Around 6 million people in the UK have either Anxiety, Depression or both. 6 million. Putting figures on a page doesn’t do justice to how many people that really is. Chances are that you will at least know someone who has it. Maybe, like be, you have been close to someone that has it, but not really understood it until you were diagnosed yourself. There were a lot of misconceptions I had about mental health while my Nan was unwell. Now I have similar issues myself, I understand how silly my misconceptions were, but like most people, they were based on ignorance of the conditions and not lack of care for the actual person.

You don’t seem sad, have you really got depression?

In my mind, when I knew I wasn’t feeling right, I still didn’t put it down to depression, because outwardly, I felt quite happy. Because I’d been bought up in a world where people perceive that depression only presents as sadness, I didn’t put the two and two together. It wasn’t sadness though. It was just a complete lack of enthusiasm for everything.

You’ll get better

No one with anxiety or depression is ever going to be ‘cured’. Someone with anxiety or depression may go through months, or even years feeling well, but this still does not mean they are out of the woods. Any number of small factors can have an effect on mental health, and even the most careful and conscious person can become unwell without warning.

You have tablets now, you’ll feel better soon

Medication is just one part of rounded approach to mental health conditions. Counselling may work for some, and other things like diet and exercise can make a massive difference too. Unfortunately, medication also has an incredibly inconvenient personality trait of stopping to work sometimes seemingly for no reason. When you first see your GP, they will put you the first suggested medication for anxiety and depression. This does not mean it is the best one for you. Everyone has different needs, and if you feel like your medication is not working you need to tell your GP asap.

You’re just being lazy

Depression can hit physically as well as mentally. So can anxiety. In fact, having both is physically exhausting at times. There are times when a bad episode hits, and even if you do have the motivation, you just physically do not have the energy to do anything. Just because you are high functioning with your mental health issues, it does not mean that you do not suffer as much as everyone else.

You just need to get out and take your mind off of it

As much as going out and having a bit of a break sounds like a great idea to someone without anxiety and depression, for someone with one or the other or both, leaving the house can be a challenging thought. Unfortunately, it just isn’t as easy as painting a smile on your face, getting ready, and going to meet friends. Even the process of getting ready can seem like a massive challenge to someone going through a bad episode, so trust them when they say they can’t come out.