Mental Health / Psychological Vulnerabilities
Have you ever had a time when you have felt so low that you did not want to do anything; periods when getting up in the morning was just too hard, or times when life was too difficult.
These mood changes can be so overwhelming and debilitating and yet, something stops you from seeking help!!…Why is this??
The obstacle in you seeking help may be because of the stigma attached to the label mental illness. Unfortunately, we live in a society where mental illness is often seen as an inherent deficiency; someone who is faulty; there is something wrong with them.
This is an extremely difficult period in your life where you are trying to deal with all these different moods and psychological upheavals. It affects your behaviour, your ability to focus and your capacity to work and be spontaneous. When there are people in your life who will judge you if you were to speak out and seek help, it only exacerbates the situation even further. In my experience, many people who seek help have moments of doubt, confusion and feelings of shame. These feelings precipitate you to withdraw because of the fear that you will be judged, exposed and criticised. It is often when the situation worsens, and becomes unbearable that many people will seek help again. A cyclic pattern occurs whereby you seek help, withdraw, and then attempt to seek help again.
It is the label attached to the concept of mental illness that creates the stigma. If we were to change our perception of mental illness, we might find that we are far more likely to reach for help just the same as if we sort help for a stomach ache.
In recent years, we are becoming more and more accepting that environmental factors play an important part in the development of mental illness.
Mental illness is caused by an imbalance of chemicals known as neurotransmitters.