Time to talk adverts

Wow where did that come from? X

I agree there is such a stigma against mental illness not enough funding and poor education. I went to the Tesco pharmacy to get my meds as a one off and the pharmacist tried to discuss my problems Infront of everyone! She said to me 'if you need to talk come back I've done a lot of research on anxiety and depression and I like to think it's my expert field. I'm not a case study it angered me. Xx

Unfortunately you cannot educate people in general and neither can they be expected to understand something they have not experienced. There is nothing to see! Even many in the medical profession do not understand. Advertising of all sorts is something we have to live with; but we do not have to pay attention to it.

Many people do their best to empathise with anyone suffering mental health problems; that is a human response, one which we should not rebuff even though at times it is very clear that the empathiser has no idea about the problem. Yes, we can try to help others to understand but we cannot expect them to really understand unless they also suffer at some time.

There is a similar problem regarding autism (something I happen to know a lot about). This is a condition that in most cases goes against our normal reasoning.  Other people try to reason through it and fail because the condition is so very difficult to understand. My belief is that unless one lives close to a person with such a condition, every day, then it is almost impossible to understand it. This is another example where empathy, however well intentioned, can fail to help.

Yes I agree to some of what you're saying. You can't see mental health issues and the phrase "yes I know what you mean, and know where you're coming from" drives me mad. How can people know what you're going through when they've not experienced depression/anxiety themselves. There is such a stigma attached to mental health problems and people don't know what to say. They say nothing, they put it away and brush it under the carpet in the hope that it'll go away, like something nasty. There needs to be a lot more done to try and get rid of this stigma

Yeah, people who don't have depression don't understand what you are going through; and it's not their fault.  They don't know what to say, so it may come off as patronizing to us.  I try not to talk about my depression to regular people because it puts them in an awkward state of "trying to make me feel better" and it doesn't work anyways.  I only talk to people who love me (even if they don't understand, they are sympathetic), therapists or these forums.