Speaking to someone with a mental illness can be difficult sometimes.
Difficult in the sense that you are litterally walking on eggshells. In my case with my Pschizo-effective, I can literally snap at any point in time from any random comment. In fact, I have done this already WAY too many times to count.
I am going to list the WORST things to say during one of those snaps
Calm down!
Calm down is the worst and the last thing I need to hear when I am experiencing a panic attack. If I could just “Calm down”, believe me, I would love to. By telling me to calm down, you are making me feel 100% worse. Why? It just enforces the pressing insecurity that I have mental illness and It will never go away – which makes the panic attack WAY worse.
Just Relax and Breathe.
Personally, when I have a panic attack I absolutely start to feel like I cant breathe. I hyperventilate, I am not able to concentrate, I just truly cannot relax when my muscles feel like they are turning into solid stone.
Whats your issue?
My issue? MY ISSUE?! My issue is that I have something chemically wrong with my brain to cause me to snap at every little thing that disrupts how things should go in my head. If I cant find a shirt to match an outfit, I flip out. Not by choice. I would love to not flip out over not having a shirt.
Things like this can seriously mess up some self confidence. My self image, My self worth – goes down everytime I hear this. It Hurts.
Here are some of the things you can say/do instead.
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What can I help with?
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Distract them with something they enjoy doing.
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Hug them.
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Take them to iHOP. (That one is for you, babe.)
Things as simple as that will help rather than hinder.
Thanks for reading,
Jas ❤
