I live in Japan where mental illness is only recently being treated properly (at least by healthcare professionals). There is still a huge stigma, words like "menhera" which is short for "mental health" and is a derogatory term (ie: that girl is so menhera), and just general misinformation. People here think of mental illness as a weird introverted girl with cuts on her arms. Men are rarely seen as being menhera, even though there's literally a place called suicide forest and most of the people that go there are men.

Now, my husband is a great guy in all other aspects. He just doesn't really "get" mental illness. When I try to explain my BPD to him that I was diagnosed with in my country, he sort of scoffs and says things like "if you're sick then I guess I'm sick". It's weird because he lived with me through the months I had daily panic attacks. I would start shaking uncontrollably and had him pick me up from work one time because I didn't think I would make it home. He saw these very physical symptoms, but I don't think he knows how to explain it to himself.

I was looking online for hospitals that treat mental illness (I've been thinking of going back to therapy) and there's a clinic that takes brain scans to help with diagnoses. I have never seen this in the West and it seemed so interesting to me. It would also be physical proof that my brain functions differently to his. I'm hoping this might actually make him understand that mental illness is a physical thing but that you just can't see it from the outside. Not believing in mental illness because you can't see it is like not believing someone has appendicitis because you can't see their appendix.

Sorry this was long. Feel free to rant about people around you that don't believe in mental illness or BPD in the comments. Or tell me if you've ever had brain scans done and what the experience was like.