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As someone who has both mental & physical illnesses, I need mental health advocates to stop saying "we need to take mental health as serious as physical health"
What world are they living in where chronic physical health issues are taken seriously?
Because it's not this one
What world are they living in where chronic physical health issues are taken seriously?
Because it's not this one
The idea that our physical health is taken seriously is honestly LAUGHABLE & it shows you've never put one iota of thought or research into learning about our experiences
Start listening to chronically ill people, particularly those of us who are also mentally ill
Start listening to chronically ill people, particularly those of us who are also mentally ill
This is an anecdote and not necessarily true for all chronically ill & mentally ill people, but people & providers actually take my chronic physical illnesses & issues significantly LESS seriously than they take my mental illnesses 
But you know what I'm never going to say?
I'm never going to tell people "we should take physical health as seriously as we do mental health", BECAUSE THAT'S BULLSHIT, and I'm not trying to drag down other marginalized people in order in order to pull myself to the top
I'm never going to tell people "we should take physical health as seriously as we do mental health", BECAUSE THAT'S BULLSHIT, and I'm not trying to drag down other marginalized people in order in order to pull myself to the top
Please, I'm begging you, find a new line
Surprisingly, not really!
BUT that's not because they don't dismiss everything as having a psychiatric cause—they do—but the providers that do that seemed to do it regardless of whether or not they knew about my mental health history https://twitter.com/ConnConnection/status/1304220601847091200
BUT that's not because they don't dismiss everything as having a psychiatric cause—they do—but the providers that do that seemed to do it regardless of whether or not they knew about my mental health history https://twitter.com/ConnConnection/status/1304220601847091200
I went through a several year period where I successfully hid all my mental health diagnoses and they honestly just dismissed everything as being based on mental illness, thinking I had zero history of mental illness, just as much as they did when they KNEW I had mental illnesses
People are missing that mental illness is NOT analogous to acute, temporary physical health problems
You don't just catch a case of PTSD for a couple weeks before it clears right up after a round of antibiotics
You don't just catch a case of PTSD for a couple weeks before it clears right up after a round of antibiotics
My main point is that you need to stop acting like this is some sort of us vs. them
You don't need to spread false narratives about physical health & chronic illness in order to say that mental health needs to be taken seriously
You don't need to spread false narratives about physical health & chronic illness in order to say that mental health needs to be taken seriously
You can talk about your issue & why it matters without disparaging other groups of people you're clearly not a part of
Any time you want to say "if they did X to Y people, there would outrage", you're almost invariably wrong, because X does happen to us, and there's no outrage
Any time you want to say "if they did X to Y people, there would outrage", you're almost invariably wrong, because X does happen to us, and there's no outrage
This. It's not the mental vs. physical health that people aren't taking seriously, or are refusing necessary treatment or accommodations—it's the part where we're disabled. It's ableism, pure and simple. https://twitter.com/TheGardenGroves/status/1304286902703534080
So you know how we solve the problem of an ableist society not taking disabled people seriously, whether it's for mental illnesses, chronic illnesses, or something else entirely seriously?
It's not by using lateral ableism!!!
It's not by using lateral ableism!!!
This is an aside, but I really wish it were default for literally *everyone* to have a (GOOD) primary therapist/mental health professional that they see regularly, similar to how most people have a primary care physician. And I wish this were free and accessible to everyone.
Because everyone needs to care for their mental health as they do physical health. But you can make this point too without perpetuating the false idea that physical health is always taken seriously, when it is not. Neither are taken always seriously. That's the problem.
This thread + all the replies!! EVERYONE needs to stop pretending cancer patients are treated well and automatically taken seriously, because that's not a thing. https://twitter.com/brookevitti/status/1304544214638878722
NOPE, we absolutely do not. My PCP is horrible. Twitter isn't great for nuance because I ran out of character space to explain that most chronically ill people don't have competent PCPs for our needs either, which is also a problem https://twitter.com/NilaJones3/status/1304558819897294848
I think both MHPs and physicians need 1) WAY better training on how to treat patients with care, understanding, as partners in our own treatment rather than as adversaries, and as reliable narrators of our own experiences
And 2) the IDEAL for me would be that everyone has a good, competent PCP and a good, competent therapist/MHP they see regularly, free at point of service
But there are so many systemic issues that make both extremely difficult to find for most people
But there are so many systemic issues that make both extremely difficult to find for most people
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