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People often misuse words like depression and ADD. Sure you might be having a bad day, but are you really depressed? Likewise, you might sometimes struggle to concentrate, especially if you're doing something boring, but does that really mean you've got Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)? We all have our little quirks and idiosyncrasies, but does that make us all Obsessive Compulsives? In order to differentiate between what people say about mental illness and what mental illness actually feels like for those who suffer from it, Annie Erskine has created these five useful comics for College Humor.
More info: Annie Erskine (h/t: CollegeHumor)
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Amanda Panda 8 years ago
Or being the first to finish a test in class, but waiting as long as you can to go and put it on the teachers desk because you don't want to walk to the front of the class and everyone stare at you.
Karen Louise 8 years ago
I am diagnosed with social anxiety...I am afraid to go to stores, miss family events, weddings, funerals. Panic at thoughts of leaving home
Karen Louise 8 years ago
And sometimes I don't leave the house for months.
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Irish Panda 8 years ago
Jeez, I'd have a touch of this, but didn't know there was a name for it. Thought I was just being a bit 'odd'.
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#2
Maciek Ravs 8 years ago
Great post. Can be used for education. There is common misconception about depression and when people really start to have depression they can't associate the symptoms with depression, because they don't know real symptoms of depression. This is big issue, because these people can suffer without help for months or years. You could made even more pictures and show different symptoms of depression and help more people.
Isabelle La Vosgienne 8 years ago
""Why am I alive" is something I wonder everyday. Just after "f*ck, I didn't die during sleep."
Hans 8 years ago
Correct me if I am wrong, by "being depressed" is a negative stake of mind, whereas a "depression" is an illness, that includes to be permanently depressed, isn't it? Thus, we might still consider whether we are depressed if we are slightly unhappy, but technically the verb does not equal the noun in severity of meaning.
Maciek Ravs 8 years ago
No sorry, you are temporary sad not depressed. That is the point. You don't want to kill your self, you don't have panic attacks, can't sleep, you are not sad for whole year around. Please not only don't use it that way, but would be great help for you and others which you care about to learn the real symptoms of depression, so you can provide help for yourself or others if you see these symptoms. Going through depression without recognizing it and proper help is very painful.
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Flora Polvado 8 years ago
I understand. But, to be clear, there is a difference between being sad (temporary, with a clear reason) and being depressed (long term, no
Load More Replies... #3
Vanessa 8 years ago
Had this problem too, but I and my parents thought I was just lazy :( I wish I could go in the past and get some help
Amanda Panda 8 years ago
Reading the same line over and over. Also, when I clean my apartment, i get distracted by everything and start playing with stuff rather than cleaning.
Atle Sundqvist 8 years ago
this is so true my parents have to come over once a week to help me clean my apartment even though i have lived in my own apartment for almost 3 years
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Kaiden Coughlin 8 years ago
I have the severe level of ADHD.... this doesn't even begin to explain the reality of it
Atle Sundqvist 8 years ago
yeah i too have severe ADHD and get annoyed at people who just are energetic saying they have ADHD
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Atle Sundqvist 8 years ago
ADHD is like this except you can be still your always doing something
Tamar Shugert 8 years ago
Its more like waking up from a dream and realizing you just missed life.
Sylvia Ann 8 years ago
One word you do not understand and then it is the most important word in the book
#4
Ged Maybury 8 years ago
Good stuff here. I can officially relate to some of them. (And few people even know what's going on inside)
Stephanie Soon 8 years ago
Can relate. I bought a pair of boots for $350 and they're at least one size too big. But I decided I had to have them and they were the last pair. Also went through a few months of getting by on 2-3hrs sleep a night. Also wanted to abandon my career because of crushing self doubt and then there was the time I really wanted to start a waffle business in my courtyard.
Jenny Rose 8 years ago
This is definitely me. The worst is when people say, "Ugh, the weather is so bipolar!" Like, does the weather struggle with long stretches of depression and a week or two of wildly racing thoughts and impulsive behavior? I don't think so!
Pi... 8 years ago
If this is bipolar disorder, I should have myself screened. :(. I'm guilt-ridden about every small thing...
Tracey Martens 8 years ago
It's so much more than false guilt. Google the symptoms before you ask your doctor, and pray you NEVER hear the diagnosis in your life <3 .
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#5
Amanda Panda 8 years ago
It's annoying how people often mistake clean freaks with OCD. They are not always related.
Lilya 8 years ago
Oh, my dad confuses clean freaks with OCD, and I'm a clean freak, think about irrational things and they make me sad, does that make me OCD?
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Meagan Mchugh 8 years ago
My parents always tried to self diagnose me with OCD because I had a bad habit of pulling tags off of pillows and peeling paint off of walls and pulling loose threads. I would very often get offended and they would tell me I was arguing and debating them. And this confirms I was right.
Tracey Martens 8 years ago
He's turning the light off and on as part of his OCD ritual.
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What do you think ?
Max Soull 8 years ago
People who suffer from depression sometimes only have a game or a show that helps them have some baseline of sanity, so ironically a show being cancelled for a depressed person might actually be a devestating blow to their state of mind
Astrid Almar 8 years ago
This is true! I'm currently re-watching Bones. It's kinda like it's the only thing that makes sense in a senseless world.
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Ágata Câmara 8 years ago
Why do they never mention borderline personality disorder, in these kind of posts?
Firework 5 years ago (edited)
This is about times when people use mental illness words for their dumb things, and people don't really do that for bpd. I saw a post about mental illnesses as monsters, and that has bpd.
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Katalin Karácsony 8 years ago
Is that really bad if I act like the second person in the 1., 2, 3, and 4, picture but i dont think that I would have any illness?
Leandra Pispieiro 8 years ago
Katalin, I think it means that THAT´S their hole lifes not just a month... or a week or a day...
Load More Replies...
Emily Softley 8 years ago
For me the main way articles like this help is to open discussion. I have several of these illnesses, but also make comments similar to those above. I don't think shaming people, or trying to make them feel guilty is going to help. The problem comes from the stigma surrounding them, and the only way to break that down is through talking, explaining and understanding. As hard as it is, we need to talk about the suffering we feel. Why and how it effects us, and how to be best understood and helped.
Rhon 8 years ago
Mental I'll health is a very misunderstood issue. Some people spiral, some erupt, some people hide it, some can't but know this it's very real!!! We all say thing in the wrong context at times. Things like "I died laughing about...." or "I was killing my self laughing" or "I'm dying to see....." or "I would kill to have hair like that" all these things and many more, seem like harmless expressions but to someone listening it can be devistating. It can instantly bring horrifying thoughts to mind. Someone with a mental illness don't always have the time to reason things up before the bad stuff hits. My daughter has quite bad depression and I work at a PND clinic.
Tim Aucoin 8 years ago
I just recently found out I have ADD, which can go hand in hand with depression. These are pretty accurate.
Amanda Tomas 8 years ago
These are so true. Shows why mental illnesses are no longer taken so seriously.
Raini Way 8 years ago
You should do one for "trigger warnings" and PTSD in general. For example, certain politicians think they can get PTSD from a simple pop gun that a little girl plays with. They have no idea what it's like inside the mind of a soldier who just returned from the front lines of combat.
Dana Gavin 8 years ago
It's wonderful to read comments here where people feel like people who have diagnosed mental illness aren't stigmatized or being to told to bootstrap it up. I'm glad to read that mentally ill people are able to express to others that they are so lethargic and having such suicidal ideations that they can't get out of bed, and that admission is treated consistently with personal and professional sympathy. It's always funny to joke that when you moody that you are just bipolar, but I had no idea how easy it is to explain bipolar I or II to people that it's just a "little" more than a difficulty to just commit to a feeling! I'm so glad that this group of people commenting here have such a world of experience with everyone's mental health experience can realize and share with us that it's just us silly snowflakes who are too sensitive, given that the world basically hands us every medical and social understanding.
Talia Johnson 8 years ago
I feel that there is a lot of judgement about who does and doesn't have real mental illness and who has the right to comment on it. Please remember that no-one can know how another individual is really feeling. So judging someone's 'level' of mental illness from the outside seems a bit of a pointless endeavor. We all experience things in different ways, and what is depression to one may appear mild to someone else suffering from depression, but they don't know how that person is experiencing it inside. In summary, the kinder and less judgy we can be, the better it will be for everyone, I think.
Load More Replies... Max Soull 8 years ago
People who suffer from depression sometimes only have a game or a show that helps them have some baseline of sanity, so ironically a show being cancelled for a depressed person might actually be a devestating blow to their state of mind
Astrid Almar 8 years ago
This is true! I'm currently re-watching Bones. It's kinda like it's the only thing that makes sense in a senseless world.
Load More Replies... Ágata Câmara 8 years ago
Why do they never mention borderline personality disorder, in these kind of posts?
Firework 5 years ago (edited)
This is about times when people use mental illness words for their dumb things, and people don't really do that for bpd. I saw a post about mental illnesses as monsters, and that has bpd.
Load More Replies... Katalin Karácsony 8 years ago
Is that really bad if I act like the second person in the 1., 2, 3, and 4, picture but i dont think that I would have any illness?
Leandra Pispieiro 8 years ago
Katalin, I think it means that THAT´S their hole lifes not just a month... or a week or a day...
Load More Replies... Emily Softley 8 years ago
For me the main way articles like this help is to open discussion. I have several of these illnesses, but also make comments similar to those above. I don't think shaming people, or trying to make them feel guilty is going to help. The problem comes from the stigma surrounding them, and the only way to break that down is through talking, explaining and understanding. As hard as it is, we need to talk about the suffering we feel. Why and how it effects us, and how to be best understood and helped.
Rhon 8 years ago
Mental I'll health is a very misunderstood issue. Some people spiral, some erupt, some people hide it, some can't but know this it's very real!!! We all say thing in the wrong context at times. Things like "I died laughing about...." or "I was killing my self laughing" or "I'm dying to see....." or "I would kill to have hair like that" all these things and many more, seem like harmless expressions but to someone listening it can be devistating. It can instantly bring horrifying thoughts to mind. Someone with a mental illness don't always have the time to reason things up before the bad stuff hits. My daughter has quite bad depression and I work at a PND clinic.
Tim Aucoin 8 years ago
I just recently found out I have ADD, which can go hand in hand with depression. These are pretty accurate.
Amanda Tomas 8 years ago
These are so true. Shows why mental illnesses are no longer taken so seriously.
Raini Way 8 years ago
You should do one for "trigger warnings" and PTSD in general. For example, certain politicians think they can get PTSD from a simple pop gun that a little girl plays with. They have no idea what it's like inside the mind of a soldier who just returned from the front lines of combat.
Dana Gavin 8 years ago
It's wonderful to read comments here where people feel like people who have diagnosed mental illness aren't stigmatized or being to told to bootstrap it up. I'm glad to read that mentally ill people are able to express to others that they are so lethargic and having such suicidal ideations that they can't get out of bed, and that admission is treated consistently with personal and professional sympathy. It's always funny to joke that when you moody that you are just bipolar, but I had no idea how easy it is to explain bipolar I or II to people that it's just a "little" more than a difficulty to just commit to a feeling! I'm so glad that this group of people commenting here have such a world of experience with everyone's mental health experience can realize and share with us that it's just us silly snowflakes who are too sensitive, given that the world basically hands us every medical and social understanding.
Talia Johnson 8 years ago
I feel that there is a lot of judgement about who does and doesn't have real mental illness and who has the right to comment on it. Please remember that no-one can know how another individual is really feeling. So judging someone's 'level' of mental illness from the outside seems a bit of a pointless endeavor. We all experience things in different ways, and what is depression to one may appear mild to someone else suffering from depression, but they don't know how that person is experiencing it inside. In summary, the kinder and less judgy we can be, the better it will be for everyone, I think.
Load More Replies...
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