Living with anxiety, depression, or both can be really difficult. Everyday life is negatively affected, especially relationships with those that don’t fully understand the illness.
Here are 9 things that people living with anxiety and depression want others to know.
1. I Can’t Control It
It’s not something that I can just snap out of. It is a legitimate disorder of the brain that sometimes needs medication or therapy to manage. The brain is a part of the body that can get sick, just like your lungs or your stomach.
2. I’m Not Weak
In fact, people with any mental illness are pretty strong. It’s hard battling with your mind every day. It takes a lot of strength to hold ourselves together.
3. I’m Not Lazy
Depression can be debilitating at times. The exhaustion felt is overwhelming. Some days we can’t get off the couch, it’s not because we are lazy, it’s because we physically can’t.
4. I’m Doing My Best
I do what I can to manage my illness. Like anyone with any other illness would. There are good days and there are bad days.
5. Help Me If You Can
It’s extremely hard to ask for help for anyone with a mental illness. Don’t wait to be asked. If you see your loved one struggling, then jump in and help. Ask us what you can do to help if you don’t know what to do.
6. I Don’t Mean to Hurt You
Sometimes we need time away to recharge or regain composure. We aren’t ignoring you. Sometimes the depression and anxiety cause mood swings as the two of them battle with each other over which one is torturing me at that moment. It’s not your fault.
7. It’s Not My Parent’s Fault
This one doesn’t apply to all. Some parents can inflict trauma onto their children which can cause mental disorders to develop. However, that isn’t always the case, and should not be assumed. Some of us had wonderful parents and still ended up with a mental illness.
8. Don’t Feel Bad For Me
We don’t need your pity. We don’t need your sympathy. What we do need is understanding and empathy.
9. I Am More Than My Anxiety and Depression
There is more to us than our mental illness. We have full personalities that have nothing to do with it. We have thoughts and feelings that aren’t associated with our mental illness. I can be legitimately upset for a real reason, and it shouldn’t be dismissed because I have depression and anxiety.
