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ndelphinus:

coolinfarrell:

leviage:

me: I’m mentally ill and struggling to get the energy to do tasks that are necessary for my everyday life

a neurotypical: having you considering taking on several time consuming and tiring hobbies, such as running, getting up at 5am to do yoga, and making green smoothies with 20 ingredients every day

I hate this because I deal with mental illness and it has really helped me to exercise and eat better. I mean yeah medication is a necessity too but it’s not super time consuming to throw some shit together for a smoothie, my roommates have depression/anxiety and still make smoothies… Honestly this website is so enabling… even though I totally get that it’s difficult to get out of bed (I deal with that everyday) but I have people in my life who aren’t enablers and encourage me to change some of my daily activities for the sake of my mental health. I’m just tired of seeing posts like these circulating around because it’s not gonna help people when you’re enabling unhealthy behaviors that add to/are a product of mental illness.

So here’s the thing: illnesses come in varying degrees of severity. To use a physical example, about half my family has type 2 diabetes. We’re genetically predisposed, it’s something all of us keep an eye out for. But not everyone who has it has it in the same way. One of my aunts has a fairly mild form, as long as she watches her diet she can keep it under control. Her son, however, requires insulin injections (yes, on occasion type 2 does require injections). He watches what he eats too, but his body is just different. It doesn’t mean he’s around enablers because he can’t get by on only diet and exercise. It means his mother’s diabetes and his diabetes aren’t exactly the same.

This is also true for mental illness. Often it’s true for the same mental illness in the same person. When I was 19 and at my most depressed no amount of exercise or drinking smoothies was going to help. Trust me, I tried. There’s only so much you can do when you’re dissociating so badly you’re regularly ending up across town with no recollection of how you got there. I had a severe chemical imbalance, not unlike my cousin’s lack of insulin production. I needed medication to get me to a point where I could realistically consider things like diet and exercise. Then, sometime around my mid-20s, my brain settled down. I still have chronic depression, but it’s mild enough that I can manage it without medication. I can do my meditation and go for my run and spend time outside and that’s usually enough to keep me going. Why? Not because I got away from enablers (trust me, I’m far more supported now than I’ve ever been), but because my brain chemistry changed.

I will absolutely agree that a lot of posts on this site glorify mental illness in an unhealthy way. People (particularly young people) forget that self-care is often hard and doesn’t include sitting in week old pyjamas watching Doctor Who for 52 hours straight. But this post? This is just pointing out that adding in extra tasks most neurotypical people struggle with is a ridiculous thing to ask someone who’s already barely managing.