What does someone with mental health look like?

Many people still have the old fashioned images of people with mental health - rocking backwards and forwards, shouting at no one in particular in the street etc - but since the eigteen hundreds where the public display of people with mental health in circus’s and torture of patients in mental hospitals were finally abolished and we intergrated into “normal” society, we can be much less easy to point out. 

Putting a hundred people in a room and guessing which ones are affected my mental health is like a lifesize game of Guess Who without questions. It’s a difficult game, especially considering that statistically a whopping twenty five of those will have been or will be affected by mental health at some point in there life. One of those people will have a severe mental health condition.

I think that just as people are singled out because they come across as having a mental health problem, it is also hard having a mental health without coming across as having a mental health problem. People can expect too much of you thinking “Well s/he doesn’t look unwell.. /s/he looks as though she’s coping ok” With mental health conditions such as bipolar disorder we have periods of wellness, during this time we may well function and take on tasks and responsibilities as though unafected. However, we are likely to be taking mood stabilisers or other drugs to help us sustain these periods, and episodes can be triggered by stress, lack of sleep and other external factors. Also, when we are towards the high end of the scale we can take on everything, leading people to think we are more than compotent and expect that of us all the time.  When I worked in nursing many years ago I was the first to be asked to do a double shift if someone called in sick, even if this mean’t doing a day shift followed by a night shift. And of course after a while I’d burn out, hit rock bottom and be off for weeks, even months.

Another reason it is hard is - believe it or not - the stigma that comes not coming accross with having a mental health problem. As an example I have been in various places as a result of my mental health where other service users have said things such as “You look to well to do to be here.. you don’t look like you fit in here etc..” and if these were by way of some kind of compliments they did not work.