i am manic-depressive(bipolar) and have been diagnosed with high anxiety and at one time paranoiac schizophrenia. school used to be really hard for me and people would treat me differently because of the way i acted, even though i couldn't really help it at the time. i heard voices and had extreme mood swings and i used to climb under the desks and bang my head on the floor or bang and throw things in the classroom and cry and scream. people never asked me what was wrong or took the time to understand me. i ended up an outcast with no friends and people would call me a retard or a freak in the hallways and throw things at me. i always felt so alone because i would leave school for weeks on end because of being hospitalized in mental institutions, but no one would ever ask were i was or if i was okay.

i think that people don't really understand mental illness or what it does to people. has anyone ever been diagnosed with a mental or emotional illness? what is it and how do you deal? did people treat you differently for the way you were (or are right now)?

kisses and blesses,
e.k.

just one question (and im not trying to be snotty or anything), but if you thik that they know what their talking about, why would someone diagnose you with bipolar disorder when you know that you don't have it. i don't know if i said that they don't know what they are talking about....uhhh, i think what i meant was they don't really listen and therefore make wrong diagnoses' and just give drugs cause they don't really want to have to sit there and listen and have to help someone. some of them become counselors and such because they have been through similar things and want to help and i was lucky to find one like that that stuck with me for three years and she was quicker to listen to my problems than to perscribe meds. but some of them don't really care much for anything about it but the money. hmm...i am tired...forgetting where this is going...well, maybe i'll remember later.
kisses and blesses,
e.k.

I was "diagnosed" with "bi-polar" but i know i dont have it. I refused to take the medication and they didnt force me. I think that is proof enough that at least in my case they are just rying to diagnose whatever they can make money off and arent paying any attention to what is really going on.
Also, on the note of counslers not knowing "what your going through" and things like that. They do know. They have studied it for years and also most of the ones I have seen had troubled earlier lifes with things like drugs, sex, violence, playing key roles. So i think that they do know what people are saying but they also want money which leads them to not really listen/care.

I would suggest hitting rock bottom and bouncing back opposed to counsling. heh.

My friend and i are trying to get our school to be more aware. Kids are age are so full of sterotypes- about people who are "crazy" and so on. A lot of people think mental illness is made up. We were at Sheinken one Friday. This is at Tel Aviv, so Sheinkin at Friday is a mess. Everyone comes to shop and voluenters and so on take advantage of that and try to reach as many people as possible. So someone handed up a pamplet. It took me about an hour until I read it- but i twas against the "drugs, the medicine. It said ADHD and other mental illnesses- OCD, depression and schizopheria were on their list- as not having scientfic proof. It made me really mad. We looked for them and started argueing with them.
Why did I start this? Never mind then...
But, yeah. I've got clincal depression and ADD.

I have clinical depression, generalized anxiety disorder, and obsessive compulsive disorder.
In the beginning things were really hard, but now I'm on the right meds and at a school that's really helping me
Things are still hard, but I'm working through my issues.

I also have a friend with tourettes syndrom, and a friend with bipolar(she can get pretty crazy but i luv her )

because i don't have one. my uncle is skitsophrenic(sp?) and its made an impact on me just because i used to go to my grandparent's house (he lives with them because he can't take care of himself) a lot. he's always secluded, and he takes a lot of meds. he also eats with his head about two inches from his plate. i know that its hard for him, and its really hard for my family too. he has two brothers and two sisters (one of them is my mom), and its hard for him to relate to them and stay out of his room and talk with us when we're there. its also hard for his siblings...and the rest of my family to keep their patience with him.

I was diagnosed at the age of 13. When I was first diagnosed I was dealing with all the teen drama bull**** and thought that I needed the meds they were giving me to be "Normal". Now that I am a lil bit older I realize that I could handle on muh own with the help of family and close friends.

I tell you what we should do is make our doctors try the meds first and then let them prescribe them to us. Good god some of them have wacked out side effects, who wants to take a pill for your andger management that is going to make you pee a lot poop like crazy and then make you go limp when you are makin love. It is just crazy, I would rather just snap and woop a little butt.

i agree with you about the meds thing...most meds that i have been put on have either left me lethargic and "vegetable-like" and others have left me with uncontrollable shakes and twitches...the way i feel about the medication thing is that, yah, it might work for some people that have mental illnesses because of inbalances of chemicals in the brain, but some people, like people who deal with depression and anxiety, can find answers within themselves if they try really hard, because i think that most meds like prozac and zoloft are just to delay the situation and make you feel better without really confronting your issues. i don't agree with the psychiatrists that meet a patient, diagnose, and hand out drugs as according to the symptom. a lot of the doctors i have dealt with never really asked why i felt the way i felt or if anything had ever happened to me, and some of them didn't even ask me to talk about what i was going through(really not very much help at all). they just wanted to know my symptoms so they could give me drugs...for me talking to real friends and people that care about me helps a lot more than the doctors and the drugs, and it helps me to WANT to help myself and not have to realy on meds. anyway, i don't know....there's my two cents about that ...
kisses and blessings, e.k.

The answers to your questions are yes and yes. I think one of the main reasons people dont talk about mental illness is that there is no hard evidence on how to stop it. There are medications that can turn you into a vegetable and even meds that can help you control it but the human brain is just know starting to be probed and tested because of its great complexities. Also people are just now starting to accept psychology as a field and not a waste of time.