Why do we blame ourselves for our mental illness?
Mental illness is just that, an illness, so why is it that the majority of us point the finger inward at ourselves?
Those suffering from mental health issues often find themselves coming up with phrases like ‘If I weren’t so weak then maybe I could cope like everyone else’ or ‘If I weren’t so lazy then maybe my depression/anxiety/eating disorder would go away.’
I’ve had several conversations with myself over the last few months along these same lines. I’ve criticised my inability to ‘just get over’ my mental illness struggles and I’ve compared myself to others who are seemingly coping very well with life. Why can’t I be like them? Why am I so useless that I can’t even function enough to do X-Y-Z?
‘Snap out of it You’re a big girl and need to learn to cope’ is the commonly used mantra of my life. But why is this the case? Is it just a design flaw in my system, is due to the stigma surrounding mental health or is there something more?
Where does this self-blame come from?
“Money doesn’t buy happiness, but I’d rather cry in a Ferrari.”
For some reason, this phrase always comes to mind when I talk about mental illness and having everything we could want in life. I’m not suggesting that money and fast cars are everything, but given the chance, I would rather not be depressed at all than cry in a flashy BMW. Personally speaking.
Yet mental illness is cruel and our minds have a sick way of making us feel at our worst, even if everything around us is going smoothly. Ultimately we think the blame should stop with us for not being happy. It’s our fault that we can’t just smile and get on with it. What right have we to be sad when we live in such privileged times? Thus begins the spiral of blame, guilt, and mental illness.
“You are so childish, you need to grow up and control yourself!”
Due to the symptoms that present alongside many mental illnesses, we often tend to isolate ourselves from others around us. Speaking regarding my own mental illnesses, I become easily agitated which causes me to snap at people regularly. I am also prone to intense feelings of anxiety, which often results in overwhelming panic attacks and more tears than I ever thought possible for a human to cry. The embarrassment and guilt from both situations often leave me apologising profusely and harshly belittling myself. Therefore, to avoid those intense feelings of shame, I try to avoid people as much as possible or only tolerate them in small doses.
Anorexia nervosa is not an excuse for me to be horrible to people. I still need to own up to it and apologise. But I also need to learn to self-soothe and be more compassionate with myself in the aftermath.
“Why can’t I just snap out of it?”
I’ve heard this phrase come out of my mouth, as well as the mouth of others, on an almost constant basis. Why can’t we just will ourselves to stop being so depressed!? We tell ourselves it’s because we’re weak or because we simply aren’t working hard enough to get better, even if we’re doing our absolute best.
The reality is that recovering from a mental illness isn’t like fixing a tummy bug or a broken bone. A lot of what we have to do is take medication consistently, go to therapy and practice self-help from the inside out. It’s so easy to blame ourselves for not being able to snap out of it because, although the foundations are laid by professionals, the blocks are being cemented together by our perseverance. Essentially you are the contractor, subcontractor, and architect. The professionals are only there to guide you along the way.
“I don’t deserve help, others have it so much worse.”
A lot of the time we don’t feel that we’re worthy of the help simply because the illness isn’t ‘physical’ or because others have it much worse than us. Unlike a broken bone which needs set and time to heal, mental illness is all in our minds. It’s internal and therefore can’t be seen physically, making it harder for ourselves and others to make allowances for it.
Yes, others may ‘have it worse‘, but that doesn’t make your feelings any less valid. That doesn’t make your depression or anxiety suddenly shrivel up and disappear. Talking to yourself like that only fuels the guilt and shame that accompanies mental illness, and prevents you from seeking further help.
“They’ll think I’m being attention-seeking.”
Stigma is certainly one of the biggest factors that influence self-blame. I’ve been told so many times that I’m deserving of help and that mental illness isn’t my fault, but I’m still painfully aware of what people think about others in my situation. They think that they’re ‘trying it on’, they’re ‘lazy’, they’re ‘a failure’ or they’re ‘crazy’. No one has said these things to me directly, but many have done about others in the past, so what makes me any different? In the end, I take those bigoted phrases and I internalise them. I write them on all the little bricks that I have built and end up ruining the walls of progress.
Stigma is dangerous. It stopped me from seeking help for longer than I should have done for fear of seeming ‘attention seeking’. Stigma makes you feel like less of a human being just because you are feeling depressed, overwhelmed, or practising self-destruction as a coping mechanism. It causes you to take all of those feelings and store them securely in the ‘self-blame’ drawer of your mind’s filing cabinet to be used as a reminder whenever you’re at your worst.
How can we overcome these feelings of self-blame?
Forgive yourself.
If you take nothing else away from this post please remember this one phrase; You are human.
Humans, by nature, are not perfect and we all make mistakes. Mental illness can make our mistakes and supposed ‘failures’ seem like mountains. When we think about it, they may only be bumps in the road. They make us internalise all of the bad feelings and ultimately add fuel to the fire.
We need to learn to forgive ourselves! We need to be compassionate and understanding as we would be with a child, and although we need to take some responsibility never mistake this for blame. Once we have mastered the art of taking responsibility and self-forgiveness, we need to apologise and ask for forgiveness from others. Don’t dwell on it. Once you’ve completed the above steps move on. Lock the door and throw away the key.
Talk about it.
It becomes so normal for us to blame ourselves that sometimes we don’t even know that we’re doing it. It’s almost like an instant reaction. The belittling voice in our head is just like an internal monologue that has always been there, and asking it to leave can be a daunting thought.
Talking it out with a friend, family member or mental health professional can help rationalise these thoughts and get an outside perspective. It can help us to pinpoint unhelpful thinking patterns and begin to break them apart bit by bit. By identifying the blame in our own minds we can work towards evicting it forever from our lives. We can finally begin to accept that we are not the ones to blame for our mental illness.
What to read about other’s experiences of mental illness? Check out this post by Sweet Elyse.
I’m sure I’ve commented on this before a few years ago but here I am again. This is a great post and something I think most of us with a mental illness can relate to. I don’t blame myself any more but I definitely use to.
Talking about definitely helps a lot and agree with you. Informative post!
This happens all too often! Thanks for sharing and hopefully we can take these tips and. Help others!
I have a coworker who struggles with mental illness. I have become very protective of him… making sure he gets time off work when needed, that he “taps out” when needed, etc. I think we all need to go easier on ourselves. I have several chronic health conditions and have learned that I have to be in a good place physically and emotionally before I can give to others.
This is the sad reality and it is just right that we stop blaming ourselves for mental health. Thank you for sharing these tips. I agree with you that yes, we should learn to forgive and be kind to ourselves.
I think blaming yourself is part of mental illness itself. Mental illness tends to introvert a person, and thus they look to themselves for answers.
Hhhhmmm….it’s always because of what we’ve been shown to be weakness, for our bad mental health. We need to out-learn that. Mental health must be talked about; our lives depend on it.
I didn’t realise people were blaming themselves for mental health. Cause I seem to see others blaming them for it. So, is this where the communication breaks down?
I can’t even imagine how difficult it is to deal with mental health issues. Seeking help, although difficult, is allways a good idea.
It’s a shame we blame ourselves for mental illness. People’s negative responses fuel this further.
It’s so important to give ourselves grace whenever we are struggling with our mental health.
Sometimes it’s easier to blame ourselves than to get help or admit that is something wrong. I don’t know about you but I feel like our society only wants us to portray our best lives and if it isn’t, it’s hard to accept that my life is going well. Thus, I therefore, start to look internal for blame than external for help. It is a fine line for sure.
Maureen |
It’s an unfortunate truth that mental health issues are still so looked down on by everyone, including ourselves! I loved this one.
Mental illness is so hard! I suffer from situational anxiety sometimes, and my youngest son has both anxiety and ADHD that he deals with. I don’t like to talk about it myself, so I am trying to make sure that my son knows it’s nothing to be ashamed of and we talk often to try to stop that cycle.
Such an important article on addressing an aspect of mental illness we don’t often discuss. Understanding how to deal with self-blame, whether for ourselves or others who may practice it, is an important start on our journey.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment. x
Loved this piece especially the part about attention seeking. I have many people tell me that that is why the didnt come to me or because they didnt want to be a burden.
It’s horrible to feel invalid. Because we’re made feel invalid we often turn inwards and blame ourselves. ‘Why are you being like this?’ etc. It’s horrible and often it leaves me feeling hopeless.
Thank you so much for reading.
Someone very close to me was diagnosed with a mental illness and chose to deny it and refuse to heal. I think that it can be very painful for someone to the point that they think their illness is worse than it actually is. Or maybe they are just more comfortable with their illness than the hard work of healing and becoming healthy. That is how my counselor explained it to me and it has borne out exactly the way she said it would. Unfortunately.
Thank you so much for reading. Your comment certainly hits home for me at the moment. There is only so much the human mind and body can take.
Talking is not natural to some of us. For most of us, talking about things like mental illness is even difficult. So we suppress it to the point of breaking. A sad reality.
Thank you so much for stopping in and reading.
Mental illness is no ones fault. I am glad that there are campaigns like THIS IS ME that raises awareness about it.
Thank you so much for stopping in and reading.
Very true. Or they touch someone you know.
Thank you for stopping by and reading.
Mental health should be something we can all talk about and feel no fear of judgement. Depression and anxiety touch just about everyone.
No one should be to blame. I am just happy it is talked about more often.
You talk with skill and wise judgement about important things like that. I am sure your article will help many people to stop blaming themselves.
I think that we are taught to blame ourselves – very often by the supposed professionals – especially when we don’t recover on the first treatment plan; or our progression and clinical outcomes are atypical or unexpected.
The this is me campaign sounds like an awesome step – especially if it leads to more support in the workplace in practice, but as with all awareness campaigns we really need the resources there to support us practically as well.
You’re absolutely correct, we always always blame ourselves for mental illness and everything else and we shouldn’t!!!
Mental illness is a normal thing that no one should be blamed for.
t’s very sad but mental illness is no ones fault, but we blame ourselves.This is a topic very close to me. Lots of people nowadays suffering from anxiety and I blame it on social media.
I am so glad to see mental health become a priority for companies. We focus on kids mental health, but once they turn into adults, all of a sudden it’s suck it up, that’s life, etc etc.. This is great! ~ Kelli A
This article needed to share. There’s a lot of people not aware on mental illness. Lets spread this awareness. And help people who needs attention. This is growing faster. We need to act and help those people suffering from this. Thank you for sharing this post!
Exactly. I’ve been shamed into believing the anorexia is my fault, I made the decision to wake up one day and ruin the rest of my adult life with an eating disorder. It’s crazy because no one would ever wish any of this on themselves.
Sadly, nor do I.
I feel like this all the time due to my anxiety. Constantly second-guessing myself and blaming myself.
Mental illness is no ones fault, but we all have that tenancy to blame ourselves for it. I know with my anxiety I tend to feel this way myself.
Thank you. It’s so important to open up and talk about mental health. The sooner we realise that, the better.
The themes you are dealing with are always very delicate but you are right to talk about it because nobody does it and it is important.
I’ve asked myself many times the same thing. I am still not sure of the entire answer.
People blame themselves because – well, they have a mental illness and don’t realize that it’s not necessarily their fault. And the mass population (who don’t have mental illnesses) have ZERO empathy towards those who do, and just see them as “weak” thus make people with mental illness feel badly about themselves.
It’s hard to get out of that mindset. We all get trapped in it at some point in our lives, but if we continue to do so we’ll never find our way out.
I find myself saying this often: “I don’t deserve help, others have it so much worse.” Sometimes I feel that I will be taking resources from somebody who needs it more than me. Slowly I’m learning that I need to focus on me to them help others.
I’ve always felt that, for women, a big part of the self-blame for mental illness has come from the impression that we are too emotional. Then any time we feel like we are not in control of our emotions, we start shaming ourselves for having them at all. It wasn’t until I was in my mid 20’s that I realized my sensitive and emotional side was not a negative aspect of my being, but something that made me ME and that, in recognizing that, I felt like I had more ownership and control over them.
Thank you x
Thank you very much Spence! I appreciate you popping in and reading! I always judge my achievement on this blog through engagement, and I’ve found it’s been going up lately, which is great 😀
Thank you so much for reading 🙂
Thank you so much for reading.
Thank you so much for popping in and reading 🙂
Thank you for reading!
Although that wasn’t the case in my household, I still constantly blame myself for everything that’s happened to me in regards to mental illness.
Thank you so much for reading and sharing your story Amy. I really appreciate it. I know so many people struggle with the same thing, and despite writing about it, I still struggle with it. xx
This is such an informative post and I related to a lot of it! A lot of the phrases you talked about I’ve said many times before, especially the one about other people having things a lot worse. It ends up being a viscous cycle – you feel depressed, but that thought pops into your head, causing you to feel guilty for feeling the way you do, but the guilt makes you feel worse and so on. It’s so important to cut yourself some slack when it comes to mental illness. I completely agree that the stigma surrounding it is largely to blame too – to a lot of people it’s still considered “attention seeking” or “not a proper illness” and I think it’s through those sorts of views it makes it so easy for us to blame ourselves for our mental health problems. Great post, I think so many people will find this helpful ???? xx
I grew up in a family that never talked about mental illness- nobody had it, and if they did, it’s because you did something wrong. I’m sure that is part of it, but it is the nature of the beast itself.
This is very very insightful!!! Thank you so much for raising awareness for such an important issue! I blame myself all the time and that is not okay!!!
This is such an important topic. A lot of people don’t realize that mental health is often something that cannot be controlled and it is definitely something we shouldn’t blame ourselves for, even though we often do. Thanks for sharing!
This is such an important topic. I know im always beat myself up about my mental illness, especially telling myself to “get over it” or those days when I can’t function “I’m lazy”.
Mental illness is huge. If left unaddressed it can cause a ripple effect of so many things. Thank you for your transparency.
What a fantastic post- hits a very important and brutally painful nail on the head!
Lovely in depth and eloquent post too- nicely done, very inspiring.
Btw look at the number of comments you’ve got round here Chloe- you’ve got a fabuloisly poplular blog! Whoop!
Peace and love,
Spence ????
A bold informative post that debunks myths surrounding mental health
Thank you for reading 🙂
Thank you 🙂
Thank you so much for reading. I’m so glad you found it informative 🙂
Sometimes I do something I know won’t work but I can’t control it. I.e falling back into the eating disorder was slow, so slow I barely noticed it until it was too late. I should know better, but it’s just how I cope with harsh emotions and situations. It’s the way I’ve trained myself to cope. Mental illness has a funny way of controlling us.
Thank you for reading 😀
Thank you! I’m so glad you found it interesting and informative 🙂
Thank you for stopping in and reading 🙂
Great article. Thanks for bringing awareness to this very important topic.
this is super informative post. i must recommend this to one of my friend who always blaming herself for every wrong dead or happening in her life.
I blame myself for fair reasons. Sometimes I End up doing something I should not, knowing the after effect of it.
This is a great. Thank you for talking about it.
Thank you for letting us know about that campaign. Honestly, I feel that we don’t talk enough about this topic. It’s still a taboo and it’s sad. I realized that I have had that way of thinking. The thing is that we think that is normal, but it’s not. We are blaming ourselves for things that are out of our control. Thank you for being so open and honest.
I think its much easier to put blame on ourselves. This was super informative and helpful.
I know someone who blames themselves for the emotions she goes through. It’s not something I’m comfortable with, but that’s just who she is.
I blame myself all the time. I know it is wrong but I always find myself doing it again and again! Thank you for talking about such an important topic.
It’s great that people are raising awareness and is willing to take about this topic more. It’s not easy for someone to have mental illness and I hope people get the help they deserved.
I feel like it is so ingrained in us that we blame ourselves for mental illness. We think we just need to “be better” but that isn’t how it works and we need to be better and know better.
It can make it better but sadly can’t ‘cure it’ most of the time 🙁
I get told those things too. It’s so harmful. I’m so sorry you have to go through that pet. xx
I am so thankful I don’t suffer from a mental illness – unless you consider being HAPPY an illness? lol – but I know those who do. And I HATE when they blame themselves. It’s not their fault at all… Unless they eat a very poor diet because eating a not so good for you diet can lead to mental illness crazily enough – but typically in these instances people aren’t educated enough to know that their diet makes a difference.
I’m still trying to convince myself that Anorexia and her friends aren’t my fault. But it’s hard to break a lifetime of self-hatred.
Thank you so much for stopping in and reading 🙂
Thank you 🙂
There is still a lot of stigma we need to break through though which is concerning. But it’s still better than it was.
Someone told me it was a great movie and really touched well on Mental illness, but I’ve also heard the story you have. I really hope it doesn’t because I finally want a decent representation of MI in movies.
Thank you for reading and leaving such a lovely comment 🙂
Thank you so much for reading and commenting 😀
Thank you so much for reading and commenting. I appreciate you reading this 🙂 It is so important that we try not to blame ourselves for our illness, although I know it’s very, very difficult.
I’ve been isolating myself for a while now just because, much like self-blame, it’s just simpler.
Thank you so much for reading 🙂
Thank you for reading Krysten 😀
It does feel alot easier to blame myself to be honest. I am so convinced it’s me that I’m almost scared to even consider blaming someone else.
Thank you so much for reading 🙂
Thank you for reading 😀
Thank you so much for reading 😀
I’m the exact same. If I say it to myself, I’ve heard it uttered to me or someone before.
Thank you so much for popping in and reading.
It’s fine admitting to depression etc, it’s actually great to know people can, but the stigma is still very much there.
I struggle with blame constantly. It’s so terrible and it’s a part of mental illness barely anyone understands!
Thank you so, so much for reading 😀
It really is.
This is a vital post! Blame is so common in mental health and mental health stigma. We, as sufferers, blame ourselves and we feel the blame from society too. Thank you for posting such an important post.
I struggle with blame all the time. Its easier to say its just me, I’m stupid, I’m a horrible person for making mistakes all the time but it’s not true. Its ineffective for recovery as well.
Hugs, light and love.
Liz
I’m glad we are making progress in this area with more people admitting to depression.
It’s so hard to forgive myself
Oh my, this is such an awesome post! Yeah, I had been in the phase where I felt guilty about feeling what I felt because others had it worse. Great tips, by the way. Thank you for sharing this. 🙂
Such a great post full of really helpful info. thanks for sharing
I guess for some people it’s easier to blame yourself and take it out on yourself, than it is to blame others.
Much like how we hide our internal pain from our loved ones because we don’t want to cause them pain by sharing, and often cope by keeping this pain to ourselves with unhealthy coping strategies
Oh man, I’ve really been struggling with my anxiety lately and it can be so hard to not blame myself for it. Thank you for this.
As someone who struggles with mental health it is hard not blame myself. I have definitely been working on trying not to isolate myself as much and talking more about what i am feeling.
And I think that the blaming is a big part in how poorly we feel… the day we can start detaching ourselves from the illness will be such a good day!
This is so important to talk about! There are people ion my life that struggle with mental illness and the pressure they put on themselves is huge. They blame themselves for not just being able to shake it off and get on with life. Supporting them and having these conversations is really important.
Great post. We need to stop blaming ourselves and not let others bring us down.
The more we talk about mental illness the less stigma there will be surrounding it. No one should think it is there fault.
Great post! For me one of my triggers is my family. They call me crazy for wanting to travel and live life. They want me to sit at home and do nothing which is a real shame. I wish people would be me and not just my anxiety, depression and body image disorder.
I’m ashamed to say I’ve not heard of the This Is Me campaign so I’m really glad I found this post. And while I think mental health is talked about much more nowadays than even in the recent past, I don’t think it’s a subject that many people feel comfortable with. I love your point about forgiving yourself. Acceptance is so important. Great post, thank you for sharing.
Lisa | http://www.lisasnotebook.com
Guilt and self blame is very real on mental illness. I see it all the time with those around me who suffer.Thank you for this amazing blog!????
I actually hear that the new Joker movie blames violence on mental illness. I hope that isn’t true. I’m not sure I want to see the movie now.
I am so glad that there is a lot less stigma around mental illness in this modern age because people see it as a real problem and respect as well as offer assistance to people that need all the help that they can get.
No,never!We can’t blame ourselves for mental health!Mental health or mental disorder may cause different reasons.Firstly we should find out them and then solve them.Well-written!
Mental issues is definitely something that’s need to be discussed more. Great article and really interesting point of view. Thanks for sharing all the info.
I can so relate to this. Dealing with periods of dysthymia when I was younger, I always blamed myself for feeling the way that I did. It wasn’t until later, when I had learned to deal with my negative emotions, that I recognized it wasn’t my fault for feeling this way but that I had a lot of power and control in how I was feeling.
This is a topic of concern these days….we need to buy support for this problem without hesitation…
What a brilliant post. It is so hugely important for us all to see that this is not our fault. We wouldn’t get mad at ourselves for catching a cold or a bug (We’d be mad at the person that bought it in to the office though right!!!) so we must see our mental health in the same way x
I know what you mean… I hate myself for being anxious and worrisome…I hate that I can’t say no to people…it’s so hard..and worse when people say that i cause all this grief myself…
Looking forward on knowing more about this. If I am correct, this illness just recently came up right? I meant public is now aware of this just recently..
I literally just finished reading a book that spoke about mental illness and it made me so sad, because the woman is treated so badly and it’s an ILLNESS!
Most people are so worried about what others thing of them. I think that plays a big part in this. And if the person hasn’t been officially diagnosed, they may not know that they have a mental illness. They just think that there is something wrong with them and they don’t understand why. Diagnosis and treatment are extremely important. Like all illnesses, medication can make it better.
We are so, so hard on ourselves. Just like we can’t blame ourselves for getting cancer or any other illness, mental illness is one we aren’t to blame for. We need to be kinder to ourselves, hard as it can be sometimes.
Mental health is such an important aspect of our lives. I have dealt with bouts of depression over the course of my life and not wanted to seek help to not appear weak or not in control. It’s taken many years to understand how I can cope when depression arises (or sinks me.) Typically medication does help me but talking to friends and family and/or a therapist is a MUST.
I agree, it’s so easy to blame ourselves. I didn’t want to admit to anyone at work that I was suffering because they would think I was weak. There is still a lot of misunderstanding about mental health. People are forever saying have you tried yoga? Etc ????
This is so well said, Joanna! Thank you very much for this comment. It’s 100% a chemical imbalance, which makes it outside our control, so blaming ourselves does nothing but make us feel guilty for something that isn’t our fault. It promotes a cycle of shame.
I’m glad it’s becoming more normal to talk about but it’ still very stigmatized. Thank you so much for stopping in and reading. x
Thank you so much for stopping in and reading. I agree with you, it certainly is the stigma presented that leads us to belive we’re to blame.
Exactly thank you so much for stopping in and reading.
This was such a lovely and important read! Mental health is something we should all be aware of, and no one is to blame.
It’s the enemy triggering us to speak this way about ourselves! Mental illness is so important to talk about and address. Thank you for this post.
It’s sad that people do this because it is NOT their fault. I am glad we’re talking about it openly now so people stop blaming themselves.
I think that a big part of us isolating and blaming ourselves for mental illnesses is the society which still doesn’t accept it as what it actually is, an illness…. Mental illnesses come from chemical imbalances in the brain that we are unable to control, so if people would just understand that and give a break to people with depression by trying to be understanding rather than just say “snap out of it”.