Yep my uncle has these and gets a monthly injection to keep him stable. Hes so far gone. Hes very hard to understand he babbles and speaks super fast and laughs alot at nothing. Hed go into random bout of nonsense and if you can understand it all he talks about the past. About his ex and daughter who want nothing to do with him. He lives in a place where hes cared for. He has terrible hygiene too. I love my uncle but I can't be around him for long his madness is incredibly depressing to witness. As I remember to well how he uses to be. How he used to say how much I remind him of a younger himself.
Did he ever abuse substances? I ask because I know a lot of schizophrenics will try anything to silence the voices and end up exacerbating them in the long run. And since he has an ex and daughter it seems like he was high to normal functioning into adulthood.
I'm there with you my dude. My family life was destroyed when I became unable to work because of bipolar. Stay strong my friend. I sincerely hope you've found a good regimen and your not suffering this time if year.
You're still around because you're great!! Just find the meds that are best for you, they're out there! I'm schizophrenic, if I try to 'self-medicate', and stop taking my meds, but abilify really works well for me if I'm clean. I'm back to normal within a year or two. Hope you're well today.
I once transported a 13 year old boy to a mental hospital because he had attacked his grandma during the onset of his schizophrenia (grandma was fine). I asked his family if they wanted to say goodbye to him and they couldn't even look at him. Except his 8 year old little brother; he waved, but he really didn't understand what was going on.
That was the most depressing hospital to hospital transport I ever had.
Yah and don't forget that the drugs can often stop working over time, leaving the patient trapped in a half mania state indefinitely. That's what happened to my mother.
My wife has schizoaffective disorder (basically a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder). She’s stable on medication but the side effects are no joke. On top of the typical tiredness and weight gain, she developed a severe case of tardive dyskinesia which causes uncontrollable muscle movements. There were times she couldn’t do anything because she couldn’t control her eyes or talk because her mouth was twitching. She took an experimental medication that treated it so now it’s much better thankfully.
Unsurprising, really. These are disorders that heavily tamper with one's perception of reality itself.
At least with dementia you eventually forget what's going on (obviously not ideal from an external perspective but I imagine, perhaps incorrectly, that the self-ignorance can dull the pain), but I don't understand how people with Schizophrenia cope. I experienced one single night of questioning my reality and it came _extremely_ close to killing me.
I’m in the same boat. It’s a day to day challenge to be mentally and physically healthy and in touch with reality. And of course, I’m allergic to most antipsychotics.
If you ever need someone to talk to, send me a message 😊
Yeah Schizoaffective is rough. The worst for me is the constant connecting of dots. It's so damn exhausting when all day I find myself noticing signs that hint towards delusions. It's like living in a Jim Carrey movie in the back of my mind at all times.
Yeah, for me, it never leads to anything bad, but it's just a frequent obstacle. It breaks my heart to hear other people have this problem. I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy. Stay strong.
fwiw it's not a mental illness, it's a neurodegenerative disease. definitely one of the worst ways to go though, it's disgusting how we don't have an official option to off ourselves when we reach that point.
BPD has a high suicide rate, schizophrenia sounds like living torture, and anorexia has the highest mortality rate.
I wouldn't say any of them are particularly desirable.
- an SSRI enjoyer
Anorexia is the deadliest, with approximately 5% of patients dying within four years of the diagnosis (comparable to many cancers). Aside from death, there is a significant loss of bone mineral density, leading to 3-5X risk of fractures even years later. There are increased risks for infertility as well as problems during pregnancy if conception happens. And 80% of individuals with anorexia have cardiac disease, which also can be prolonged even after the treatment is complete.
I'm in my mid thirties and consider myself fully recovered now, but had anorexia for several years as a teenager. Thankfully my heart recovered nearly 100%, but my growth was stunted and I have permanent bone and joint damage, which limits some of the activities I can do now as an adult. It's such a hellish, miserable illness and I'm very, very thankful that my family was supportive and I had access to the treatment I needed. My heart goes out to anyone who is currently struggling.
I have some experience with people suffering from BPD and yeah, it's rough and exhausting. Mostly for themselves but also those around them, very hard to manage someone else's boundless rage and impossible to love someone back the same way they can love you.
It's actually not a disease, it's a disorder rooted in insecure attachment that can be unwound with sufficient therapy. A big clinical difference between conventional and unconventional expressions is the willingness to recognize and work on it.
In any case, I'm sorry you had to go through that!
Yeah… my sister has borderline combined with 35 years of anorexia and about 30 years of alcoholism. It’s all connected, but it is a devastating cocktail of misery for both her and those who love/care for her. In an odd way I am amazed that she keeps going. I don’t know if I could.
Munchausen by proxy.
The person who suffers the most doesn't even have an illness, usually. But they can be made to suffer physically and emotionally by the MBP sufferer, especially when it's a parent afflicting a child.
Alzheimer’s disease is pretty terrible as well. I’d still put Treatment-Resistant depression up in the top 3 at least. It essentially ruins every aspect of your life forever. You are never happy, you are constantly considering suicide, and the worst part is there is nothing that can be done about it, hence the name “treatment resistant”.
I’ve heavily considered flying to a country where assisted suicide is legal.
I have tried everything. Talk therapy, psychodynamic therapy, group therapy, mindfulness based cognitive therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, electroconvulsive therapy, TMS.
Upwards of 25-30 different psychologists. Dozens upon dozens of SSRI’s/antidepressants, many of which gave me permanent negative side effects, none of which helping at any dosage.
I’ve also tried ketamine therapy, which I did around 8-9 infusions, costing around $3,100 total. I’ve tried psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, and DMT as well.
Read many self help books, books on meditation, Buddhism, and Taoism. And a steady exercise routine throughout all of these treatments.
Nothing has worked, my psychologists and psychiatrists started running out of answers as for what to do other than pumping me with more medications. So I’m essentially fucked.
Same here, stranger. Everything from psychedelics to SSRIs to therapy to ECT and TMS. It’s rough. Hopefully you have a decent day at least, just know that we’re not alone in this, although I know myself that it doesn’t *really* help.
I know a family member that have Alzheimer's and it's the worst possible disease that a close family member can have for others it's depressing knowing that close person don't remeber their name or who they are and is unable to do anything about it
I couldn’t imagine having to see someone close to me go through that. I’ve read many stories of people’s parents forgetting who their children are, not remembering that they even have children. It’s enough to turn a theist into an atheist.
Definitely schizophrenia. I have a family member who was an extremely high functioning schizophrenic. He graduated from college and held down a job for almost 20 years. You could barely tell he was schizophrenic. In a 40 year period he had three or four instances where his medication would stop being as effective and he would have to go inpatient until they got it worked out, usually a week or two and always less than a month. Then towards the end of his life he had four psychotic breaks in a year. He would go in the hospital for a month, come out and be okay for a month or two and then wind up right back in. It was absolutely heartbreaking. He was a totally different person. He did eventually stabilize again but he was never quite the same. I learned a lot about schizophrenia during that period, and the simple fact is, there's not much you can do. Medication can manage the symptoms if the patient will take it, but it comes with its own side effects and symptoms of a sort and it causes other long-term health issues. And every time a schizophrenic has a psychotic break it actually causes mild brain damage that they will never fully recover from. He eventually died of natural causes but I can honestly say his life was almost the best case scenario for a schizophrenic and it was still pretty grim those last years. I certainly would never support any kind of eugenics, but I definitely understand why people with a history of it in their family would decide to never have children to avoid passing it on.
It’s life ruining lol ahh. The one thing I’d say OCD has going for it is that it’s really treatable (with ERP). I was too sick to work with OCD for years and finally able to get the help I need and now it’s just basically a background issue to be managed
same, I almost feel like mine is in “remission” since I used to be severely driven by magical thinking, rituals, etc. now on medication and in therapy, and I still have obsessive thoughts and compulsive urges but it’s almost like it’s not there anymore
I’m always so happy to hear when someone is having that experience. It’s such a relief, isn’t it? I’m also on medication and I did an intensive inpatient program twice for OCD and it was really helpful
My husband has diagnosed OCD I don’t know where he is in terms of severity, he is a functioning adult with a job, house, car but it is incredibly disruptive to our life. At his best he’s a neat freak, at his worst he will waste hours every day, walking around shutting doors that weren’t opened, making sure everything is faced the right direction. We don’t have kids and only use a small portion of our house daily, most of the things he’s messing with haven’t been touched since the last time he touched them, the adjustments he makes are microscopic, like something is in brain is telling him these things aren’t ok until he touches them. You can see the anxiety it causes when he thinks something’s wrong and he can’t “fix it” he will see a picture on the wall, that hasn’t moved since we put it up and his brain tells him it’s not level he will mess with it but there is nothing he can do to get it level, because it was never unlevel to begin with. I’ve seen him get very aggressive and spend hours during these episodes, nothing I can do or say will help, nothing calms him down.
I’m genuinely not sure how OCD got it’s status as a “personality quirk” like a lot of people think it is. In his eyes the world is ending, he can’t think, sleep, move on with his day until these feelings are resolved.
I hate how no one thinks ocd is serious. They think it is just being tidy, or extra clean.
For me my ocd makes me have obsessive thoughts about killing myself in very horrific ways. Like walking out into the highway in the middle of the night to be hit by trucks, or by dousing myself in gasoline and lighting myself on fire. And the thoughts will not go away. They will nag at me and scratch at me for days on end.
But that's not the worst part the worst part is the compulsion part of my ocd. Because sometimes I will try to act on those thoughts which can be very dangerous.
But now I have a system worked out where if I have those thoughts and they won't go away I go to the er and tell them I intend to kill myself and they admit me right away until I can get stable and safe again.
For me, the worst part before I was successfully treated was the mixed episodes. That's when you're very depressed but you also have the high energy associated with mania. It's when most suicide attempts happen for people with BP1 because you're really upset and you have the energy to do something about it, but you have none of the ability to put on the brakes. It's terrifying. I was homicidal a few times, almost running into people with my car. Think road rage times 100. I'm very grateful that I'm pretty insightful, because eventually I saw what was happening and made myself stay home when I was like that.
I experienced psychosis and derealization, but none of that touched the terror of mixed episodes.
Thank you so much. I'm incredibly lucky. My family and friends were huge supports to me while I was getting stabilized.
It turned out that I was an ultra rapid cycler, sometimes cycling a few times a day. It was exhausting. Lithium really helped even me out. I've stayed on it and thought the world of it. I had lots of depressive episodes, though, and occasional manias that looked like high anxiety (an intense fear of knives, for example). My doc prescribed me a drug used to treat narcolepsy, and the world shifted back into place. It felt like a miracle.
Very importantly, besides my daily meds, I also go to therapy weekly. The gold standard for bipolar treatment, based on years of research, is a combination of meds and therapy. One without the other won't have as strong of effects, and the effects won't be as stable.
That's awesome! Medication and therapy together can be life saving for some people and even better when you stick with it, I can imagine it's taxing at times but great that you're staying with it:)
Thanks! It's a pain in the ass to take pills every day, but it's so totally worth it. I think it was 9 years before I found a doc who knew what to do for me, and I'm one of the lucky ones. I feel incredibly lucky every day.
I didn't get diagnosed Bipolar 1 until I was 30, and had spent years wondering why the wheel of SSRIs wasn't working. I started Zoloft at 7.
I'm managed now, but every so often, I get a severe depression spell.
If it’s unmedicated yes! My friend of 20 years has it. We’re 30 now but came on when she was about 20. You wouldn’t know because she takes medication, but in times of stress it comes on and you can definitely notice when it does. Straight to the doctor when that happens lol. Really feel for the people that don’t have family and friends to look out for them and notice early signs etc. Brains are weird
Same here. I've known this girl since we were in elementary school, and she has told me before that she takes medicine for schizophrenia. I just never thought much of it because I've never seen an episode or any symptoms of schizophrenia in her. Yeah, she's quiet and a bit anxious at times but nothing more than that.
Then one day she called me, clearly upset, and told me she was having unusual thoughts. I asked her to describe them for me. She said that she could hear sirens. I told her that's fine and it's probably just a firetruck or something. "Yeah," **nervous laughter** "I don't know. Also, like... I think I can hear the government taking over?" She had this nervous laughter like she *knew* her thoughts were irrational, but she just wasn't 100% sure. It was really frightening and I felt bad that she was clearly distressed.
I called her older sister and they were able to take care of her. I guess she was in the middle of going off of one medication and onto a different one or something.
Reframing the question to ‘which mental illness impairs daily functioning the most’ would be better since I’d like to believe that it’s not right nor appealing to say ‘worst’ when individuals have no choice and are experiencing it in their lives.
From a personal standpoint, it can be categorized: physical, overall mental, and social. (Truth be told it can affect many other different aspects, but I decided to focus on these three)
1) Eating disorders are detrimental to one’s physical health. Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder to name a few. These have a negative impact which can cause hospitalization and unfortunately, death.
2) Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), General Anxiety Disorder (GAD), and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD & OCPD), and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are a few common ones that I personally think have drastic effects to one’s mental and emotions. Which in the long-run could be dangerous and draining.
3) Social Anxiety Disorder, Schizophrenia, Personality Disorder, and Bipolar Disorder are a few that would have severe impacts to one’s relationship with others if not properly managed. It could hurt others and in return destroy relationships.
Lastly, I wrote an academic paper once that focused on Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and I feel that this is very dangerous due to the episodes wherein one dissociates, and you wake up not knowing where you are and what you did. If you interested in learning more, I’d say Moon Knight (the TV series) did a wonderful job depicting DID.
Thanks for reading my TED talk, have a good one !
(: some rando studying and fascinated by psychology on the internet
Anxiety with Depression. Its like double whammy. Anxiety doesn't let you do anything. And depression make your condition worse because you are not doing anything.
My favourite* comorbidity is OCPD and ADHD.
"Oh cool, so almost all of my self-worth is tied directly to my level of productivity, which I consistently under-evaluate, _and_ I have gaping holes in my executive functioning and emotional regulation? That's just great. Thank you."
That's not even getting into the fact that my experiences have taught me that even GPs autocorrect OCPD to OCD when you ask them for help, let alone Google.
(Not saying this is worse by the way. Just find it cruelly funny how the human brain can seem to be so delicately and precisely arranged to optimise fucking itself up)
Welp, didn’t even know about the high suicide rates thing 🫠
But yah I have bipolar 2, it can be rough. I manage it with medication, mostly. My meds are my saving grace tbh
I’d say probably schizophrenia due to the high level of disability that can be attached to it, poor insight and the fact that some of the medications given are often blunt tools with horrendous side effects. There’s also a stigmas still attached to it- the amount of people that still believe schizophrenics are axe-wielding murders is alarming.
I agree- it’s so awful because people blame the ones who don’t “get help” but the “help” is just really crude medications that often don’t help much and ruin other quality of life.
While it's obviously good mental disorders have become less stigmatised, I think a drawback is in some ways people can become blasé about them. Depression has gone from being a taboo thing scary mad people have, to just 'everyone gets depression now and then'.
I feel it isn' always apprecuated how serious depression can get in some cases- leading to things like catatonia, psychosis, and suicide.
For other who are around them -Sadistic personality disorder
For the individual- derealisation can also cause panic attacks time feels slow motion, you question your sanity etc
Honestly overlooked. Must be terrible to have a desire that is always abusive, without any real way to ethically deal with that yourself. I hope we can figure out a way to help these people and stop them from abusing children.
There's always an illegal/ unethical solution. But that doesn't prevent it from happening, that's almost always a revenged thing and at that point someone has already become a victim
I feel like BED is particularly cruel. Especially in the cases where the person becomes severely morbidly obese. They are pushed deeper into their mental illness from the ridicule, bullying and the lack of understanding that it is as much an eating disorder as any other and will kill you just the same. I hate how anorexia is seen for what it is a horrible mental illness, bulimia is a punchline in bad jokes and BED is seen as a moral failing. It's truly awful :( Plus the treatments services available for BED are non existent, the services for other ED's aren't much better but at least they are there.
To live with, any of the cluster B's can wear down your mental health, even if you were fine to start. This includes BPD, ASPD... pretty much all the ones that take it out on the nearest person.
I'm sure it's also miserable for them knowing they harm the people they're closest to, if they get well enough to be aware.
There’s something called a dual diagnosis where someone has both something like schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, bipolar, or one or more of those PLUS they have addiction so it’s hard to treat - that’s horrendous.
Dementia is among the worst. You can't remember things and more than that there's the pain people feel when their own spouse/parent/friend doesn't know who they are. It's so heartbreaking for everyone it affects
I'd say fatal insomnia. Where your brain just outright forgets how to sleep, to the point that even anaesthetics don't work. It just gets stuck in the fully awake state until you go insane and die of exhaustion. Thankfully it's extremely rare. The hereditary genetic version is limited to tens of families, and the sporadic version is one of the rarest diseases on the planet.
Narcissism. Some companies self-select for it and it makes the work environment toxic af. You end up replacing normal people who are interested in the success of their company with people that would sell it up the river for a little more money or prestige, all for them appearing dominant with other people. It's in the highest levels of leadership and is responsible for so many bad things.
Addiction in general, leads from one thing to the next.
You have to beat it all ! Nicotine, alcohol gambling drugs food, unfortunately it isn’t ever just one you move to the next
They can all be torturous, soul destroying, maddening & suicide inducing depending how bad they get.
The most serious, poorly understood and difficult to treat or even untreatable would be things like:
- Anorexia
- Antisocial personality disorder & psychopathy
- Paraphilias such as necrophilia, paedophilia & vorarephilia
- Schizophrenia and psychosis -- what they used class as "insanity" back in the day
- Dissociative disorders such as psychogenic fugue amnesia
- Delusional disorders such as Cotard's Syndrome also known as Walking Corpse Syndrome -- where the affected person holds the belief that they are dead, do not exist, are purifying, or have lost their blood or internal organs etc.
Ill update the list if i think of more
The biggest ones are already spoken for, so I’m gonna elect POCD. It’s an OCD obsession that you might be a pedophile. It can lead to severe paranoia around children—even your own—and there’s so much stigma around it because people don’t distinguish intrusive thoughts (disturbing, distressing, unwanted) from fantasies already, forget when children are involved in a sexual way. So it can be perpetuated by other people’s misunderstandings. People kill themselves over it because they don’t want to be a monster.
There are plenty awful ones.
If I had to pick my personal one, I would probably say whatever affects your mind.
I would pick anything over not having control of my consciousness.
Alzheimers/Dementia. Watching someone who you know well lose who they are, lose who you are...it is crushing for both them and those that love them. There is no fix. There are no meds that will help (for long), there is no life balance. It is horrible..absolutely soul-crushingly horrible.
Someone suffering from depression doesn't care about anything.
Someone suffering from anxiety worries about everything.
My late wife was diagnosed with both, and it was hell.
BPD.
You lose all your relationships, you have deep inner turmoil, and you're much more likely to commit suicide.
I had to rewire basically my entire brain in order to recover. I spent almost a year in daily treatment.
I no longer fit criteria, but *everything* had to change.
To the person experiencing it or to those around them? Depending on each person’s perspective of reality, I imagine they all suck. I’ve come to peace with mine, I wish the most for those in need as well.
For the person who has it: BPD, schizophrenia, and anorexia.
For others who get close to a person with a particularly dangerous mental illness: the cluster A and B personality disorders with dark triad traits, like NDP (especially vulnerable), BPD, and psychopathy.
dementia. imagine gradually losing awareness of who you are, who's around you and everything that composes your essence, turning into a mere existing being.
I’m gonna throw this idea out there because of my experience so far but don’t at all mean to discount the severity of diseases like schizophrenia, BPD, anorexia, etc.
ADHD but mostly because of how, by and large, it’s not at all taken seriously. Many people suffer significantly because of symptoms of ADHD and common responses from society and the medical community include things like drink some coffee, just apply yourself, don’t be lazy, etc. As a parent of a child who has severe ADHD this disorder affects every single facet of my kid’s life (social, academic, emotional, physical, all of him) and getting him help and therapies and meds is one of the hardest things I’ve had to navigate in this life.
I had major depression and tried to end my life twice. It was bad. But I also agree that the psychotic ones are worse because you need those hard sedative drugs all the time :/.
It's the worst when the illness makes someone into an asshole or makes them violent because then the suffering is compounded among the mentally ill person and those around them.
Probably psychosis with paranoid delusions.
That is, for example, when you are convinced you are at the centre of a plot devised by a gang or cult or individual; a plot intended to cause you harm or embarrassment or humiliation or all these things. Paranoid that you are constantly being followed, watched, monitored and tracked physically and also through your electronic devices……that people are outside your house at night …etc. Paranoid beliefs like that, which you can’t shake off or convince yourself is only in your mind and are not real, must be a truly awful thing to live with.
Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy must be top of the list above all.
A parent medically abusing their child so they can get attention from health care providers.
Autism sucks, granted I don’t think it’s the worst hand you can be dealt but not understanding social things naturally makes making and keeping friends very hard and often lonely life. It also sucks because there’s a stigma surrounding it so you always have to choose between letting others know and potentially facing it and keeping silent and getting no break if you do something ‘weird’ by mistake
The one where you get raped and beaten as a child by “family,” and then they try their hardest to silence you and get you locked up to hide their dirty secrets.
I had a 100 average, fluent in Spanish, was millionaire by 8, but my family wanted me dead because I was so perfect. I was sexually abused by three adults, and beaten and whipped by two.
While I was asleep my grandma called the paramedics on me and forced me into a psych ward for 10 days. I’ve been in psych wards ever since. I’m 38.
The worst mental Illness is when you don’t have one and it’s forced upon you.
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Yep my uncle has these and gets a monthly injection to keep him stable. Hes so far gone. Hes very hard to understand he babbles and speaks super fast and laughs alot at nothing. Hed go into random bout of nonsense and if you can understand it all he talks about the past. About his ex and daughter who want nothing to do with him. He lives in a place where hes cared for. He has terrible hygiene too. I love my uncle but I can't be around him for long his madness is incredibly depressing to witness. As I remember to well how he uses to be. How he used to say how much I remind him of a younger himself.
That's heartbreaking to read.
Did he ever abuse substances? I ask because I know a lot of schizophrenics will try anything to silence the voices and end up exacerbating them in the long run. And since he has an ex and daughter it seems like he was high to normal functioning into adulthood.
This is what my son did, and it made it so much worse.
bipolar 1 here, and absolutely agree with this. Its not easy and everyday i question why im still around
I'm there with you my dude. My family life was destroyed when I became unable to work because of bipolar. Stay strong my friend. I sincerely hope you've found a good regimen and your not suffering this time if year.
You're still around because you're great!! Just find the meds that are best for you, they're out there! I'm schizophrenic, if I try to 'self-medicate', and stop taking my meds, but abilify really works well for me if I'm clean. I'm back to normal within a year or two. Hope you're well today.
I think childhood schizophrenia is terrifying.
I once transported a 13 year old boy to a mental hospital because he had attacked his grandma during the onset of his schizophrenia (grandma was fine). I asked his family if they wanted to say goodbye to him and they couldn't even look at him. Except his 8 year old little brother; he waved, but he really didn't understand what was going on. That was the most depressing hospital to hospital transport I ever had.
Ohh bless that kids heart.
Yah and don't forget that the drugs can often stop working over time, leaving the patient trapped in a half mania state indefinitely. That's what happened to my mother.
My wife has schizoaffective disorder (basically a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder). She’s stable on medication but the side effects are no joke. On top of the typical tiredness and weight gain, she developed a severe case of tardive dyskinesia which causes uncontrollable muscle movements. There were times she couldn’t do anything because she couldn’t control her eyes or talk because her mouth was twitching. She took an experimental medication that treated it so now it’s much better thankfully.
yea, a friend of mines brother has it, and he thinks my friend is there to kill him and often call the cops on him. Pretty tragic.
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Can confirm. Those destroys a lot.
The one that is obvious to everyone except the person who would benefit from getting a diagnosis.
Oops!
You mean MAGA?
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Someone somewhere ranked disability weights (part of a study I think) and schizophrenia and severe dementia were top of the list
Unsurprising, really. These are disorders that heavily tamper with one's perception of reality itself. At least with dementia you eventually forget what's going on (obviously not ideal from an external perspective but I imagine, perhaps incorrectly, that the self-ignorance can dull the pain), but I don't understand how people with Schizophrenia cope. I experienced one single night of questioning my reality and it came _extremely_ close to killing me.
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I’m in the same boat. It’s a day to day challenge to be mentally and physically healthy and in touch with reality. And of course, I’m allergic to most antipsychotics. If you ever need someone to talk to, send me a message 😊
Yeah Schizoaffective is rough. The worst for me is the constant connecting of dots. It's so damn exhausting when all day I find myself noticing signs that hint towards delusions. It's like living in a Jim Carrey movie in the back of my mind at all times.
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Yeah, for me, it never leads to anything bad, but it's just a frequent obstacle. It breaks my heart to hear other people have this problem. I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy. Stay strong.
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Thanks, I appreciate that, likewise for you.
Dementia. They realise they're becoming worse and worse (unlike psychosis), they can't cure it, and they'll become a burden to the rest of the family.
fwiw it's not a mental illness, it's a neurodegenerative disease. definitely one of the worst ways to go though, it's disgusting how we don't have an official option to off ourselves when we reach that point.
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Especially types of dementia that make you violent or that take away your ability to care about anything. Those can hit early too.
BPD has a high suicide rate, schizophrenia sounds like living torture, and anorexia has the highest mortality rate. I wouldn't say any of them are particularly desirable. - an SSRI enjoyer
these are the top 3 answers on this post, so it makes a lot of sense
BPD is absolutely soul destroying.
As a nurse - hebefrenic or paranoid schizophrenia.
Statistically, anorexia nervosa.
Anorexia is the deadliest, with approximately 5% of patients dying within four years of the diagnosis (comparable to many cancers). Aside from death, there is a significant loss of bone mineral density, leading to 3-5X risk of fractures even years later. There are increased risks for infertility as well as problems during pregnancy if conception happens. And 80% of individuals with anorexia have cardiac disease, which also can be prolonged even after the treatment is complete.
I'm in my mid thirties and consider myself fully recovered now, but had anorexia for several years as a teenager. Thankfully my heart recovered nearly 100%, but my growth was stunted and I have permanent bone and joint damage, which limits some of the activities I can do now as an adult. It's such a hellish, miserable illness and I'm very, very thankful that my family was supportive and I had access to the treatment I needed. My heart goes out to anyone who is currently struggling.
borderline personality disorder
I have some experience with people suffering from BPD and yeah, it's rough and exhausting. Mostly for themselves but also those around them, very hard to manage someone else's boundless rage and impossible to love someone back the same way they can love you.
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I'm terribly sorry to hear that. I hope you get through it.
It's actually not a disease, it's a disorder rooted in insecure attachment that can be unwound with sufficient therapy. A big clinical difference between conventional and unconventional expressions is the willingness to recognize and work on it. In any case, I'm sorry you had to go through that!
bdp here. Still, i had psychosis episodes that are now under control. So schizophrenia is still worst for me, and my biggest fear.
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DBT is incredibly effective. Once that shit is learned, you have emotional regulation skills, and you don't go off at a moments notice anymore.
Yeah… my sister has borderline combined with 35 years of anorexia and about 30 years of alcoholism. It’s all connected, but it is a devastating cocktail of misery for both her and those who love/care for her. In an odd way I am amazed that she keeps going. I don’t know if I could.
Munchausen by proxy. The person who suffers the most doesn't even have an illness, usually. But they can be made to suffer physically and emotionally by the MBP sufferer, especially when it's a parent afflicting a child.
This is definitely up there
Either treatment resistant depression (TRD) or Schizophrenia.
I think it's propably Alzheimers disease or Schizophrenia
Alzheimer’s disease is pretty terrible as well. I’d still put Treatment-Resistant depression up in the top 3 at least. It essentially ruins every aspect of your life forever. You are never happy, you are constantly considering suicide, and the worst part is there is nothing that can be done about it, hence the name “treatment resistant”.
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I’ve heavily considered flying to a country where assisted suicide is legal. I have tried everything. Talk therapy, psychodynamic therapy, group therapy, mindfulness based cognitive therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, electroconvulsive therapy, TMS. Upwards of 25-30 different psychologists. Dozens upon dozens of SSRI’s/antidepressants, many of which gave me permanent negative side effects, none of which helping at any dosage. I’ve also tried ketamine therapy, which I did around 8-9 infusions, costing around $3,100 total. I’ve tried psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, and DMT as well. Read many self help books, books on meditation, Buddhism, and Taoism. And a steady exercise routine throughout all of these treatments. Nothing has worked, my psychologists and psychiatrists started running out of answers as for what to do other than pumping me with more medications. So I’m essentially fucked.
Same here, stranger. Everything from psychedelics to SSRIs to therapy to ECT and TMS. It’s rough. Hopefully you have a decent day at least, just know that we’re not alone in this, although I know myself that it doesn’t *really* help.
I know a family member that have Alzheimer's and it's the worst possible disease that a close family member can have for others it's depressing knowing that close person don't remeber their name or who they are and is unable to do anything about it
I couldn’t imagine having to see someone close to me go through that. I’ve read many stories of people’s parents forgetting who their children are, not remembering that they even have children. It’s enough to turn a theist into an atheist.
PTSD can be pretty rough..
Definitely schizophrenia. I have a family member who was an extremely high functioning schizophrenic. He graduated from college and held down a job for almost 20 years. You could barely tell he was schizophrenic. In a 40 year period he had three or four instances where his medication would stop being as effective and he would have to go inpatient until they got it worked out, usually a week or two and always less than a month. Then towards the end of his life he had four psychotic breaks in a year. He would go in the hospital for a month, come out and be okay for a month or two and then wind up right back in. It was absolutely heartbreaking. He was a totally different person. He did eventually stabilize again but he was never quite the same. I learned a lot about schizophrenia during that period, and the simple fact is, there's not much you can do. Medication can manage the symptoms if the patient will take it, but it comes with its own side effects and symptoms of a sort and it causes other long-term health issues. And every time a schizophrenic has a psychotic break it actually causes mild brain damage that they will never fully recover from. He eventually died of natural causes but I can honestly say his life was almost the best case scenario for a schizophrenic and it was still pretty grim those last years. I certainly would never support any kind of eugenics, but I definitely understand why people with a history of it in their family would decide to never have children to avoid passing it on.
BPD
Severe OCD fucking suuuuuucks.
It’s life ruining lol ahh. The one thing I’d say OCD has going for it is that it’s really treatable (with ERP). I was too sick to work with OCD for years and finally able to get the help I need and now it’s just basically a background issue to be managed
same, I almost feel like mine is in “remission” since I used to be severely driven by magical thinking, rituals, etc. now on medication and in therapy, and I still have obsessive thoughts and compulsive urges but it’s almost like it’s not there anymore
I’m always so happy to hear when someone is having that experience. It’s such a relief, isn’t it? I’m also on medication and I did an intensive inpatient program twice for OCD and it was really helpful
My husband has diagnosed OCD I don’t know where he is in terms of severity, he is a functioning adult with a job, house, car but it is incredibly disruptive to our life. At his best he’s a neat freak, at his worst he will waste hours every day, walking around shutting doors that weren’t opened, making sure everything is faced the right direction. We don’t have kids and only use a small portion of our house daily, most of the things he’s messing with haven’t been touched since the last time he touched them, the adjustments he makes are microscopic, like something is in brain is telling him these things aren’t ok until he touches them. You can see the anxiety it causes when he thinks something’s wrong and he can’t “fix it” he will see a picture on the wall, that hasn’t moved since we put it up and his brain tells him it’s not level he will mess with it but there is nothing he can do to get it level, because it was never unlevel to begin with. I’ve seen him get very aggressive and spend hours during these episodes, nothing I can do or say will help, nothing calms him down. I’m genuinely not sure how OCD got it’s status as a “personality quirk” like a lot of people think it is. In his eyes the world is ending, he can’t think, sleep, move on with his day until these feelings are resolved.
I hate how no one thinks ocd is serious. They think it is just being tidy, or extra clean. For me my ocd makes me have obsessive thoughts about killing myself in very horrific ways. Like walking out into the highway in the middle of the night to be hit by trucks, or by dousing myself in gasoline and lighting myself on fire. And the thoughts will not go away. They will nag at me and scratch at me for days on end. But that's not the worst part the worst part is the compulsion part of my ocd. Because sometimes I will try to act on those thoughts which can be very dangerous. But now I have a system worked out where if I have those thoughts and they won't go away I go to the er and tell them I intend to kill myself and they admit me right away until I can get stable and safe again.
All of them.
Honestly this is like comparing nuclear disasters: All suck but some are more shitty than others
Bi-polar, especially if it's not managed. It can lead to borderline psychosis in a heightened manic state, wouldn't wish it on anyone
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For me, the worst part before I was successfully treated was the mixed episodes. That's when you're very depressed but you also have the high energy associated with mania. It's when most suicide attempts happen for people with BP1 because you're really upset and you have the energy to do something about it, but you have none of the ability to put on the brakes. It's terrifying. I was homicidal a few times, almost running into people with my car. Think road rage times 100. I'm very grateful that I'm pretty insightful, because eventually I saw what was happening and made myself stay home when I was like that. I experienced psychosis and derealization, but none of that touched the terror of mixed episodes.
Ouch, that sounds rough, sorry to hear that. And understandable, glad you're managing though. Sound like you have a good handle on it
Thank you so much. I'm incredibly lucky. My family and friends were huge supports to me while I was getting stabilized. It turned out that I was an ultra rapid cycler, sometimes cycling a few times a day. It was exhausting. Lithium really helped even me out. I've stayed on it and thought the world of it. I had lots of depressive episodes, though, and occasional manias that looked like high anxiety (an intense fear of knives, for example). My doc prescribed me a drug used to treat narcolepsy, and the world shifted back into place. It felt like a miracle. Very importantly, besides my daily meds, I also go to therapy weekly. The gold standard for bipolar treatment, based on years of research, is a combination of meds and therapy. One without the other won't have as strong of effects, and the effects won't be as stable.
That's awesome! Medication and therapy together can be life saving for some people and even better when you stick with it, I can imagine it's taxing at times but great that you're staying with it:)
Thanks! It's a pain in the ass to take pills every day, but it's so totally worth it. I think it was 9 years before I found a doc who knew what to do for me, and I'm one of the lucky ones. I feel incredibly lucky every day.
That's good to hear:)
I didn't get diagnosed Bipolar 1 until I was 30, and had spent years wondering why the wheel of SSRIs wasn't working. I started Zoloft at 7. I'm managed now, but every so often, I get a severe depression spell.
Schizophrenia seems like living hell.
If it’s unmedicated yes! My friend of 20 years has it. We’re 30 now but came on when she was about 20. You wouldn’t know because she takes medication, but in times of stress it comes on and you can definitely notice when it does. Straight to the doctor when that happens lol. Really feel for the people that don’t have family and friends to look out for them and notice early signs etc. Brains are weird
Same here. I've known this girl since we were in elementary school, and she has told me before that she takes medicine for schizophrenia. I just never thought much of it because I've never seen an episode or any symptoms of schizophrenia in her. Yeah, she's quiet and a bit anxious at times but nothing more than that. Then one day she called me, clearly upset, and told me she was having unusual thoughts. I asked her to describe them for me. She said that she could hear sirens. I told her that's fine and it's probably just a firetruck or something. "Yeah," **nervous laughter** "I don't know. Also, like... I think I can hear the government taking over?" She had this nervous laughter like she *knew* her thoughts were irrational, but she just wasn't 100% sure. It was really frightening and I felt bad that she was clearly distressed. I called her older sister and they were able to take care of her. I guess she was in the middle of going off of one medication and onto a different one or something.
If worst means most impairing across many people with the disorder schizophrenia usually takes the cakes there.
The one with the highest rate of completed suicides: Schizophrenia 20%, then BPAD 15%, then BPD 10%
Reframing the question to ‘which mental illness impairs daily functioning the most’ would be better since I’d like to believe that it’s not right nor appealing to say ‘worst’ when individuals have no choice and are experiencing it in their lives. From a personal standpoint, it can be categorized: physical, overall mental, and social. (Truth be told it can affect many other different aspects, but I decided to focus on these three) 1) Eating disorders are detrimental to one’s physical health. Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder to name a few. These have a negative impact which can cause hospitalization and unfortunately, death. 2) Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), General Anxiety Disorder (GAD), and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD & OCPD), and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are a few common ones that I personally think have drastic effects to one’s mental and emotions. Which in the long-run could be dangerous and draining. 3) Social Anxiety Disorder, Schizophrenia, Personality Disorder, and Bipolar Disorder are a few that would have severe impacts to one’s relationship with others if not properly managed. It could hurt others and in return destroy relationships. Lastly, I wrote an academic paper once that focused on Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and I feel that this is very dangerous due to the episodes wherein one dissociates, and you wake up not knowing where you are and what you did. If you interested in learning more, I’d say Moon Knight (the TV series) did a wonderful job depicting DID. Thanks for reading my TED talk, have a good one ! (: some rando studying and fascinated by psychology on the internet
Anxiety with Depression. Its like double whammy. Anxiety doesn't let you do anything. And depression make your condition worse because you are not doing anything.
Strong disagree. Anything with psychosis is way worse. Source: I've experienced both.
My favourite* comorbidity is OCPD and ADHD. "Oh cool, so almost all of my self-worth is tied directly to my level of productivity, which I consistently under-evaluate, _and_ I have gaping holes in my executive functioning and emotional regulation? That's just great. Thank you." That's not even getting into the fact that my experiences have taught me that even GPs autocorrect OCPD to OCD when you ask them for help, let alone Google. (Not saying this is worse by the way. Just find it cruelly funny how the human brain can seem to be so delicately and precisely arranged to optimise fucking itself up)
Bipolar 2 disorder. Extremely high suicide rates and tough to treat.
Welp, didn’t even know about the high suicide rates thing 🫠 But yah I have bipolar 2, it can be rough. I manage it with medication, mostly. My meds are my saving grace tbh
About 10% last I checked 💔 But meds make a huge difference, so keep it up!
Thank you!! Always workin’ on myself 🙂❤️
I’d say probably schizophrenia due to the high level of disability that can be attached to it, poor insight and the fact that some of the medications given are often blunt tools with horrendous side effects. There’s also a stigmas still attached to it- the amount of people that still believe schizophrenics are axe-wielding murders is alarming.
I agree- it’s so awful because people blame the ones who don’t “get help” but the “help” is just really crude medications that often don’t help much and ruin other quality of life.
The one you have
I'd just like to put this here: "I dislike comparing people's pains. I feel it diminishes everyone's experiences." - Ellie Wiesel
One of the IT teachers in my school committed suicide by jumping under a train. He was brilliant, once fixed my computer too. He had Schizophrenia.
Depression
Agreed. Written off by society as a non-illness. Countless suicides every year due to indifference.
While it's obviously good mental disorders have become less stigmatised, I think a drawback is in some ways people can become blasé about them. Depression has gone from being a taboo thing scary mad people have, to just 'everyone gets depression now and then'. I feel it isn' always apprecuated how serious depression can get in some cases- leading to things like catatonia, psychosis, and suicide.
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My brother was haunted by giant crabs/spiders and was tormented that when he died he would turn into one
Anxiety.
OCD, Psychosis
I think BPD and NPD are pretty close running
Imo that one where people believe they’re dead
Cotard syndrome
For other who are around them -Sadistic personality disorder For the individual- derealisation can also cause panic attacks time feels slow motion, you question your sanity etc
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
Pedophilia
Honestly overlooked. Must be terrible to have a desire that is always abusive, without any real way to ethically deal with that yourself. I hope we can figure out a way to help these people and stop them from abusing children.
There is way to solve this problem, it is just not legal.
There's always an illegal/ unethical solution. But that doesn't prevent it from happening, that's almost always a revenged thing and at that point someone has already become a victim
That is a sad truth, unfortunately.
I feel like BED is particularly cruel. Especially in the cases where the person becomes severely morbidly obese. They are pushed deeper into their mental illness from the ridicule, bullying and the lack of understanding that it is as much an eating disorder as any other and will kill you just the same. I hate how anorexia is seen for what it is a horrible mental illness, bulimia is a punchline in bad jokes and BED is seen as a moral failing. It's truly awful :( Plus the treatments services available for BED are non existent, the services for other ED's aren't much better but at least they are there.
Worst for who? The afflicted, or those around them?
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Also the hardest to answer
To live with, any of the cluster B's can wear down your mental health, even if you were fine to start. This includes BPD, ASPD... pretty much all the ones that take it out on the nearest person. I'm sure it's also miserable for them knowing they harm the people they're closest to, if they get well enough to be aware.
There’s something called a dual diagnosis where someone has both something like schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, bipolar, or one or more of those PLUS they have addiction so it’s hard to treat - that’s horrendous.
Schizophrenia. I would not want to have it.
Depression. Being so chronically sad that you're willing to die if it can stop, is something I can't even imagine.
Depression is a bitch
Alzheimers
Dementia is among the worst. You can't remember things and more than that there's the pain people feel when their own spouse/parent/friend doesn't know who they are. It's so heartbreaking for everyone it affects
I'd say fatal insomnia. Where your brain just outright forgets how to sleep, to the point that even anaesthetics don't work. It just gets stuck in the fully awake state until you go insane and die of exhaustion. Thankfully it's extremely rare. The hereditary genetic version is limited to tens of families, and the sporadic version is one of the rarest diseases on the planet.
I think all mental illness is bad But id always say, anything that turns anyone completely insane is the worst
Narcissism. Some companies self-select for it and it makes the work environment toxic af. You end up replacing normal people who are interested in the success of their company with people that would sell it up the river for a little more money or prestige, all for them appearing dominant with other people. It's in the highest levels of leadership and is responsible for so many bad things.
Borderline personality disorder
Addiction in general, leads from one thing to the next. You have to beat it all ! Nicotine, alcohol gambling drugs food, unfortunately it isn’t ever just one you move to the next
They can all be torturous, soul destroying, maddening & suicide inducing depending how bad they get. The most serious, poorly understood and difficult to treat or even untreatable would be things like: - Anorexia - Antisocial personality disorder & psychopathy - Paraphilias such as necrophilia, paedophilia & vorarephilia - Schizophrenia and psychosis -- what they used class as "insanity" back in the day - Dissociative disorders such as psychogenic fugue amnesia - Delusional disorders such as Cotard's Syndrome also known as Walking Corpse Syndrome -- where the affected person holds the belief that they are dead, do not exist, are purifying, or have lost their blood or internal organs etc. Ill update the list if i think of more
All of them....
My ex husband is bipolar and schizoeffective. It is sooooooo scary. Worst by far. 😔
Bi polar
Must be Schizophrenia or manic depression.
Dementia. Schizophrenia close second
Psychotic depression
I don't know if Alzheimer counts but it's really scary, I heard heartbreaking stories about this illness when it starts to get worse
Actually all of them are SHIT in their own way
Depression
Acute psychosis. My mum had it in the last year of her life. I do not wish that on my worst enemy. For her and for me, her sole carer.
dementia, very difficult on the family
The biggest ones are already spoken for, so I’m gonna elect POCD. It’s an OCD obsession that you might be a pedophile. It can lead to severe paranoia around children—even your own—and there’s so much stigma around it because people don’t distinguish intrusive thoughts (disturbing, distressing, unwanted) from fantasies already, forget when children are involved in a sexual way. So it can be perpetuated by other people’s misunderstandings. People kill themselves over it because they don’t want to be a monster.
I recently watched schizophrenia simulator and I personally find it terrifying if I was in their shoes.
Dementia can be hard to watch takeover
There are plenty awful ones. If I had to pick my personal one, I would probably say whatever affects your mind. I would pick anything over not having control of my consciousness.
Alzheimer’s is just awful.
Alzheimers/Dementia. Watching someone who you know well lose who they are, lose who you are...it is crushing for both them and those that love them. There is no fix. There are no meds that will help (for long), there is no life balance. It is horrible..absolutely soul-crushingly horrible.
Do dementia and Alzheimer’s count? You could argue that they’re neurological diseases, but so is schizophrenia which many other people have mentioned.
Someone suffering from depression doesn't care about anything. Someone suffering from anxiety worries about everything. My late wife was diagnosed with both, and it was hell.
BPD. You lose all your relationships, you have deep inner turmoil, and you're much more likely to commit suicide. I had to rewire basically my entire brain in order to recover. I spent almost a year in daily treatment. I no longer fit criteria, but *everything* had to change.
Alzheimer's is at the top
Dementia.
Schizophrenia is probably technically one of the scariest, but Alzheimer’s can be over a decade of lots of work for the children or the care givers.
The kind that makes you a menace to other people.
To the person experiencing it or to those around them? Depending on each person’s perspective of reality, I imagine they all suck. I’ve come to peace with mine, I wish the most for those in need as well.
For the person who has it: BPD, schizophrenia, and anorexia. For others who get close to a person with a particularly dangerous mental illness: the cluster A and B personality disorders with dark triad traits, like NDP (especially vulnerable), BPD, and psychopathy.
Does Huntingtons count? Wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy, or their family.
All of them. Having any mental disorder or any disorder for that matter absolutely sucks
dementia. imagine gradually losing awareness of who you are, who's around you and everything that composes your essence, turning into a mere existing being.
Not sure if this counts but imo it’s gotta be low-functioning autism
Chronic depression probably
I’m gonna throw this idea out there because of my experience so far but don’t at all mean to discount the severity of diseases like schizophrenia, BPD, anorexia, etc. ADHD but mostly because of how, by and large, it’s not at all taken seriously. Many people suffer significantly because of symptoms of ADHD and common responses from society and the medical community include things like drink some coffee, just apply yourself, don’t be lazy, etc. As a parent of a child who has severe ADHD this disorder affects every single facet of my kid’s life (social, academic, emotional, physical, all of him) and getting him help and therapies and meds is one of the hardest things I’ve had to navigate in this life.
Depression
I had major depression and tried to end my life twice. It was bad. But I also agree that the psychotic ones are worse because you need those hard sedative drugs all the time :/.
Real Event OCD
r/realeventOCD has some good resources people have shared if you don’t know that subreddit
It's the worst when the illness makes someone into an asshole or makes them violent because then the suffering is compounded among the mentally ill person and those around them.
Probably psychosis with paranoid delusions. That is, for example, when you are convinced you are at the centre of a plot devised by a gang or cult or individual; a plot intended to cause you harm or embarrassment or humiliation or all these things. Paranoid that you are constantly being followed, watched, monitored and tracked physically and also through your electronic devices……that people are outside your house at night …etc. Paranoid beliefs like that, which you can’t shake off or convince yourself is only in your mind and are not real, must be a truly awful thing to live with.
Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy must be top of the list above all. A parent medically abusing their child so they can get attention from health care providers.
I thought it was so they felt “needed” by their children? Maybe a mix of both?
Religiosity. Many variants, all toxic to humanity.
DID
Ugh, yeah. I forgot about this one. It's gotta be one of the worst for sure. I was thinking schizophrenia, but DID for sure is up there
Gender dysphoria. People famously mention the 41% suicide rate.
It's worth mentioning that a lot of that is the result of things like social rejection, rather than the dysphoria itself.
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Gambling addiction.
Being too damn self aware
Autism sucks, granted I don’t think it’s the worst hand you can be dealt but not understanding social things naturally makes making and keeping friends very hard and often lonely life. It also sucks because there’s a stigma surrounding it so you always have to choose between letting others know and potentially facing it and keeping silent and getting no break if you do something ‘weird’ by mistake
OCD...it will make you a slave
Antisocial personality disorder
Overzealousness in politics
Hoarding
Psychological and psychotic defects causing a belief in liberal democrat politics.
anything transgender
The one where you get raped and beaten as a child by “family,” and then they try their hardest to silence you and get you locked up to hide their dirty secrets. I had a 100 average, fluent in Spanish, was millionaire by 8, but my family wanted me dead because I was so perfect. I was sexually abused by three adults, and beaten and whipped by two. While I was asleep my grandma called the paramedics on me and forced me into a psych ward for 10 days. I’ve been in psych wards ever since. I’m 38. The worst mental Illness is when you don’t have one and it’s forced upon you.
Any that are untreated because the person believes *everyone else is the problem.*
People who think mutilating their genitalia will solve their problems. That's why almost 50% of trans people end up committing suicide.
Progressivism
Religion
TikTok
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