恳请各位不要再说他们的精神疾病是假装的

Please don't say that their mental illness is fake

 

故事来源:一位来自波士顿的18岁女孩 | 18 YEARS OLD - FROM BOSTON MA

CW: SUICIDAL IDEATION

Thinking about it, no one will ever believe that I am suffering from moderate depression and anxiety since I always look so outgoing.

I started having symptoms in high school, but was only diagnosed after the first semester in university when everything went downhill. Knowing the results, I was afraid, scared, I wanted to isolate myself from others since people are going to think I am a weirdo and hate me if they knew that I have a mental illness. That’s the reality, people act nice in front of you but they talk in your back about you faking your mental illness to obtain the attention of other individuals. During the first semester of university, I had problems with my roommate.

I told my friends “Life is so hard and sometimes I just feel like I should die.”

They responded: “Everyone’s life is hard, you’re not the only one. Why are you so pessimistic? Stop acting like you are the only one suffering from these small issues that isn’t important just because you have depression.”

There are still some stereotypical individuals that do not understand people with mental illness. They mimic and make fun of those individuals. But they do not know how much effort those individuals put in to be a normal person. Overcoming the side effects of the antidepressants, holding all emotions by themselves to not alter the atmosphere when they are chatting. They act like a normal person so that you wouldn’t notice anything different in them.

So please don’t say that their mental illness is fake.

回想起来,没有人会相信我患有中度抑郁症和焦虑症,因为我看起来总是显得那么外向。

我从高中就开始出现症状,但直到大学的第一个学期后,一切都走下坡路才确诊。当我知道了结果后,我感到很害怕,我想把自己与其他人隔离开来,因为他们会认为我是一个怪人。如果他们知道我患有精神疾病,他们就会讨厌我。事实就是如此,人们在你面前显得很友善,但却在你的背后谈论你是在装作自己有精神疾病,以引起其他人的注意。

在大学的第一学期,我和室友有过矛盾。

我告诉我的朋友说:“生活好艰难,有时侯我觉得自己不应该活在这个世界上。”

他们回答我说:“每个人的生活都很艰辛,你不是唯一的人,你为什么这么悲观?别因为你患有忧郁症,而表现得你像是唯一一个遭受这些并不重要的小问题的人。” 

至今还有一些抱有成见的人,他们不了解精神疾病患者,他们模仿并取笑那些人。但他们不知道精神疾病患者为了成为正常人付出了多少努力,比如克服抗抑郁药的副作用和在聊天的时候克制自己所有的情绪以避免影响谈话的气氛。他们尽量让自己的行为表现得像普通人一样,因此你不会注意到他们的任何不同之处。

因此,恳请各位不要再说他们的精神疾病是假装的。

Photo credit: jcomp / Freepik