Understanding the Difference Between Facts and Opinions

"It’s not a character defect, a spiritual disorder or an emotional dysfunction. And chief of all, it’s not a choice. Asking someone to “try” not being depressed is tantamount to asking someone who’s been shot to try and stop bleeding. Such an attitude can dangerously appear in the church as, “if only you had enough faith.”

Unsolicited advice isn’t only annoying it can also be dangerous to your health and wellness! Take the mentality that the church regardless of the religious sect it is. Most of the time (even though there is always an exception to the rules) they think about mental illness as some type of punishment. They also think of it as being all in the person’s mind and that it’s an imaginary illness, where the only cure is to pray it away. Tell me this, can you pray away a broken arm? Obviously not, just like you can't pray depression away.

When people listen to opinions that are based on opinion and not actual information, what happens is that you disregard the proper mental and therapeutic interventions that are in place, in order to make your life easier. That are designed to help you realistically cope, with the hard times and good times in a healthier manner.

It isn’t only religion that does this, many different areas in society have this problem. I remember when I was first diagnosed with ADHD, some of the ridiculous things that people would say. If I had a nickel for every time someone said something that made absolutely no sense, I’d be a very rich man now.

I think my biggest pet peeve about this is when it comes to their lack of understanding and education regarding mental health issues, this doesn’t seem to faze them very much. They just continue to not see the problem for what it actually is, instead see it from opinions. Not only that, but when confronted with opposing viewpoints, they tend to think that they are right regardless of the negative way that it affects others. Whether these opinions are in relation to pharmaceutical products, doctors, nurses or therapists. Essentially any aspect of the health care system, really!

Whether it’s a priest telling you to pray your mental health issues away, because it’s the only therapy that you need, or the know it all who thinks "Big Pharma" makes up mental health issues so that they can turn a profit, even through uneducated and unsolicited opinions.

They all have one thing in common, that they really don’t what they are talking about. When you see a supplement store representative or supplement commercial, trying to get you to buy a product, they are trying to get a sale, and they’re not trying to actually help you.

Keep the following things in mind when dealing with religion or essentially anything else in our world that bashes what you do in order to have a healthy well-balanced life.

• Do what is healthy for you, whether it’s a support group, prescription drugs, seeing a therapist, meditation or anything really. That helps you to see your condition for what it actually is. As long as it is healthy, and not harmful to you and your well-being.
• Take people’s opinions, who condemn your treatment, with a grain of salt
• Educate yourself on effective treatments by medical professionals and pharmacists, not YouTube videos
• Religion, just like everything else, has our place in the world, the thing is a theology degree and a psychology degree have absolutely nothing in common. Like I stated, everything has a place in the world, but some things are more effective dealing with this than other things.
• Sometimes for your own well-being, it’s better to walk away from a conversation than sit there and trying to educate a person regarding a topic that they have absolutely no respect for anything that you are saying
• Having a mental health issue is a valid medical condition, just like various forms of cancer or any other medical conditions. You are not at fault for having it, when a person is degrading you and belittling what you go through day in and day out. That’s their fault, because they're doing nothing other than being too lazy to actually educate themselves.

In conclusion: Remember their are certain things you are responsible for, and certain things you are not.

What you are responsible for is how you react by learning proper coping strategies and skills. Also proactively dealing with your triggers in a healthy manner and taking a realistic approach to life and mental health issues. Which sounds easy, but to be honest it’s not, it takes a lot of self reflection and self awareness.

Understanding your role in your health is just as important as important as understanding and dealing with the medical and psychological aspects.

Take the correct medication and be completely honest with your doctor or therapist and yourself. Without these three aspects, your treatment will always have inconsistencies.

Also understand the good and the bad things that can impact you. Makes you that much more prepared for dealing with both.

Not only that, but stopping proper medical, therapeutic, and pharmaceutical interventions. Those things are not only in place to help you live a healthy lifestyle, but for you to live.

Please also remember, even though I have a psychology degree and a diploma in human services, while also having direct experience dealing with my own mental health issues, these articles are made to be a reference, and not to replace any aspect of your treatment.