I know this is a highly unpopular opinion, but I believe there is a difference between mental illness and physical illness. There is typically at least some sem

I know this is a highly unpopular opinion, but I believe there is a difference between mental illness and physical illness. There is typically at least some semblance of control over mental illness. Yes it may not be constructive to "victim blame", but doing the exact opposite and assuming absolutely no responsibility for bettering your own mental situation is equally unconstructive. Unlike a physical illness, a mental illness can not be cured by popping a pill. Typically it requires some effort on the part of yourself to fix it. For example, I used to have OCD. To fix it, I had to make a huge concentrated effort on my part. This meant moving to a new environment, forcing myself to be social to get out of my head, and basically just making a concerted effort not to be OCD. If I had the mentality that "oh it's not my fault, I'm a victim", then I never would have taken the extraordinary amount of effort required to overcome it. And same goes for depression. Most depressed people could fix it by making some massive lifestyle changes (eg. being more social, exercising more, changing their environment, making new friends, changing their outlook on life). Anti-depressants might temporarily boost you by numbing you to your pain, but they're not going to solve your fundamental issues. So to summarize: yes it may not be helpful to "victim blame", but relinquishing people of any responsibility for their own mental problems (excluding conditions like autism) most certainly isn't helpful either, and if anything seems more harmful because there's no semblance of control over it. The cure to alcoholism is to stop drinking, and having a victim mentality will definitely prevent you from curing it.