Do you feel judged?

[classy_ally 2]

I suffer each day with my anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Since I get disability, I am able to stay home and keep myself calm. To create a calm environment for me. But I feel like my family thinks I'm faking it. I don't like that. No one would purposely want to be in a constant state of disorder.

Has anyone else experienced this? :sos:

[fortheo 15]

I think most, if not all of us have experienced something similar. A lot of people are just very dogmatic when it comes to how they think, and if they haven't experienced these disorders then they cant really understand. So instead of thinking about their own boring lives, they judge us trying to make it seem like we have it easier than they do to boast their own supercilious egos.

thats my opinion, clearly i dont think all people are like this. I have met a lot of people, my family included who fit that description.

[Gilly 1086]

Yes, judged by friends and family, judged by society. Until they walk a mile in our shoes they have no right to judge us, but they do. It's just wrong. But keep your head up, don't let their ignorance get you down, at the end of the day they have no idea what it is like so their opinion is void.

[tajnz 0]

I agree with fortheo, a great number of people who have never suffered from anxiety issues find it impossible to understand what day to day life is like for those of us who are affected by it. They simply assume we are lazy or selfish. Or even worse faking. Most of the time I hide my anxiety the best I can and they have no idea how often I feel the way I do. So if there is any faking .. it's faking I'm ok.

I understand what it feels like just to get by day to day and to feel nervous in most situations I can't control or are not familiar with. Most of my family members think anxiety disorders don't exist or that I should just toughen up. :mellow: I agree no one would willingly choose to go through what we all go through.

[SarahLizzie 2]

Absolutely. One of my biggest things was when I was on Effexor XR for my anxiety. It helped me tremendously, except it numbed my emotions so well that I virtually was emotionless, but everything else was normal again. While I was on it, my mother and boyfriend insisted I did not need it. It really did not do anything, and so on.

I ended up having to stop taking the medication cold turkey, which is extremely dangerous to do. While my emotions were spiraling out of control, and I was s*****al (all due to the withdrawal effects), everyone thought I was pretending so some one would give me the money to go buy the Effexor. They did not understand that it stabilized my moods so I did not have drastic mood swings.

When my anxiety begins to flare up, i tend to try cry. Well, I work in a kitchen with all men, and it takes a great deal for me to pushed to this point at work, but when it happens, look out the crying begins! So they men think I should not be there because I am so emotional. But it is disrespect that gets me every time at work.

I find that it is difficult for others to understand who are not experiencing similar things. I too have been diagnosed with PTSD and anxiety. But everyone thinks it is bogus. Which results in me keeping things to myself, or just writing in a journal. After a while, I tend to snap and freak out for a day or two, then I am good to keep everything in for a couple more weeks again.

[MeiEden 1]

Yes, I definitely do feel judged - mostly by my family and sometimes by friends. I think they still don't believe that I really have an anxiety issue. Or if they do, they don't fully comprehend how awful and soul-consuming it can be. Instead, they think I'm just weak and moody. I am blessed however to have a husband who supports me and believes in me. It helps to have even 1 person you know you can lean on when it feels like the whole world is judging you.

[JungleJulia 235]

Yes people do judge. I think we have to choose not to let it upset us. I mean we cant change the way we are viewed by the majority, so the best we can do is change how we respond to it. Don't let it get u down

[classy_ally 2]

Thanks for sharing all of your experiences! I thought my family was bad. I ran out of Zoloft one time and I was so angry it wasn't even funny. I have learned to never run out of my meds.

I just feel like some of my family is jealous because I don't work a 9-5 like they do. But believe me, I would rather work a job than deal with the issues I have today.

[JungleJulia 235]

I so agree Ally. I'd much rather be working and functioning! This anxiety deal is 24/7, we don't clock off at 5pm

[JOYCICLE 654]

Yes and I'm sure these same people who think there is no such thing as anxiety and are upset that you take disability are the same ones who go out and drink themselves to oblivion to ' de stress' and maybe , just maybe end up using a ' public defender' when they get a DUI, etc. You can't win with people.

[JOYCICLE 654]

Oops, point is everyone has anxiety at some point . It ' s just that we are out in the open with it instead of hiding it and are trying to deal with it. Some folks use drugs, alcohol, food etc to manage themselves. I say they are worse off than us !

[nattytat 0]

I do feel judged as I fear that people may view me at times as weak or incompetent which only increases my anxiety. I think it makes me even more frustrated because not only are the physiological affects overwhelming and I just think people don't get it. It infuriates me when my mother says things like, "it's just life" and makes me feel like I am anxious for no reason. Maybe I am, but when she says these things it can make feel like a real chump.

[josephconrad 1]

I do agree that many people have this perception that someone struggling with heavy anxiety is actually a weak person and not to be respected. I find it apalling. As a previous poster stated, nobody has a right to judge you without having walked in your shoes and struggled with the things you have to struggle with. Worse yet, some people try to actively undermine your self-confidence, either to puff themselves up to make them feel bigger, or because they are jealous. Rather than feeling jealous that you "get" to stay home from work, perhaps they should thank God that they have a life free from these kinds of troubles.

I don't speak for everybody, of course, but there are some people that are uncharacteristically cruel when the topic of anxiety comes up.

[kim007 0]

I felt really judged when I dropped out of school due to anxiety. I thought that everyone assumed I did it because I was lazy and didn't want to study, which couldn't be farther from the truth. No one ever said as much to me, but some of the things they said made me think that the thought was in the backs of the their minds.

In the end, (at the advice of my mother) I just had to say "screw 'em."

[JOYCICLE 654]

No one carries your burdens Kim , but you . I'm a double drop out, high school AND college. It wasn't until the last few years that I realized how anxious I was during high school and that led to my dropping out. At the time, I had no idea. I just knew I could not stand another DAY in the school. You're responsible to yourself and for your own happiness. Don't worry about what people think OR say. They have their troubles, you've got yours !~

[JOYCICLE 654]

To Josephconrad, Anyone who thinks we are weak, clearly hasn't lived through a day of hard core panic. Am I right? They can laugh all they want but at the end of the day, you know one day they will be terrified about something real or imagined and in that moment, they will ' get it'. Until then, there's no real point trying to make them understand. But we're stronger than they are. 90% of the population can't live ONE DAY inside my head !

[shaun 6]

It's sad that your familt think you are faking your mental health problems, it must make you feel even worse. Have you talked about it with your family? Communication is key in situations like this, you need to help them understand because it seems like they are ignorant, to be honest.

[farrah 2]

I suffer each day with my anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Since I get disability, I am able to stay home and keep myself calm. To create a calm environment for me. But I feel like my family thinks I'm faking it. I don't like that. No one would purposely want to be in a constant state of disorder.

Has anyone else experienced this? :sos:

oh yeah. I also receive disability for the same thing. I am often told that I am on "welfare' . ( funny they don't mind using my "welfare" to pay the bills.)Then there are others who think I "choose" to be depressed. Really?? They really don't understand that there are days I just can't get out of bed. No one knows this torture unless they have experienced it.

[Ghost 0]

Only my family knows and they think it's "all in my head". I keep it to myself from the rest of the world because I don't want people to feel the need to walk on egg shells around me. My anxiety is thankfully mild enough for me to be "normal" most of the time and it only really comes out a night anyway(and I'm usually alone anyway for me to cope with it in my own way).

[ProLogiC 2]

This is another reason why I don't go out anywhere, I always feel like people are judging me; even with family and it doesn't matter if people really are judging me or not, it's something I can't get out of my head, I cannot control it.