Special Treatment

Although we all have bad experiences, when you’re suffering from depression or another mental illness you do not have the same ability to deal with them. Although most people would find getting a bad grade upsetting, for somebody with a mental illness this could trigger a complete breakdown. Although most students don’t like going to school, for somebody with a mental illness this can seem impossible, resulting in panic attacks, fits of tears or the inability to get out of bed. Although being made redundant is extremely stressful most people without a mental illness can process that it isn’t worth taking their own life.

Also, when you have a mental illness, things which may seem very small to other people can seem enormous. Losing your favourite jacket. Realising that your drink wasn’t diet. Having to respond to an email. I used to burst into tears every time I dropped a pen.

I think that sometimes people find it difficult to recognise the true existence and struggle of mental illnesses because they think they have had a harder life, with more problems or more significant problems. Or perhaps they think that because life is hard for everybody, nobody should be given ‘special treatment’. But it isn’t necessarily to do with what a person has been through, it is the ability to cope with it.

And it’s not like anybody wants this type of ‘special treatment’. People take antidepressants because they need help with increasing their serotonin levels so that they can function. This is similar to how people with diabetes take insulin. In fact, this is similar to how everyone needs to eat food because our bodies don’t naturally photosynthesize energy on their own.

If your body produces these chemicals correctly then you do not need this ‘special treatment’. If somebody didn’t complete their assignment because they were at a party or simply lazy (we all have our moments) they shouldn’t get an extension. They may want and need one but this resulted from a mistake, not an illness but if you had a mental breakdown, if you were so mentally exhausted that you couldn’t get out of bed to eat or shower never mind write an essay or go to class, you do deserve an extension. If somebody didn’t go to work because they simply didn’t want to, they don’t really need time off but if you are so anxious that you’re having panic attacks, your body is forming ulcers and you cannot sleep, then you deserve a leave of absence.

Trust me, nobody with a mental illness wants their mental illness. It is an illness, after all. These ‘special treatments’ aren’t ‘rewards’ or ‘advantages’, they’re necessary for getting through the day. They aren’t giving people a head start in life, they are placing them on the same level.


“Happiness is not the absence of problems, it’s the ability to deal with them.” — Steve Maraboli

Follow

If you liked this post, you may also like my post, 'The Symptom We Rarely Talk About'.