Why mental illness needs to be taken seriously

 This is going to be a dead-serious post about a topic that is very personal to me: Mental illness is something I believe everyone should take seriously.

First off, I'm a diagnosed autist with Aspergers who suffers from an anxiety disorder. I see a therapist regularly, take medication for it, and dearly want to minimize the limitations it places on my life. I have been deeply depressed, to the point of attempt suicide and thankfully not succeeding. I still wake up at night from nightmares of my more messed up days and I never want to be as much of a mental basket case as I was then.

With this in mind, I just want to say I despise how social media has given people the belief touting your mental disorders as a proud part of your identity is a good thing. I refuse to consider my own problems a good thing and seek every instance of being able to do something constructive about them. I do not want pity for those mental disorders, I refuse to celebrate them, and if I could live a perfectly normal life without them, I'd be grateful. Since that is not on the table, I take them seriously because I do not want to be in some of the darker places I've been.

I've been reduced to shrieking in terror at the littlest things, obsessive over the most minor of things to the point of madness, and have become as emaciated as a scarecrow and lost enough sleep my hold on reality got so bad I could ask myself if I was crazy and be scared to get an answer. Those days were horrifying and I never desire a repeat. I'm a much more mentally healthy person, albeit I still need regular therapy and medication, and I have every intention of following both as much as I do my Christian faith, which I try to remain devout in.

With that in mind, I address the readers here: If you or anyone you consider trustworthy believe you have a mental imbalance, disorder, or need mental help in any way, please keep the following in mind.

1. Nothing good can come from ignoring the problem.

2. There is no shame in getting help. If you refuse to help yourself, there is shame in any harm you cause yourself, because you had the means and power to prevent it, you just refused to do so when you could have done so.

3. Don't self-diagnose. See an actual mental health clinic and professionals. You are not competent to judge your own problems because you will naturally be biased towards yourself, and if your mental state is unbalanced, you will be even more unable to separate facts from your own opinion of yourself.

4. Go into it expecting you will need to change. Therapy is a cooperative process. You will be expected to answer in honesty and good faith about your issues, you will need to take advice and criticism of your habits and lifestyle, and you will need to remember you need to seek help for an issue beyond your own power alone.

5. It is not a one-stop cure-all. I've been in therapy for years on end now, likely will be for the foreseeable future. Mental illness does not heal like a broken arm or leg, it's much more complicated and may not ever entirely heal, but it can be treated and improved on. However, this ultimately will require your best efforts to make sure it has any impact at all on your well-being.

Beyond the above pointers, I just want to add I am NOT a mental health professional, but you should defer to them if any of my above advice conflicts with theirs.