Common Misconceptions

People with mental health conditions are often seeing as being "weak". This view is completely false, people who suffer from mental ill health are just required to be STRONGER than others.

With mental health conditions such as depression it is often assumed that sufferers are a "downer" or are "sad all the time". Despite there being days where as a sufferer you can't get out of bed, there will also be lots of times when you are HAPPY, having a great time and IN THE MOOD FOR A LAUGH.

When it comes to eating disorders, a lot of people assume that they are just "doing it for attention" or that they are just "vain" or "self-obsessed". The truth is that people suffering from an eating disorder genuinely CANT SEE WHAT YOU SEE and most of the time aren't even aware of the situation they are in. 

In the western world we are very lucky to live the lives we do and so when people have mental health conditions it's not uncommon to hear people ask "how can you complain? There are people much worse off than you". The truth is if we lived in abject poverty then mental health conditions wouldn't exist because our brains would be focussing on how to survive. It's because we live in such a privileged country that our brains have survival taken care of and therefore have space to explore our EMOTIONAL RESPONSES.

People with anxiety disorders are often completely overlooked. People just assume that it can be solved with a simple "don't stress about it" or "why don't you just not worry? It's not that big a deal". They don't understand that anxiety can TAKE OVER and if you suffer from an anxiety disorder it can become PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE for you to learn how to relax and take simple things in your stride as you are constantly worrying about what could go wrong in the future.

It is often assumed that OCD is just a disease that makes you need to have everything "clean and tidy". In actuality it can come in MANY FORMS and often sufferers don't even realise they have a problem or the extent of which it RESTRICTS their life. As with anxiety, when it comes to obsessive compulsions people seem to think you could just "not do it anymore". In truth, people with this condition often realise that their compulsions are irrational but they PHYSICALLY CAN"T make themselves do anything different as their brain tells them that something big will go wrong if they can't CONTROL THE LITTLE THINGS.