Mental Health and Me

With up to 4 percent of the population suffering from trichotillomania, it is shocking how little the disorder is talked about. Sufferers often face harsh comments due to lack of education and understanding. The first step in being able to help is knowing what not to say to someone with trichotillomania.  "Just stop pulling." If it were as easy as "just stopping", really, nobody would have hair pulling disorder. There are causes and reasons that bring a sufferer to pull, and telling someone to just stop can be embarrassing, hurtful and even drive the sufferer to pull more.  "You've ruined your hair." Telling a sufferer of trichotillomania that they're ruined their hair, or look bad as a result of their compulsive hair pulling, is damaging and unnecessary. Trichotillomania is draining and hard enough to cope with, and making someone feel even worse about the effect trich has had on them isn't helpful at all. They probably feel b...

Trichotillomania is a hair pulling disorder that is painful, frustrating and often chronic in its sufferers. Statistics suggest that around 2.5 million people living in the United States alone will be affected by the disorder in their lifetime, but it is hard to collect accurate statistics of the disorder as so many people live undiagnosed.  Trichotillomania can affect anyone, but is more common in people with anxiety disorders, and especially obsessive compulsive disorder.  What causes trichotillomania? Like with most mental illnesses, there is no single cause. Hair pulling disorder can affect anyone, but research shows up to 60% of people with trich also suffer from some other mental illness. Most commonly desperation, anxiety disorders (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder especially), impulse control disorders and substance abuse disorders (addiction). These mental illnesses may put you at a higher risk of developing trichotillomania, but there is still no single cau...

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder differentiates between each sufferer, but there is still a massive and barely touched-on stigma of OCD being all about cleanliness that remains. To break that stigma, is it essential that people know about the different forms OCD takes. Harm OCD is a common-and terrifying-type of the disorder.  So, what is Harm OCD? Harm OCD is a common form of OCD. A sufferer of harm OCD has repeated and unwanted thoughts about harming themselves or others (called intrusive thoughts). These thoughts are often unwanted and cause a great deal of anxiety and stress for the sufferer (intrusive thoughts). Some examples of Harm OCD intrusive thoughts would be about harming a family member or loved one, purposely crashing a car into a group of people, or killing someone. The intrusive thoughts differ between the sufferer, but these are all common examples of intrusive thoughts in Harm OCD.  These thoughts are always unwanted. Intrusive means "causing ...

  When you have obsessive compulsive disorder, or love someone that does, you know a whole lot more about how little people really know about OCD. You know that it's about a whole lot more than cleaning, and the jokes about being "so OCD" actually, aren't really that funny.  OCD is hard to really understand, even for people with the illness. But knowing what not to say to someone with OCD is a great place to start helping.  "Everyone's a little OCD, really" A lot of people have weirdly specific behaviours and their own way of doing something, but this doesn't mean they have OCD. OCD is made up of intrusive thoughts that cause a huge amount of anxiety to the sufferer, which drives them to carry out their rituals. Whether it's cleaning, seeking reassurance, or any other type of ritual, it is exhausting and miserable. The majority of people don't have OCD, but saying these things invalidate the people that do have to live with it.  ...

If you have an eating disorder, or know someone that does, it's easy to see how devastating and dangerous they are. No matter what the disordered diagnosis-the impact is massive.  Seeking treatment for an eating disorder is hard enough, with the constant guilt of not feeling 'sick enough' or valid, but for males with eating disorders, there can be horrific extra challenges to face in seeking treatment and support from professionals and the people around them.  In the United States alone, eating disorders will affect 10 million men in their lifetime. Eating disorders of any kind, even just impacting one person deserves support and awareness, simply due to the life threatening and mentally draining consequences, but there are millions of people suffering in silence with barely any awareness, mostly all due to stigma.  There has always been, and still is, a popular stigma that eating disorders fit a certain personality, and image. Rich white girls, obsessive per...

When a mental illness affects so many people, education and awareness is vital. There are many different types and subtypes of Obsessive Compusive Disorder, but a common yet invisible one is rarely talked about.  What is Pure-O? Pure O is a type of OCD. It stands for "Pure obsessional", meaning that the obsessions and compulsions are mental, and only exist in the sufferers head. This could mean that a sufferer of Pure-O OCD can spend hours daily reassuring themselves that their obsessions won't become a reality-or in my case, completely rituals mentally.  At the height of my OCD before diagnosis, I would be completing mental (and physical) rituals up to eight times every minute of every single day I was awake. Repeating phrases of reassurance over and over, counting everything over and over again. Ordering numbers and words in my head, I was exhausted.  I was completely drained and utterly exhausted, but how does someone without any knowledge of OCD or w...

Eating disorders of any kind are painful, and often chronic. After writing about OSFED, I feel its very important to draw attention to a diagnosis within OSFED- Atypical anorexia.  So what is atypical anorexia? Atypical anorexia is diagnosed in eating disorder sufferers who meet most, but not all, of the diagnostic criteria for an anorexia nervosa diagnosis. This could mean that they have every symptom, but are still at a healthy BMI, or are underweight but have not lost their period. If you suffer from atypical anorexia or have even been at a healthy weight whilst suffering from an eating disorder, you've most likely been met with some pretty damaging comments. I spoke with a girl named Alice*, an anorexia sufferer with a previous diagnosis of atypical anorexia, about the struggles she faced whilst seeking help and support for her eating disorder.  "There were countless times where I just wanted to give up," she said, "the way I was treated just fue...

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) presents itself in many different themes and the sufferer may carry out many different rituals, sometimes completely different between each sufferer. And although the thoughts and rituals can differ between each sufferer, there are many things you can do to support a loved one with OCD.  Be patient.  This is probably the best thing anyone can do to help an OCD sufferer. Whether it's dealing with time consuming rituals or supporting them through devastating intrusive thoughts, being patient and realising that OCD can be managed, but never really cured is sometimes the best you can do for them. Let them know you're there to listen, support them, and don't give up on them.  Listen Even when I feel like my thoughts are crazy and horrible, it is a huge comfort to know that I'm not suffering in silence. Listening to someone who opens up about their intrusive thoughts and fears can do a great deal of help for them, even if you...

Laxative addiction is a common disordered behaviour in anorexics, bulimics and people with OSFED, but is almost never talked about by anyone besides the sufferers, and even then it is seen as embarrassing, taboo or something to be ashamed of.  With the agonising side effects of lax addiction, and sometimes even permanent damage that can be caused by using and abusing laxatives, it is incredibly important that this isn't always seen as an embarrassment. Eating disorders isolate sufferers so much, so it is important to be able to talk about every aspect of these disorders, especially such agonising ones.  The assumption in people with eating disorders that also abuse laxatives is that it is used to help with weight loss, when the reality is so much different. Yes, we know it doesn't get rid of calories or burn fat, it's obvious, it's science.  Some people use it as punishment, a lot of people use it because of the 'empty feeling' that is so often ta...

When you hear people talking about OCD in your day-to-day life, what made them bring it up? A slightly-off picture frame, or someone cutting a cake into uneven pieces? Sure, it is just a joke, and most of the time OCD isn't joked about and mocked to deliberately cause harm to people, but for people living with the illness, the effects of these jokes can often be frustrating, and sometimes even damaging. In the UK, it is estimated that 12 out of every 1000 people are living (and struggling) with obsessive compulsive disorder. This means that at any time- even right now, around 741,504 people have OCD. in total, about 2.3% of the worlds entire population are living with the disorder, which makes it even more important that the stigma of what OCD really is can be broken-and replaced-with knowledge of how frightening and debilitating life as a suffer can be.  The O's and C's of OCD The D(isorder) part of OCD is pretty self explanatory, but what about the O an...

You were there for me before we even knew what was wrong.  When I woke up crying with songs stuck in my head, wondering why a song, just a song, not even a sad one, Could have me picturing you dead over things that happened before I even knew who you were.  You loved me, now and even when I was first diagnosed. When I knew these thoughts would change and worsen and complicate and become more debilitating.  And you're probably the only man that wouldn't laugh in my face when I told you my mental illness make me think that I caused terrorist attacks and seizures, that it makes me cause awful things to happen, things I couldn't even do if I wanted to.  You're still here, when my worries and rituals have changed, though everything I've ever been obsessed about, all this time and not once have you ever called me stupid for it, which not even therapists have done. This comes as one of the hundreds of reasons why you're the best person I've ever me...