What do you think of people who claim mental health issues are just excuses?

Either those people are clueless, or they’re living such comfortable lives that they have zero empathy for anyone else's struggles. Telling someone dealing with mental health issues that they're just being lazy or incompetent is incredibly tactless and shows a complete lack of compassion.

Honestly, I think they’re just narrow-minded idiots who can't see past their own noses or whatever little bubble they live in. Period. ☕

I suspect they aren't actually attempting to grasp the reality of the individual they are judging, primarily because they’ve never found themselves staring down those same circumstances.
Perhaps there is a prevailing assumption that these people simply haven't exerted enough effort to fix their own messes.
Or maybe they assume their own success is merely the result of their own grit, leaving no room for the complexities others face.
They might even suspect that someone is weaponizing their struggle just to manipulate others into doing their heavy lifting.
There's also the notion that these individuals crave pity—though, frankly, I can't imagine anyone actually finding satisfaction in that.

And so on.

My money is on the first theory. 🥳

I honestly can't decide if I want them to see the light or just keep stumbling in the dark... maybe I actually enjoy watching them fail. 🤔

What exactly are the excuses for?

rapidgull3 said:Either those people are clueless, or they’re living such comfortable lives that they have zero empathy for anyone else's struggles. Telling someone dealing with mental health issues that they're just being lazy or incompetent is incredibly tactless and shows a complete lack of compassion.

Look, we all view the world through the lens of our own experiences—it’s basically us judging everything based on ourselves.
I don't even think this specific trait mentioned in the thread title is worth condemning, since you see it pop up in all sorts of different situations too.
In America, we’re such visual creatures that if someone has a physical disability, people tend to be sympathetic because there's a visible reason. But once it's something you can't see with your eyes? That's where the friction starts.

Then you’ve got people struggling with mental illness who know something is wrong but refuse to admit it to themselves—those folks are a real challenge for society at large. This whole forum is a perfect example of that. You get people with zero lived experience jumping into threads and acting like they can handle uncomfortable situations caused by people whose "neurons are firing on different tracks." 🙂

The ones who aren't even aware they're doing it? Man, God help your soul and your sanity if you try to argue with them. Just save yourself the headache.

It’s about people who lack any sense of empathy—they just can't wrap their heads around someone else's reality. It's pure stupidity.
For instance, if you ask them: how would you feel if you were a Black American facing discrimination,
they just snap back with: but I'm not Black!

wow, what a total lack of brainpower 🤣😂

I honestly don't think there's anyone out there who actually believes mental health issues are just some kind of convenient excuse. 🤷

Lisa Lopez6 said:Honestly, I think they’re just narrow-minded idiots who can't see past their own noses or whatever little bubble they live in. Period. ☕

I'm with you on that.☕

I'm not talking about Niš, honestly—I couldn't care less about them.

My take on people who act like mental health issues don't exist? Honestly, I think those are the exact types who actually have some serious issues themselves 😁

David Wilson12 said:My take on people who act like mental health issues don't exist? Honestly, I think those are the exact types who actually have some serious issues themselves 😁

I agree.

But honestly, so many people have mental health struggles. Take me, for example. Then recently, I heard this mom talking about her daughter—the girl is supposedly dealing with depression, so the mom has been supporting her for years. Because of this "depression," she couldn't finish college or get a job.

The kid has a boyfriend, a social life, looks great, goes out all the time. When I ask if she's seeing a therapist, everyone looks at me like I'm an idiot. Obviously, she isn't. 🙏

In my opinion, that isn't depression; it's just laziness. With therapy and maybe some medication, she probably could have finished school and found work. It’s much easier to let your mom pay the bills. Do I think she's mentally healthy? Not even close. If she were, she wouldn't let her mother meddle in her life like that for so long.

Years ago, back when I lived in a small town, I knew people with the toughest diagnoses—schizophrenia being the worst in my book—who held down steady jobs and functioned perfectly fine every day. When things got bad, they’d just take a month or two off on medical leave. If people actually had decent support systems, even those with severe conditions could lead active lives. (Though, I guess for most, that's impossible, unfortunately.)

A healthy person will never truly understand you, but then again, you don't vent to them. Things are harder for people with struggles, but that doesn't mean it's impossible.

Honestly, I find it hard to believe. 😢

This is the root of all the stigma surrounding mental illness.

I remember watching this movie where an actor actually wore a blindfold for days on end—just walking around like that—trying to wrap his head around what it’s actually like to be blind. It’s that level of commitment, you know? Some actors go full method like that to prep for a role. And honestly, I think there's some truth to it; if a person really puts in the work and digs deep, they can actually grasp the reality of someone else's handicap.
But it makes you wonder—what's the actual point of therapy?
It exists because mental health issues mess with the social fabric. They disrupt the stability of society because of how people act. Plus, you've got the whole cycle thing where, say, if parents have these issues, they can pass those struggles down to their kids.
I mean, how else do these things show up if not through behavior? Since these individuals live within a community, their actions naturally ripple out and impact everyone around them.
With physical disabilities, it's different. A person doesn't usually put that same kind of pressure on the collective because their struggle is contained within their own body.

That's exactly where "stigmatization" comes from.

rapidgull3 said:Either those people are clueless, or they’re living such comfortable lives that they have zero empathy for anyone else's struggles. Telling someone dealing with mental health issues that they're just being lazy or incompetent is incredibly tactless and shows a complete lack of compassion.

True, but you also get the other side—people who actually own up to their struggles but don't think coddling them or letting them wallow in self-pity is the way to actually get better.
It's a real thing, too—some folks dealing with this stuff, for whatever reason, really lean into the whole "woe is me" vibe.🙏 A lot of them aren't even looking for actual solutions; they just want someone to feel sorry for them and run errands. For those types, empathy isn't exactly the most effective form of help.

rapidgull3 said:Either those people are clueless, or they’re living such comfortable lives that they have zero empathy for anyone else's struggles. Telling someone dealing with mental health issues that they're just being lazy or incompetent is incredibly tactless and shows a complete lack of compassion.

If you ask me, those people are just complete idiots. ☕

Gerald Morgan4 said:What exactly are the excuses for?

That’s the million-dollar question, isn't it? Honestly, it’s not even hurting me, so I don't see why I should have to go out of my way to make excuses for him. At the end of the day, whether he was actually faking it or just being difficult, it’s his own mess to deal with.

Gerald Morgan4 said:What exactly are the excuses for?

I wasn't referring to one specific thing, just speaking generally. But if you want examples: being late, forgetfulness, lack of focus, slow processing, brain fog, stuttering, obsessive thoughts, and so on. Basically, any excuse used when someone fails to perform. This leads to a serious issue: people hiding mental health struggles often end up being labeled as "weird" or "lazy" by those around them.

A bit of a generalization here, I suppose
there are certain types of people out there who simply lack the capacity to grasp that someone might be struggling with issues that aren't immediately obvious to the naked eye, yet on the flip side, you have those who will seize upon any issue—whether it’s a genuine struggle or something they've cooked up entirely out of thin air—to try and capitalize on it at every single opportunity
so, frankly, I’m worried we’re just going to keep circling back to how we solve these things on an individual basis rather than actually addressing the root

rapidgull3 said:I wasn't referring to one specific thing, just speaking generally. But if you want examples: being late, forgetfulness, lack of focus, slow processing, brain fog, stuttering, obsessive thoughts, and so on. Basically, any excuse used when someone fails to perform. This leads to a serious issue: people hiding mental health struggles often end up being labeled as "weird" or "lazy" by those around them.

Look, those aren't exactly mental health issues that warrant some kind of grand explanation. They’re just symptoms, really—the kind of things that are easy enough to mask. I guess it might actually be better if they just write you off as being weird or lazy, rather than having to sit there explaining that it's all due to your psychological struggles.

If you need thirty minutes to get to work, leave an hour early. I used to be terrible at being on time—honestly, it was a massive issue for me. Now that I’m working, I make sure to show up 15 or 20 minutes early every single day. Just a rule I live by now, I guess.
Forgetfulness and being scattered: I guess you end up carrying a notebook everywhere, and in it... Everything. You're signing up.
Stuttering: before any big meetings or important calls, just write down exactly what you need to say and practice it at home. Bring those notes with you. Keep them right in front of you on the table during every meeting. You might still stutter, I guess, but you'll get everything out. And that’s fine. It really is.

So many people deal with this kind of stuff. I guess the main thing is just being aware of what you're actually facing. You have to realize that you'll probably need to put in two to ten times more effort than someone who doesn't have these issues. It’s just the reality. Maybe try writing down exactly what the problem is and how you might be able to mitigate it. Just get it on paper.

You’ll probably be slower than the rest of them, I guess. But hey, that just means you'll still be grinding while they're all out grabbing coffee. You might even end up bringing work home. Coming in early, staying late... it's not exactly a tragedy.

It helps if you just put together some weird little caricature along the way. I guess people tend to forgive pretty much anything when it comes to oddballs. 😉

The real issue arises when you decide to go all in. I guess giving it everything you've got can be a bit of a problem. Maybe. Average, I guess.That’s just impossible. 🙂