Mental Illnesses In My Life

One of my best friends in high school wanted to major in psychology and I often mocked him and poked fun at the idea that psychology was a real study and something to be taken seriously. Only after taking this psychology course, which I am forced to do in order to in order to pursue nursing, I have come to realize how little I even knew about the subject. I have judged people for enjoying the study and even worse, I have not taken seriously mental illnesses that affect some of the dearest people in my life. Something else that has been brought to my attention is the notion that I can be and have been extremely offensive towards my peers without noticing or even caring; sometimes both. To put it simply I have been an insensitive jerk for …show more content…
We have actually had a rough time being married and it’s not because of our children or the amount of money we have, or lack thereof. There are so many things we could blame for our unhappiness and inability to get along, but we would just be lying to ourselves to shirk responsibility. We have had a very hard time because I was closed minded to his illness of clinical depression. I was aware of his depression from the beginning of our short dating relationship and inside I would just say, “oh he will get over it and stop taking medication and everything will be normal”. This was not the case, so, it was a rude awakening when I realized this is a real issue and it’s not something that one can just choose to have or not have. My husband’s father, mother, and one of his two brothers also suffers from clinical depression. They are all on medication and have been since they were young adults. When learning about depression in our textbook, it struck an immediate interest in me because of the “Genes and Depression” section. The very first sentence flat out states that mood disorders run in families and this made me have an epiphany. My parents and three siblings have never been diagnosed with depression and I have never felt that I would qualify either. Of course, everyone has circumstances that can ignite a depressed feeling, for example the loss of a loved one, or …show more content…
As a result of these processes, I have noticed that I tend to think more about how a person is feeling in a situation, rather than just judging a book by its cover, or a person by their words. As I’ve stated, I have taken steps in my marriage toward better communication, but not only that, I have caught myself thinking about the cashier at the local grocery store, who happened to be behaving somewhat rudely and impatiently. Instead of dismissing this person as just a simply mean spirited individual, I considered that perhaps they were having a bad day possibly due to a personal crisis. Ending relationship, death in the family, and other circumstances just flooded my mind, allowing me to experience patience and compassion for a potentially hurting