Dear Friend,
You’ve often said to me that nobody is normal and we all have our problems. I completely agree — and I appreciate your efforts of trying to make me feel acceptable — but I think that perhaps you don’t really understand.
It’s true that everyone has their issues; we’ve all experienced traumas; we’re all broken. What we share in common are our human natures and the whole range of human emotions. What we are less likely to share in common — diagnosed or not — is mental illness.
Someone who is sad may say they’re depressed when they have no clue what real depression is like. It is not sadness — it’s worse.
Someone who is particular might say they’re OCD about something when they have no real understanding of the brutality of the disorder. In its most destructive form, OCD is oppressive and relentless.
You lack motivation? Sure, everyone does but do you know that tight grip of depression that feels like 20kgs of weight strapped to your feet? You can’t move, no matter how hard you try.
Someone who is feeling stressed from having too much on their plate may not truly know what real sensory overwhelm feels like — that state where your anxious mind meets a barrage of overbearing stimulants. The result is internal chaos.
You say you feel anxious. Everyone experiences anxiety — true — but not everyone understands the extreme stress response that comes in the form of a panic attack. It is truly awful and can be extremely hard to prevent, even after all your best efforts.
Someone whose brain has checked out for the day due to busyness, may not know what real dissociation feels like — that state in which you lose all sense of yourself. In fact, you don’t even know you’ve ‘left’ and so have no idea when you’ll be ‘back’.
Someone who feels lonely for a spell maybe doesn’t understand the feelings of abandonment and despair that you have to deal with as a person with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
These examples are just a few of the ‘not so ordinary’ issues I — and many others — have to deal with, on a regular basis.Whilst BPD, depression and anxiety don’t define who I am, they follow me everywhere. They are more than mere labels, simply because I have to live with them day in and day out. Relief is hard to get.
BPD, depression and anxiety — like all mental illnesses — are serious and can’t be equated with all manner of human nature and human experience. (Did you know that the most common reason why people engage in self-harm or attempt suicide is to escape unbearable emotional pain?)
So sure, no one is normal. Normal doesn’t exist. But one person’s ‘not normal’ is different to another person’s ‘not normal’. And mental illness is the most debilitating ‘not normal’ out there.
So now that you understand the difference between the things we share in common as humans and a few of the symptoms of mental illness, dear friend, please stop comparing me to everyone else and telling me that my suffering is no different.
Perhaps you will never fully understand, and that’s okay, but I’d really appreciate it if you continue to try and as you try, be careful not to dismiss the gravity of mental illness.
Love Jodie x
