Ignorance with mental health

[Dxxr]

I was recently off work for 2 months with acute anxiety it was so bad I could barely leave my house and I really suffered. Ive had this a few years now but it's only been this bad the past 8 months even now I'm back in work im still getting daily panic attacks amd severe anxiety but I'm trying to work through it!

a colleague went off sick from work yesterday and will be off for the next 2-3 months for her cancer treatment and recovery which is obviously horrific for her and her family. There was a money sweep today for her to buy flowers and give the extra cash in a card.

This is where the ignorance comes in and I am not comparing mental health to cancer but I didn't even receive a phone call or card or anything when I was off and living a nightmare because still in this day and age mental health is not as obvious as cancer people expect you to get a grip and get over it! Mental health problems and depression is just as destructive as any other well known illness or socially accepted illness. Hence why suicide is so common yet the very ones that say oh the poor thing after the suicide are the very ones that scoff at someone for being depressed. Why can people not accept this as a real agonising illness people lose their lives to this aswel!

[CMM811]

Did everyone know why you were out? There is a thin line between what can be said by employers to other employees about a employee. So if not everyone knew then don't feel like they didn't care.
While I get the annoyance with mental health and how it's treated by society I wouldn't be upset that a cancer patient got thinking of you stuff and you didn't. If I was in your position I wouldn't tell anyone but the appropriate people why I was out. I'm stubborn like that and wouldn't want the pity so to speak.

[Dxxr]

Oh I agree my colleague that was diagnosed really deserves the support from us and I gladly contributed to her gift and was totally upset by what happened to her as she's one of my work friends however the rest of them all new wjat happened to me including management word spreads quick where I work and when I returned people in a different departments were asking me how I was they had all heard off the gossips I work with yet mental health is clearly not worthy of much to them. I know my post might sound selfish but it's just sad to see no one really takes on board the damage it does

[Hello_there]

first off, your post doesn't sound selfish. im sorry your friend has cancer and im also sorry your anxiety got soooo bad. i totally agree that it's terrible how much of a stigma there is towards mental health problems and it is just plain awful that mental illnesses are not taken as seriously as they should be. (but know all of us here are totally supportive of you and feel for you)

people just don't know how to react to stuff like this if they haven't gone through it themselves, i think

[Dxxr]

Thank you -hello_there- it's such an awful illness and a lonely one at that. I used to be really fun to be around, always out doing something amd always happy, oh how times have changed nobody truly gets it until you live through it and sadly it can happen to the best of us at any time in our lives and completely change our lives! I just can't bear the get over it attitude most people have towards it if it were that simple to "get over it" do they think we would still be like this lol