I once heard someone say, in regards to mental illnesses, "Anxiety is so much worse than depression."

I knew this person suffered from both illnesses, so I thought it was a valid statement based on their experience. But I realized, no, it's not. Where was the logic in it?

What was the point of pitting mental illnesses against each other in a scaled hierarchy, ranking which ones are "worse" than others? I can't find one.

It's problematic to claim one mental illness is worse than another. Such a claim is unfair to the people suffering from the illness that is suggested to be "not as bad," or however it would be termed.

What's next? Arguments stating that personality disorders are worse than eating disorders, or vice versa? That bipolar disorder is worse than schizophrenia? It isn't a competition; claims like these don't get us anywhere.

Arguments ranking disorders like this set people up for sticky discussions backed by a wide array of experiences, backgrounds, and stigmas that vary too much to compare. It will lead to people feeling invalidated, that their experiences are invalid, that their feelings don't matter, that they lack reasons to be unhappy because someone else has it worse off than them. It's a lose-lose situation.

All mental illnesses cause disruption in a person's daily life, and all can become worse if left untreated. There is no reason to belittle that.

Disruption manifests itself in different ways from person to person, and disorders vary in how they affect someone's life, but that does not make one person's disorder worse than another. That does not mean that someone else is "better off" or that their illness can't cause as much pain and suffering as another. There is no reason to invalidate someone else's experience.

There are better things for us to do with our time. We could be supporting each other on the path toward recovery, instead of playing the victim in a cruel world.