What if Depression and Anxiety was normal?
Depression and anxiety conditions, like other labelled mental health conditions, continue to carry social stigma – further fuelled by the media continuing to insult the mentally ill with derogatory labels. Fun is often made of anyone who looks or behaves differently from the mythical ‘norm’. However, what if these bearers of such labels were offering us all a real gift to question society’s expectations of what is normal and how we should be living our lives?
When my clients share their life stories and the challenges and responsibilities they face in everyday life, I often ask ‘Who wouldn’t be depressed or anxious?’ Enormous stress and pressure is loaded on us to ‘have it all’ and when anyone falls under the burden, they feel inadequate believing something is wrong with them – or worse, they are ‘mentally ill’. Start asking different questions about your life and what you want. The pain of depression and anxiety can be enormous but alleviating pain to return to the norm may not be the whole story – finding out what your suffering is about is important so you deal with the cause and not the effect.
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Tags: Anxiety, Depression
Anxiety, Depression | Clare | 
November 11, 2009 7:50 pm
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