mental illness

Once you're labelled as mentally ill, and thats in your medical notes, then anything you say can be discounted as an artifact of your mental illness. So you are trapped in a cycle of invalidation. This happens to victims of substance dependence too. My medical notes have me labelled as suffering from mental illness and therefore anything I say to a doctor can be disregarded. You are seen through the lense of mental health. If your depression, for example, leads you to self medicate and you approach your doctor addicted to a drug then you are seen through the lense of substance addiction. Little attention is then payed to ther fact that what was wrong was depression. Depression is usually the inability to change, to leave a job or relationship you arent suited to. People go through thier whole lives too scared to change. Doctors can prescribe a drug, an anti depressant or sedative to enable you to tolerate the life you hate. Enable you to retain a job you cant stand.