suffering

To be sure, having a mental illness means suffering. There’s no getting around it. However, it is worth noting that those who live with severe and persistent mental health challenges do not suffer in vain. I suppose this perspective depends a lot on one’s spiritual beliefs and one’s take on the notion of service to others. When we use our suffering to reach and free others from the misconception that we are victims of our illness we give meaning to it.

It has a purpose. It strengthens us and transforms us into heroes really. We save ourselves and others from soul crushing sadness and despair. The suffering we endure and survive is a measure of our personal power of perseverance. We survive it, learn to manage it, overcome it, and thrive in it.

People who live with serious and persistent mental illness suffer stigma, side effects of psych meds and of course the symptoms of their mental health challenges. The stigma comes from ignorance and fear. It doesn’t help that the media portrays us as violent, unstable and unreachable. The fact is, we are no more likely than persons without mental illness to commit violent crimes. In fact we are more likely to be the victims of crime. We suffer from being misunderstood and inaccurately categorized.

We suffer the debilitating side effects of the medications we use to manage our symptoms. We suffer the inevitable comorbidities that come with the side effects, like obesity, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, sleep apnea and so forth. And of course we suffer from our symptoms, such as auditory hallucinations, mood swings, paranoia, delusions, etc.

However, there is meaning in our suffering because we survive it and thrive. When we are able to live a life of our choosing we model survival for others. We instill hope in the hopeless and often bring others back from the brink of despair. We become an example of what is possible. We don’t have to live a life of martyrdom. We don’t have to have tragic ends. We can and do thrive.