Can Anyone Really Develop Mental Illness?

[Raidergal2022]

Do you think that anyone can develop acute anxiety or depression, enough that they require time off work/struggle for a year?

Or do you think that some people, are just not prone to mental illness and that they just wouldn’t reach this point despite their environmental factors?

Reason I ask -I overheard a conversation at work. Two collegues were talking about someone they knew who works in the mental health field and developed depression. They were saying that they think the reason people tend to work in that field is often through personal experience/being prone to mental illness themselves. Eitherway the way they were discussing it made it seem as though they were invincible, like they would never develop mental illness.

[douglas9401]

I don't know the answer to your question but I do know four former psychiatric nurses who have always been 'different', before, during and after their careers.

[jourdain2]

For such illnesses as manic depression and, indeed, depression it can strike out of the blue. Going along OK and then walk one step and drop into a black pit. I've known people who inherited it.

[Raidergal2022]

In what way different Douglas, just out of interest :D

[douglas9401]

Deep, brooding and always ready with analysis, whether asked for or not.

[andy-hughes]

Depression can happen to anyone, if circumstances align to put enough pressure on the mind.

The mind will react by withdrawing to protect itself, shutting down all but the basic life-preserving functions, that is a Breakdown, and they are as individual as each one of us.

Some people maintain reactions for life, needing medication to balance their condition, others recover completely.

But it can strike anyone, there are no exceptions.

[dave50]

People who take life far too seriously are more prone to mental illness

[bobbinwales]

//People who take life far too seriously are more prone to mental illness//
Or is it the other way round??

[Peter Pedant]

Self selecting group - psychiatric health care

One hospital used to recruit workers who had worked thro their own problems ( that is had insight).

Surgeons as tenagers liked slashing each other
Cancer Hospitals have a high turn over of staff ( coz the staff have cancer as well)
Obstetric units, the midwives hands may not meet over their middles. Baby's head can be held only with one hand at a time

[Peter Pedant]

//People who take life far too seriously are more prone to mental illness//

//People who take life their lives are more seriosly prone to mental illness// - - bad sight day

[sandyRoe]

Enough pressure can make anyone mentally ill. The bravest of men, in conflict zones can suffer PTSD.

[Peter Pedant]

Jourdain is correct
Andy is referring to exogenous depression
see
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-endogenous-depression-1067283

[Peter Pedant]

PTSD v depression exxplained here
it wd be better as PTSD v exogenous depression as PTSD shd not 'just occur' as depression may

https://www.webmd.com/depression/depression-ptsd-vs-depression

[Zacs-Master]

As others have said, depression and other mental illnesses can occur at any time in life and are probably more prevalent than people would assume hence the growing success of Andy's Man Club etc.

From personal experience, people who work in mental health tend to have a different view of the world.

As you get older you realise everyone is a bit mad. It's a bit of a hobby of mine trying to work out in which way their madness manifests itself.

[lankeela]

Are there not also people who use mental illness as an excuse for their failings in other aspects of life? Seems a lot of people these days seem to have 'mental illness' when other people would just get on with it.

[Zacs-Master]

I'm sure there are people like that, Lankeela but on the flip side, I think there are people who've probably gone on to develop serious conditions and even commit suicide because they tried to 'just get on with it'.

[jno]

"pull yourself together and get on with it" seems rarely to be useful medical advice.

[tomus42]

Anyone can develop a mental illness in the same way anyone can develop a physical one.

Some may have been born with or developed a predisposition to certain illnesses more than others.

[andy-hughes]

jno - // "pull yourself together and get on with it" seems rarely to be useful medical advice. //

Probably because it's not medical advice!

It comes from people who have a straightforward approach to life, including its problems, and don't have a lot of time for people who don;t see the world, and problem-solving, in the way they do.

[Zacs-Master]

And probably would be all the more surprised if mental illness were to affect them.

[andy-hughes]

lankeela - // Are there not also people who use mental illness as an excuse for their failings in other aspects of life? Seems a lot of people these days seem to have 'mental illness' when other people would just get on with it. //

Of course there are, but human nature is complex, and we should be wary of assuming that someone is 'faking it' simply because we, as untrained observers, believe it to be so.

There are many myths about the concept of Depression, and its effects - a common one, is that people who talk about killing themselves, never actually do so.

At the Samaritan branch where I volunteered, we were all very familiar with a regular who called in three or four times a week to discuss how keen he was to kill himself. Until he did.