Dave's Progress. Chapter 102: The Mind is its Own Place.

"The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven."
John Milton, "Paradise Lost".

It seems to me that it is often the case with mental ill health that it is very difficult for the sufferer to communicate what is actually happening to them, for it is so often misunderstood even by peers, friends, family and such. I know this was certainly the case with me. My first experience of depression was to find that friends, in particular, were either hostile, or felt I was being self-pitying or self-indulgent. "We all have problems, you know", one might say, or "Well, we all get depressed sometimes, I know I do", might another. What seems to have been missing from their assessment was that I was experiencing the symptoms of a very real and debilitating disease. Indeed, in my first experience of mental illness I felt as if something had just descended on me from a great height, a feeling so alien to my usual feelings that I knew and recognised that something was wrong. I knew I was ill. But some, it seemed, insisted that it was "just me", and I was being selfish and basically, spoiling everyone else's party. What I could not seem to get across, and what everyone failed to understand, was that I could not help the way I felt, and indeed, despite it I don't think I once bemoaned my lot or made myself out to be a special case. It was just that my low mood was so pervasive that it could not help but be noticed, and many seemed to take this as some form of personal affront. Why, exactly, people responded the way they did, other than that mental illness is much misunderstood, is still a mystery to me. I seemed bereft of any sympathetic ear.
So it is that mental illnesses like depression can strike anyone at anytime and the national anti-stigma campaign, "Time to Change" has made this clear. Even with all the privileges in the world, mental ill health can soon lay you low, and people such as Stephen Fry, Ruby Wax, Alistair Campbell and Patsy Palmer have all spoken out about their own experiences in an attempt to help the campaign. So, the question, "what has he/she got to be so upset about?" should be rendered redundant.
It is the case, then, that no matter what our circumstances, mental illness can appear. I know in a previous post I spoke of how such things as social and economic deprivation can exacerbate the chances of becoming unwell, but it should be remembered that no-one can really be excluded from the chance of succumbing to such illnesses.
I guess the reason I am saying all this is because it seems to me that certain mental illnesses, particularly depression, are often not taken for the hugely debilitating experiences they can be. As I said, they are often met with the dismissive responses highlighted above. One person told me that even Janet Street-Porter, a supposedly educated and intelligent lady, had said that depression had become the new "back problem", or some such, probably meaning that it was easy to feign and  perhaps in some ways a phony disease used by the work-shy to avoid responsibility. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that as I did, many must take such statements on board, perhaps exacerbating the feelings of guilt which the illness can also engender.
I would just say, then, that mental illness can affect anyone, is no respecter of status or money, and when it comes it would seem that one can barely understand it unless you have experienced similar upsets yourself. Many make sense of this by referring to mental illness as an "invisible" phenomenon. I would say that it is only all too visible, just misunderstood, derided and feared.
I hope that the misunderstandings I have mentioned, then, soon disappear, and those who perhaps have a friend or family member who is going through such difficulties will know that, as Milton said, "the mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven."