Do you ever feel like you’ve been disrespected & mistreated for being mentally ill?

What has been your experience dealing with mental illness? Have you ever felt bullied, ridiculed, dismissed, disrespected or discriminated against even by family, friends, coworkers, acquaintances & strangers? I have. I have even been harshly judged by people who are also mentally ill ironically,

Two former friend accused me of being a ‘drug’ addict’ when our friendship ended for taking prescription medication.

Even though both my parents & my sister are also mentally ill, they never showed any empathy or even tried in any way to be supportive & understanding of my illness. They all told me it’s all ‘in my head’.

They denied having any issues at all. They didn’t go to therapy or take any medication. To them, it was shameful. They didn’t want to be thought of as being ‘crazy’ even though they all are crazy & extremely dysfunctional.

I have been bullied since I was 11 years old for having mental health issues. Most people aren’t compassionate. Most people are ignorant & fearful
of people with mental health disorders.

What’s worse is that even other mentally ill people judge other mentally ill people at times.

I think it depends on the circumstances really, I’ve seen and heard not so good reactions and I’ve also seen in my lifetime generally more acceptance of mental health issues. Most people now do talk more openly about mental health. But that’s just my experience.

If someone uses your illness as a weapon against you I’d suspect it’s often because of deeper reasons.

Some people are too embarrassed or afraid to admit that they have mental illness. Even if they have diagnosis and many symptoms, they still lie deny it.

Then they project their own embarrassment and shame on other people and literally lash out at others with MI.

But there’s another issue at play. Many people refuse to get help (or can’t seek help etc) so instead they self medicate with alcohol and drugs.

Then their behavior is out of control but again they won’t seek treatment but instead lash out while intoxicated.

In my experience decent people don’t mistreat those with mental illness. The only ones who do are projecting because they are in denial or people with substance abuse issue and not seeking help with the issue.

Most people don’t get nasty unless they are drunk/high etc

Yes, I really am sorry that all of these quite hurtful negative judgments and dismissals have been put on you Jesyka, yes, I've experienced them too, yes, from all sectors of the society and family as well. My heart and mind broke. It was too much. But over time as I began to form a more accurate pic of my reality within the society and within myself, it dawned on me that these types of things are never going to stop happening, why? - because those negativities aren't necessarily connected only to the individuals responsible for them but to the human race! it's everywhere you go! You could go to the south pole and someone will come out and judge you harshly!: Today, tomorrow, next week, next year, all the time! And so realizing that it's also about still embracing humanity (and there are many reasons to) for me it's been
a journey of learning how to deal, not with how other people are, but how I am and how I respond to life. All this stuff is pointed pout by the psychologists and it's true. At the end of the day just try to be better than the others and realise there were probably times in your own life, perhaps when you were younger and believed you knew everything (like a lot of ppl) - and what I do regarding this is focus my life on standing strong within myself - strong with compassion to mitigate the angry feelings - the hurtful feelings. There's a lot more to it but that is my basic approach which I wanted to share with you a fellow struggler. Peace.

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Originally Posted by Discombobulated I think it depends on the circumstances really, I’ve seen and heard not so good reactions and I’ve also seen in my lifetime generally more acceptance of mental health issues. Most people now do talk more openly about mental health. But that’s just my experience. If someone uses your illness as a weapon against you I’d suspect it’s often because of deeper reasons.

Discombobulated, you bring to mind commercials I've seen with Howie Mandell talking about his struggles with OCD, encouraging people to get help. Back in the day a celebrity would never have admitted to having a mental health problem.

Are you referring to yourself or other people? I have been discriminated against lots of times.

Two former friends including a former best friend accused me of being a drug addict for taking prescription medication.

Unbelievable!

That’s true. My entire immediate family are mentally ill but not getting help for their issues. They all need to be on medication.

My dad said that he’s seeing a therapist, but it’s to talk about my mom & other people. He refuses to admit that he needs help dealing with his issues with anger, control & narcissism.

Thanks. I don’t think I’ll ever tell anyone about my struggles again unless they reveal that they’re struggling with similar issues too.

Most people don’t understand much about these things. Even people who have issues have their limits. I have been called to negative by a good friend not to long ago when she was upset with me.

She was a bit drunk ar the time. It’s upsetting especially as she is usually empathetic & supportive of me.

I no longer feel like I can trust or rely on most people anymore. Not even therapists as my last one dumped me for not making any progress in a short period of time. I wasn’t aware that she was expecting to see a noticeable change in only a few months time, ugh!

It’s nice to see that some celebrities hwve had the courage to speak up about mental health struggles these days.

I think things are getting better in regards to mental health being talked about, but we still have a long way to go. I've been to concerts over the past couple years where they talk about how important mental health is, but they only talk about struggling with depression/anxiety. Schizophrenia, personality disorders, bipolar (esp. bipolar 1), "behavioral disorders" (or whathaveyou) like substance use and eating disorders, amongst others, are still incredibly stigmatized, misunderstood, and taboo to talk about.

Yes, I have been mistreated. I got kicked out of my house for drug abuse because I went for a walk after going stir crazy supposed to be housebound despite a clean at home drug test. I've gone to the ER saying my muscles were cramping and because of substance use history I was clearly "drug seeking" even though it was because my potassium was low. Even my treatment team misunderstands eating disorders and doesn't understand that, at least mine, comes from abuse and neglect. Every time I have some sort of strong reaction to something, people that know I take meds ask "are you taking your meds?" like I'm supposed to be some sort of robot that doesn't get really happy or really sad or really angry. I understand the question if I'm clearly manic, but sometimes meds don't work and sometimes it's my BPD which doesn't react to meds.

Well again there’s your answer.

The person was drunk (not like it excuses bad behaviors but it explains a lot). That’s what I was saying. Most of the time when people lash out (irl or online), substance abuse is involved.

I agree with you @MuddyBoots. Even as far back as 10 years ago, I observed how easily and casually people (granted, here in modern Silicon Valley, but still it showed a trend) mentioned that they had depression and anxiety.

Myself and others, I haven’t had to take time off work (yet) with mental ill health but several colleagues have and been open about it, they weren’t judged harshly.

Broadly speaking I agree with what others say re depression anxiety being more acceptable to discuss, maybe because it’s so common. I’d go so far as to say it’s part of the human condition.

Your former friends were narrow minded and possibly poorly educated and informed imo.

Yeah, anxiety and depression are definitely part of the human condition. It's healthy to be anxious in certain situations and I don't know anybody who doesn't experience symptoms of depression at times. Not that they have an anxiety or depressive disorder that interferes with their day to day lives significantly,
but I think it's easier to understand for the lay person "I'm hopeless, sad, tired, numb, and don't really feel like doing anything or talking to people" or "I'm nervous/worried/scared/fearful and it's doing all these things to my body," than "when I'm off meds I go to other universes" or "eating makes me feel disgusting and guilty and I don't want to do it anymore" or "my girlfriend said she wants a little space today so that means she hates me, is going to leave me forever, and I want to kill myself" followed by self injurious or impulsive and reckless behaviors.

Some members of my family were absolutely horrible in their treatment of me when I had a mental health issue. I feel, in my case, it was these same people who treated me so badly that is what caused my emotional illness in the first place. It is understandable they would further mistreat me, rather than giving me love and support.

Throughout this whole ordeal, which lasted decades for me, I kept saying it is not all me, it is mostly them. After learning about narcissism, I now have understanding that my thinking was right.

For mental health issues that involve relational issues with others, it is important to look at the behavior of all those involved.

Hugs to you, Jesyka

If this therapist is reasonably competent they will know what is going on with your dad (his blaming of others and projection) hopefully. They should be trying to help improve his relational skills.

I never really felt disrespected and mistreated by friends and family. They didn't always understand but were respectful. Strangers have never bothered me.

Especially psychiatrists and emergency medicine physicians.

This is so true. I've witnessed it when I was in the hospital and found it disturbing. They would compare diagnoses, psychiatrists, medications and the reasons they were admitted.

I don't socialize with anyone I met in hospital because of this.

Yes, I think we have seen an increasing understanding of mental illness overall. So many people were depressed during covid. Also very prominent people have spoken out about their own mental health issues.
Unfortunately, bipolar is very complicated and some people dont want to take the time or make the effort to understand it. Yes, there is still stigma.
My family lives far apart geographically and covid has made travel harder. We were not the closest family, and I have tried to remedy that. You have to be very patient and avoid losing touch. Many family members, even some who have major quirks of their own, tho EXTREMELY highly educated do not understand bipolar. With people who have never even been depressed or anxious, it can be a huge stretch to understand us.
So yes, we have to concentrate step by step, working toward being our best selves, simultaneously working patiently to build friendships and support systems. The dark of winter is challenging for us. They have 10,000amp mood lights on Amazon. So grateful for this group. Hang in there everyone!