As paramedics we see a lot of mental illness. From depression and anxiety to personality disorders and schizophrenia.
The worst part is that there is a large stigma attached to mental illness, leading to people either not seeking help or becoming ostracised by the treatment they receive from others.
The fact of the matter is this: we all have a little mental illness in all of us.
We’re all bi-polar. We all suffer depression and anxiety. We all suffer from schizophrenia. The difference is in the degree.
You may think me mad, but the more people subscribe to this ideal the better off we’ll all be.
Let me defend myself.
Take bi-polar for instance. Sufferers fluctuate severely in their moods. From the highs of mania. Living the high life, spending money, full of amazing ideas. To then crash into the pits of depression. Reclusive, often suicidal.
In my mind I see it like the sine wave, you remember year 10 maths? Like a wave with peaks and troughs.
The only difference between the “normal” folk and those with bi-polar is that the sine wave is bigger. There’s a 3 metre swell instead of a 2 foot crappy day at the beach.
Depression and anxiety. Same thing. Their troughs sink lower than yours.
Schizophrenia. The filters in sufferers brains aren’t cranked up like yours and mine. Things that are suppressed by your brain, like your paranoid feelings, delusions and hallucinations, leak through in sufferers. We all, at times, see things that just aren’t there. That “something” in the corner of your vision perhaps. We all have paranoid feelings. And you’re kidding yourself if you’ve never deluded yourself.
We’re all the same. You, me and humanity.
Don’t have sympathy. Have some empathy. Sufferers just have a severe case of normal.
Please visit:
Beyond Blue
