Tuesday, February 14, 2012

One more thing that annoys me...

People posting this statement on Facebook:


"Depression, anxiety and panic attacks are NOT a sign of weakness.


They are signs of having tried to remain strong for too long. Did you know that


1 in 3 of us go through this at some point in our lives? Would you post this on your


wall for at least one day? Most people won't but it's Mental Health Awareness Week.


Share the support! Let those who struggle know they're not alone."





First of all, I've seen this posted many times over the past couple of months. Is it actually


Mental Health Awareness Week? Nope.





When I googled Mental Health Awareness Week - this is the site I found:


http://www.uwindsor.ca/mentalhealth/





So it was Mental Health Awareness Week at a the University of Windsor from January 16-20th.





I also found this:


http://miaw.ca/en/campaign/overview.aspx





From that site it says -Mental Illness Awareness Week is September 30 - October 6, 2012.


That one seems like the National site for this.








As someone who has struggled with Depression off and on since I was 18, I find it very frustrating to see that I "tried to remain strong for too long". This is not true!


I had a chemical imbalance in my brain that led me to become depressed. There are factors that triggered it. But that is not always the case.


Mental Illness is a real illness. It is the same as being diagnosed with diabetes or any other disease. It's just not as straight forward to treat or diagnose. It can come and go. Medication does help. And taking it does not make you a weak person.








I really hate the attitude that I tried to stay strong for too long and then basically gave in and let myself become depressed or had a panic attack.





There really is no way to completely understand mental illness unless you've experienced it.But you can learn more about it. And simply putting a status like that up on Facebook doesn't do a whole lot of good.

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