>It’s true kids. On a recent survey, at least 7 of my friends have been one of the following:
a) Hospitalised for mental problems
b) On medication for a mental illness
c) In search of professional help for mental illness
If I say I have 21 close friends that represents a third of my friendship group being mentally unstable. That seems a shockingly high proportion.
Now, I’m steering clear of the theory that I AM the cause of their mental instability and that’s the reason so many people I know have problems.
Why is this the case? Could it be that admitting mental instability is more acceptable in our society? Could it be that the pressures of modern life mean that more people are developing various mental illnesses?
There are, thankfully, many options for those who are suffering but I think that more help could be given to those who have to deal with these kinds of people. Now there are a few publications out there designed for families and friends of the mentally unstable BUT not enough I feel.
I also find it strange that being round the mentally unstable can bring people down. If you took, say someone who was depressed and put them in a room full of happy people, they would probably become more depressed. They certainly wouldn’t conquer their depression just by being around non-depressed people. However, the reverse isn’t the same. Put someone who is not suffering from depression and they will undoubtedly become depressed over a long period of contact. There is a lot of research about the efficacy of institutions such as mental hospitals etc where people are “lumped together”. Certainly my own experience with friends who have been institutionalised seems to agree, being in an environment of mental instability did not help them become more mentally stable (the drugs worked though and it relieved the families as well… so not all bad).
Either way, I do find it very draining to have to deal with the mentally unstable. I could never be a doctor or psychiatrist/counsellor. Even so, the fact is that it IS draining and somewhere down the line I might need support or help in having to deal with them. Not having the support may make me mentally unstable and that’s worrying, and worrying makes it more likely that I’ll become mentally unstable.
I’m now thinking that humans may well be hard wired to be mental.
xanderhough 
November 30, 2005 at 9:59 pm |
>There are support groups for carers and families of alcoholics, but that’s more geared towards people who are around the mentally unstable/ill/otherwise troubled on a regular basis.And yeah, I know what you mean. First of all, speaking as one of those seven people who are bonkers, we *do* realise how much strain we’re putting on the people around us – it’s just that we’re in the grip of something so overwhelming that we can’t stop. We feel immensely guilty, which makes us feel like crap about ourselves, which exacerbates the problem, and the cycle continues.Secondly, I can testify, having lived with Catherine just after she lost her mother (cared for her nonstop during her illness, was present during the death, and then bore the brunt of her dysfunctional family dynamics in the year afterwards – all the while going through a major life transition of her own) that you’re absolutely right about how being around mental people will make you go insane. Notice what it did to me. (Though, to be fair, I was already in the grips of a major Axis I disorder BEFORE I moved in with the recently bereaved. That just made it worse.)I think, though, that you’re not giving enough credit to the theory that it’s actually all your fault. Makes sense to ME.
December 7, 2005 at 2:18 pm |
>Yeah but that’s a bad, bad, bad place that I really don’t want to go to!It does however beg the interesting question as to whether or not happy people (or non-mentally instable people) whom support those who are mentally unstable can actually make the mentally unstable worse.Xander