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Why are people so ignorant about suffering due to mental illness?


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I've asked non-sufferers this question and I usually get this response, "People do not understand because have no reason to understand or care."

That doesn't really answer the question.  It only seems to reaffirm how ignorant people are.  As a white person I don't have a particularly good reason to understand racially-charged police brutality-- but I still read about it and care deeply about it.  I can at least relate in some way to the injustice of it.

This brings up another question-- Do people have it so easy that they can't even relate to any type of mental suffering? I think they can only compare it to having a bad day or being "in a mood" (and we all know OCD is a bit more complicated than that).

I can think of so many examples of how people in my life have been completely clueless.  This isn't the best example but it's a recent one.  I was saying to a work acquaintance that I only got 3 hours of sleep, and says, "Oh yeah, late night down town..that's totally me every weekend.  But gotta make sure to give yourself time to sleep."  I had to explain that I give myself lots of time to sleep, but my thoughts cause me insomnia.  This blew his mind that a person might actually be unable to sleep whenever they want to.  To me this says his life has been so easy (as far as sleep is concerned) that he is completely unaware that this can be a struggle for some people.

Is this something that (ideally) should change in our society? Or should we just accept it?

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Hi, 

I think times and perspectives are slowly changing. I've noticed a difference in the general approach to OCD in daily life is that you actually hear people talking about it whereas 20 years ago when I was diagnosed I would have got a better response from people if I said I had two heads! Admittedly I had never heard of OCD either until my diagnosis.

I agree with you that there is still a huge gap between the understanding of physical and mental illness. I continue to hope it keeps improving.

I'll never accept it but hope it gets better.

J

Edited by jenny77
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