that time with them until I finally got a pill. That statement "It's all in your head" was a go-to statement my parents used often and I HATE it.