So I may get a lot of backlash on this, but I feel like a post like this needs to be made especially in the direction our society is going with this particular topic.

I’m all for mental health having awareness, understanding, and recognition; but unfortunately I’ve noticed our society currently pushing to the extreme where it’s become more glamorized than ever before.

Of course I understand mental illness comes in varying degrees and different disorders comes with different spectrums of severity. However I notice more and more people attempting to relate anxiety disorders & depressive disorders to the same as being a little anxious here and there in a normal way and being sad or having a normal sad reaction to a situation.

There was recently an article that popped up on my phone titled “7 signs you may have high functioning anxiety”, all of the “signs” seemed to be fairly normal things that regular healthy people do or could easily just be someone’s personality. I wouldn’t necessarily say the things on the list were indicators of having an anxiety disorder unless they occurred in a degree that affected the persons ability to function or think normally.

Personally I just don’t understand the need to constantly treat every emotion or being a certain way as the same thing as having a mental health disorder.

I feel like things like this diminish an actual understanding of what it’s like to be mentally ill and struggle. Especially for more serious disorders or degrees of disorders. I think people are overall taking the mental illness topic and turning it too much into a fad.

As someone with Bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, ADHD, & Body Dysmorphic disorder. I’m tired of when Bipolar comes up the thought is “so your a little moody”, NO I have severe mood swing episodes that effect my ability to function like a human being. When anxiety comes up “oh so you get a little anxious before a test”, NO my anxiety can be crippling at times and makes it hard for me to be apart of the world. When ADHD comes up “so you have trouble focusing on something you don’t like”, NO I can’t complete tasks, can’t focus, have poor time remembering, have terrible organization skills, it takes a toll on my ability to function and work productively. When Body Dysmorphia comes up “so your just insecure”, NO I obsess constantly about a specific perceived flaw that I have that you probably don’t even notice, I obsess and over think about it and get really anxious thinking about it, my body image is self deprecating and I can’t put things in perspective.

Does anyone else feel like we’re moving too far in a direction where instead of having awareness for mental illness and understanding it we’re turning it into something that everyone has and we’re completely not understanding the difference between normal/healthy feelings and having a disorder?