Embarrassment ?

[rebeccad]

I just wondered if any of you were embarassed to seek help , when I was referred to the nhs mental health unit I was so embarrassed to even be seen walking through the doors it stopped me from wanting to go , it was in the town centre so was inevitable I was going to see somebody , then there's the whole embarrassment of admitting I was a hypochondriac as being a hypochondriac is always seen as a joke , I know people say if you had a broken leg you wouldn't be embarrassed but I wish the whole stigma of mental health didn't exist and we could be more open about it x

[katesa]

Oh hell yes, I was embarrassed initially. I didn't tell anybody (besides my husband) that I had an issue, let alone that I was getting psychotherapy!

It's such a shame that there is such a stigma. We didn't do anything to get ill.

I'm not embarrassed now though in fact I am as proud of the steps I am taking to beat HA as I am anything else. As should you be.

[rebeccad]

What a fab attitude to have and I wish so much I could be the same , I would never ever judge anybody on having a mental health issue as I know that it doesn't make you a crazy person , but people do have this image that you are unstable and about to throw yourself off a building or something x

[katesa]

Well my therapist says that everyone is a little bit crazy so I see no shame in having a slightly different brand of crazy to most people :D

The thing is hon, our illness is not something we have made ourselves. It's not as if we knew that if we ate too many peanuts we'd get HA but still ate enough peanuts to feed a hundred monkeys for life.

I'm not telling you to go out and announce your HA to everyone on the street or to make "HA Pride" T-Shirts. But whatever the stigma, don't feel you have anything to be ashamed of, don't believe the stigma x

[rebeccad]

Lol yes health anxiety pride t shirts are now on my Xmas list :D

Xx

[katesa]

LOL

Watch this space for the first annual HA Pride parade starting next year.

I don't know how many of us will actually be able to march for the whole thing though, given how many of us have crippling diseases. I'll bring a lot of stretchers.

[rebeccad]

And we need lots of drs on site "just in case " x

[katesa]

The NHS are already asking the goverment for extra emergency funding.