What NOT To Say To Someone With A Mental Illness

HealthyPlace Mental Health Newsletter

Here's what's happening on the HealthyPlace site this week:

• What NOT To Say To Someone With A Mental Illness
• "Why Some ADHD Adults Get Poor Treatment" On HealthyPlace TV
• From HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs
• Mental Health Bloggers Wanted

What NOT To Say To Someone With A Mental Illness

I recently read a story about a suicide jumper, a man who leaped from a tall building and landed on a woman's car below . . . and survived. Upon learning about her totaled car, here's what the woman had to say:

I want to meet [Tom Magill] and say, 'Why? Why my car out of all the cars in the city?'

There's no accounting for a selfish comment like this. However, ironically, the very day that story appeared, Kate White, author of the Treating Anxiety blog, wrote a post on Stigma Busting: Things Not to Say to Anxious People. And it got me thinking that sometimes people say things, not to be purposefully cruel, but unintentionally, out of ignorance. These comments, however, still hurt and trivialize what the person with depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, OCD or other mental illness is going through. (Read: Stop Minimizing Mental Illness: Worst Things to Say - Breaking Bipolar blog)

Then, there are others who just don't know what to say to someone with a mental illness. They are totally out of their comfort zone and so they blurt something out.

You may know some people in the above categories who don't know what to say. The lists below on what and what not to say really apply to almost all types of mental illnesses. The important take-away from these lists is to be sensitive to what others are experiencing and how your words might impact them. Feel free to share them with others.

• Best and Worst Things to Say to Someone Who is Depressed
• Worst Things to Say to a Person With Bipolar Disorder
• Best Things to Say to a Person With Bipolar Disorder
• Eating Disorders Rules of Support: What and What NOT to Say

"Why Some ADHD Adults Get Poor Treatment" On HealthyPlace TV

As an adult with ADHD, when you visit a licensed medical or mental health professional, you expect to get someone who knows how to properly diagnose and treat your adult ADHD, or at the very least will refer you to someone who can. Unfortunately, our guest says, there are many professionals who don't have a clue, but act like they do. That's on this week's HealthyPlace Mental Health TV Show.

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Watch the interview with our guest, Gina Pera, author of Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.?, currently featured on the HealthyPlace Mental Health TV Show.

• Adult ADHD Diagnosis and Treatment: Reasons Why Sometimes, Things Go Very Wrong (tv show blog)

From HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs

Your comments and observations are welcomed.

• Stop Minimizing Mental Illness: Worst Things to Say (Breaking Bipolar Blog)
• Make Room to Cure Anxiety (Treating Anxiety Blog)
• Video: Adult ADHD Means That I'm Hyperfocused AND Forgetful (ADDaboy! Adult ADHD Blog)
• Lack of a Cure for Psychiatric Illness is Discouraging for Families (Life with Bob: A Parenting Blog)
• I Have Dissociative Identity Disorder: Disclosure DOs and DON'Ts (Dissociative Living blog)
• The Benefits of a Good Cry (The Unlocked Life Blog)
• Walking on Eggshells Around A Person With Bipolar Disorder
• One Less Iron in My ADHD Fire
• Second Week of School and My First Call From the Principal
• Sibling Rivalry and the Mentally Ill Child
• Five Characteristics to Avoid in a Partner
• DID, Identity Alteration, and The Lonely Illusion of Intimacy
• Stigma Busting: Things Not to Say to Anxious People
• Anxiety and Depression: You Are Not Alone

Feel free to share your thoughts and comments at the bottom of any blog post. And visit the mental health blogs homepage for the latest posts.

Mental Health Bloggers Wanted

We are looking for talented writers willing to share personal experiences, insights and knowledge. The details are here.

back to: HealthyPlace.com Mental-Health Newsletter Index