It’s funny how some days you notice the amount of jargon you use and the rest of the time it’s just the words you use, and everyone understands, so it’s not a problem. Yet there are some days when people look at you strange and keep asking you to explain your meaning and you wonder if you’re speaking a foreign language.
I have never really seen myself as using a lot of jargon, or have a really big vocabulary, but there are times when I wonder if after years of dealing with mental health professionals I have started talking more like them and less like every day people, particularly about how I feel.
I wouldn’t call it jargon use as such but there is a certain choice of wording that I might use that people who have had little or no reason to talk about their mental health, since they have never been ill, wouldn’t say or use in the context that I do.
For instance I feel people probably talk about being depressed when they are talking about feeling down which from a clinical point of view isn’t depression and something I wouldn’t do. But because professionals find it confusing and would almost certainly start talking about medication or therapy with me if I used the word depressed I don’t use it unless I really am far more than a bit low.
But it seems the rest of the world still feels that depressed is about there mood level being lowered because of a specific thing that has happened. So to them to be depressed is about being less happy right now rather than being ill and in need of help.
It’s funny that because there are these two levels of meaning it was actually quite hard for me to impart upon others that what I was feeling was not a little low but a real problem and also when I am feeling better an accurate picture of how good I was.
What I mean is that people seem to miss that when I say ‘I’m not feeling so good’ or ‘I’m quite low right now’, that this could mean quite a severe low mood something that they might say was being depressed but I don’t and so I find I can feel they are quite uncaring because they are not sympathetic. Whereas if I had used depressed then they probably would have been.
And it’s not just the use of the word depressed, there are a whole host of sayings and conventions that I have become accustomed to that I am now finding have odd responses from the average person. It seems that having dealt with professionals I have fallen into a pattern of language use that has left me feeling somewhat alienated me from the people around who do not or have not had a lot of dealings with mental health professionals.
I feel very sad that now I am on the recovery path I am still having so many difficulties trying to understand what people are trying to convey and them what I am. I feel sure most people will just shrug and say ‘well don’t we all’ but still I would like to think that people might take a few moments to consider their language and what to be depressed or to be OCD or phobic, etc could mean and maybe filter out their use of these words to use words that more accurately describe the level of problem or emotional response they are having.
Guess I’m an idealist but I somehow feel that the people who have been ill who are desperately trying stay well could do with a little leg up in terms of understanding, and help to see that people do care as much as they do.
For those who’ve been ill to hear another person say I’m depressed when it’s a low mood can be so insulting and frivolous to the person who’s been through hell and it would be so much better if they could feel understood rather than their illness dismissed as an everyday occurrence of little consequence that could be easily corrected by seeing their mates more, or going for a drink or buying themselves something nice.
I have never really seen myself as using a lot of jargon, or have a really big vocabulary, but there are times when I wonder if after years of dealing with mental health professionals I have started talking more like them and less like every day people, particularly about how I feel.
I wouldn’t call it jargon use as such but there is a certain choice of wording that I might use that people who have had little or no reason to talk about their mental health, since they have never been ill, wouldn’t say or use in the context that I do.
For instance I feel people probably talk about being depressed when they are talking about feeling down which from a clinical point of view isn’t depression and something I wouldn’t do. But because professionals find it confusing and would almost certainly start talking about medication or therapy with me if I used the word depressed I don’t use it unless I really am far more than a bit low.
But it seems the rest of the world still feels that depressed is about there mood level being lowered because of a specific thing that has happened. So to them to be depressed is about being less happy right now rather than being ill and in need of help.
It’s funny that because there are these two levels of meaning it was actually quite hard for me to impart upon others that what I was feeling was not a little low but a real problem and also when I am feeling better an accurate picture of how good I was.
What I mean is that people seem to miss that when I say ‘I’m not feeling so good’ or ‘I’m quite low right now’, that this could mean quite a severe low mood something that they might say was being depressed but I don’t and so I find I can feel they are quite uncaring because they are not sympathetic. Whereas if I had used depressed then they probably would have been.
And it’s not just the use of the word depressed, there are a whole host of sayings and conventions that I have become accustomed to that I am now finding have odd responses from the average person. It seems that having dealt with professionals I have fallen into a pattern of language use that has left me feeling somewhat alienated me from the people around who do not or have not had a lot of dealings with mental health professionals.
I feel very sad that now I am on the recovery path I am still having so many difficulties trying to understand what people are trying to convey and them what I am. I feel sure most people will just shrug and say ‘well don’t we all’ but still I would like to think that people might take a few moments to consider their language and what to be depressed or to be OCD or phobic, etc could mean and maybe filter out their use of these words to use words that more accurately describe the level of problem or emotional response they are having.
Guess I’m an idealist but I somehow feel that the people who have been ill who are desperately trying stay well could do with a little leg up in terms of understanding, and help to see that people do care as much as they do.
For those who’ve been ill to hear another person say I’m depressed when it’s a low mood can be so insulting and frivolous to the person who’s been through hell and it would be so much better if they could feel understood rather than their illness dismissed as an everyday occurrence of little consequence that could be easily corrected by seeing their mates more, or going for a drink or buying themselves something nice.
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