Dean
For people who suffer from mental illness, life itself can be utterly exhausting. Of course, that’s true for everyone, but even the things that may seem simple can be daunting and overwhelming for someone struggling.
Pauline Palita, a Twitter user, art director, and mental health advocate, wrote a long thread on Twitter dealing with just why it is that people with mental illness are so often tired.
In her tweets, Palita perfectly details the numerous reasons that “being tired” takes on a special meaning for people with mental illness. And the thread went mega-viral, because so many people understood and related, and because it’s important to get this information out there so people can be more understanding and compassionate.
Although sleeping poorly is one of the factors, there are many other reasons someone might be tired, like the fact that they “are in a constant war with their own brain.”
People who don’t have any mental illness are often dismissive and judgmental, which is the furthest thing from helpful.
Something like communication can be extremely overwhelming.
Palita went on to mention that it can be hard to deal with the physical aspects that sometimes accompany mental illness, like muscle pain and headaches.
She finished by imploring people to be kinder and more understanding toward people who have a disability that you may not be able to see.
This is such a wonderful explanation of the difficulties faced by someone with a mental illness. Hopefully, more and more people will read it, and start to understand what might be going on in the brain of someone else.