A real illness

I learned a lot of interesting facts in my Mental Health First Aid course. Some of it is helping me realize that blaming myself for my illness is unnecessary guilt. Who knew that in my effort to help other people I may actually be helping myself.

Here are some of the excerpts from my class book that are truly eye opening:

"Medical experts rate mental disorders among the most disabling illnesses. Often the illness leads to premature death. Disability is the disruption a health problem causes to a person's ability to work, care for himself/herself, and carry on relationships. Because disability caused by mental disorders may not be visible to others, people with mental disorders can be negatively judged as not really ill. It helps to understand the degree of disability that mental disorders can cause by comparing it to physical illness.

1. The disability caused by moderate depression is similiar to the impact from relapsing multiple sclerosis or chronic hepaptis B.

2. The disability from posttraumatic stress disorder is comparable to the disability from paraplegia."

In my class, one of our exercises was to rate various illnesses in order of how disabling it was. It was a shocker how high mental disorders were on the list.

Remembering these facts helps me to remove the feeling of failure and try to be gentle with myself.

Just wanted to share this.