30 Things Your Friends Struggling With Mental Health Want You To Know

25. As someone with bipolar, I always compare it to diabetes.

It’s a lifelong condition, usually managed by medication though occasionally people manage without. The medication isn’t always perfect, so you have to let those around you know the warning signs. If you ignore / stop taking your meds suddenly, you will have serious problems and may embarrass yourself in public.

Sadly, I’ve recently had to add an extra section to my explanation as part of an apology. If you’re a diabetic in hospital waiting for your foot to be amputated, even if you took your meds perfectly, you get limited sympathy if you spent every weekend stuffing yourself with cake. For bipolar, the equivalent tends to be booze / drugs, and god damn is the level of substance abuse high amongst us.

26. Please don’t say you have depression just because you feel sad once in a while. It’s a real mental illness and not something teenagers should normalize to make themselves feel part of a smaller group of people.

Same goes for OCD. You don’t have OCD if you want to arrange shit, OCD is far more serious than that.