Mental Disorder

[Vonny]

I never thought I'd ever start a thread here, because I feel vulnerable doing so. I feel that someone could drop a bomb on it. In fact, I didn't intend to post on this forum when I joined. I was here for a couple of months before I posted.

I generally don't fit in socially. I do well with people who know me, but not in anonymous groups.

I don't have mental illness exactly, but I have some disorders which resulted from severe childhood abuse. For one, I experience dissociation. In stressful times I tend to just kind of leave me body. Sometimes I have feelings of unreality or being in a dreamlike state. Usually I know what I'm doing, but some part of me is absent or altered, and my judgement can be a bit impaired. At times I'm fine and completely present, and then I can just drift into this other state to varying degrees. There are also times, occasionally when I do things without awareness and I only realize later my actions.

I guess I tend to trust men more than women because of my experiences, and two of my brothers are people I can trust.

I know that I shouldn't have been posting on the "why is the male body ugly" thread. I do know this. But I was also shifting into this other consciousness a bit.

Also, I have been extremely, extremely sleep deprived lately.

I have trouble figuring out who the characters are and what is going on here.

I did come to this site for the literature.

I will probably be corrected for starting a thread that seems personal in nature.

It's just that my brother would never make the comment that was made to me tonight on that thread, at post #83. He would never, ever make that comment to anyone, especially after presenting himself as decent and concerned about me earlier.

I don't understand. It is completely out of my experience.

I'm not the the highest functioning person, and I sometimes do things that aren't appropriate, but I don't understand some of the things that high-functioning people do, the people who are well-read and cultured.

I almost feel like saying, "Please don't reply!" because I'm afraid of replies, but I won't say that. And I would like to know why people without mental disorders sometimes seem more disordered than people with mental disorders.

[MystyrMystyry]

Ah Vonny - this is mostly a blog entry, but you do seem to want to know about the human psyche, and you put a lot of effort in your posts.

So called 'normal' posters are just like you, but see that this is a forum and only a bit of an anonymous chat room - you've got a bit of spare time from surfing the net or you're just having lunch, drop in to a thread and read it, don't take it too seriously even if it's in the serious section

People playing with ideas, proscribing hypothetical moral dilemmas, discussing their favorite authors (and even, occasionally, favorite books, plays and movies), what we're doing is typing text on a monitor and amazed at the text answering us on the same monitor.

Most of the people on here are reconciled to and content with the idea that they may never meet, but they already have enough going on in their lives to fill the gap - why confuse it with trying to entertain people you only have the vaguest knowledge of? (Just like reality, really)

Lighten up a little, and sure, use a forum as a confessional - no-one will remember anything you say this time next week (unless you keep belaboring your problems all through next week - and then they'll know to steer clear!)

If you have something to say, then be thankful someone's there to read it, but why try to work out who's who? Look at all the crazy monikers around here.

If someone abuses you, they're dong it for fun - just give it to them back, see it for what it is, not what it isn't.

[Gladys]

It's just that my brother would never make the comment that was made to me tonight on that thread, at post #83.

Having just read posts relating to #83, it seems to me that the post is ironical in that the poster is arguing that, in certain unusual circumstances and settings, the suggestive appearance may be appropriate and even the norm. This observation seems harmless to me.

[Bluehound]

I have to agree with the others Vonny, the post you mention is just meant as a joke.

It is very common for men to talk about girls in that way, especially groups of them in bars.
“She looks dirty” can mean that she is sexy in a slutty way and you would expect her to “do” things a nice girl (you might take home to meet your mum) would never do.
I don’t believe it was remotely directed at you or meant to insult you in anyway.




Both of my parents have suffered breakdowns so I have had some experience of such things. I get worried sometimes when I do something a bit daft or out of character, I wonder if I am headed the same way as them. But you know what; everyone does daft, out of character and even sometimes down right crazy stuff. So either we are all mad or everyone experiences a puff of it now and again.
I know which one of them I think is true.

[Panglossian]

Mental disorder is as normal as being naked in a dream. You can't fly through the weather systems of life without passing through some turbulence. And those who do seem to avoid mental disorder - I always think there must be something wrong with them!

[The Atheist]

Also, I have been extremely, extremely sleep deprived lately.



Luckily maybe, I have no idea what's prompted this as that thread has about as much interest for me as would one on macrame.

:D

Only one thing matters here:

Get some sleep.

Whether it requires time off work, time out from a relationship, or even time away from the keyboard, you need sleep. Sleep deprivation plus susceptibility to mental issues is extremely bad. Whatever is going on, get rested.

The best way to do this is by doing physical exercise. Lots and lots of it, if necessary.

Nothing else actually matters, so once you've done that, come back and talk again.

[Vonny]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

My perception of the "male body" thread just made a dramatic improvement!

[Buh4Bee]

You're not alone. This place is crawling with suppressed nut-jobs. I could send you a list. Don't worry about it. I have that happen to me sometimes. I miss read a response and get all heated; I have just gotten myself work up for no reason since I have completely misread a response. It's good to check in with someone. Sometimes I have fellow Litnetters help me comprehend or even Mr. Jersea. You're not the only one!

[Vonny]

You're not alone. This place is crawling with suppressed nut-jobs. I could send you a list. Don't worry about it. I have that happen to me sometimes. I miss read a response and get all heated; I have just gotten myself work up for no reason since I have completely misread a response. It's good to check in with someone. Sometimes I have fellow Litnetters help me comprehend or even Mr. Jersea. You're not the only one!

Wow, I'm surprised you understand me Jersea. Thanks for replying. I'd normally ask my brother or friend what they think about this, but they don't "do" forums, and they'd just say, "What are you doing going to a forum?"

I was badly repulsed last night when that happened.

What happened is that he warned me of stalkers and trolls, and suddenly it was like cold water in my face, because I realized what I was doing. And then I remembered that his name is the same as my older brother's, and my brother David definitely would be upset to know that I'm on a forum! ...so my mind sometimes connects things in a weird way, I guess I thought he was a normal person, and then when he made this disgusting remark, I did almost have a heart attack. My brother David wouldn't ever, under any circumstances, want a cheap and dirty girl. He would never joke that way, because he doesn't think that way. My gay brother has never said anything like that about a guy, either. ...Now, I understand that I made a mistake making that connection, because my brother David would never call himself a saint... I understand that I made a mistake.

And then I feel that I'll be reprimanded for this thread. I feel that if I talk at all, I will be reprimanded by someone.

[G L Wilson]

Look, Vonny. I am a schizophrenic. I hear voices. But my opinion is just as valuable here as the next bloke's. You are a valued person, Vonny, people love you, perhaps not these people but people. Always remember it, Vonny, always remember it. You are not an animal, you are a human being.

[Vonny]

Look, Vonny. I am a schizophrenic. I hear voices. But my opinion is just as valuable here as the next bloke's. You are a valued person, Vonny, people love you, perhaps not these people but people. Always remember it, Vonny, always remember it. You are not an animal, you are a human being.

How funny, I do "cross over" at times. I'm more susceptible to those symptoms than the average person. I took some cough syrup containing codeen (I don't know how to spell that) a couple of months ago, and I was seeing little furry animals running around in my house, I was hearing voices. Oh, it was crazy!

I also could relate to the person who was recently banned. He was accused of creating graffiti. Not long ago I went into my bedroom and there was large writing on my wall in pencil, in my handwriting! I thought, "How did that get there?" That is not something I'd ever do. But I had been at home alone, and it was in my own handwriting. Really weird!

Anyways, you were just too funny and brilliant on that trolling thread!!

I do kind of think I'm an animal though, at least I hope I am!

Thank you!


I guess I should end my thread now before the mods get upset with my blog.

[prendrelemick]

Don't worry Vonny, I love the stuff you put on here, you have been a real breath of fresh air.

Everyone has mental aberrations I have recently been through a period of sleep deprivation, and I can tell you I cringe when I think of some of the things I said and did.

The sort of confessional stuff you post is often seen in the blog section, where people feel free to unload their thoughts, and getting confessional adds real value to the posts.

The rest of the site is more about argument /disscussion and conversation, so there is room for all opinions and atitudes.

[G L Wilson]

The confessional strips you naked. Swing that dick, Vonny.

[Vonny]

Thanks very much you all. I just want to add one final post.

I just suddenly understood that what happened is that person's sense of humor.

That completely flew by me.

[JuniperWoolf]

You're not alone. This place is crawling with suppressed nut-jobs.

Hear hear. I'd say that about half of the people on this forum are suffering from depression of varying degrees. I can think of five off the top of my head that have mentioned previous attempts at suicide. I personally have had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder since I was nine (don't ask). I think it might have something about a faceless forum that naturally attracts people with psychological disorders.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I went through depression in high school. Nothing as severe as wanting to commit suicide (it never even seemed an option), but it was not pleasant. I would even describe it as depression, because that makes people think you're sad. I wasn't sad, it was like I was empty--that there was no emotion at all. And there was severe paranoia--I was always anxious about what people were thinking about me, always thinking they knew something was wrong with me. I went to the doctor and he put me on Zoloft, and in about two-or-three weeks I was back to normal, and have felt so ever since. I guess it's been about seven years. I've contemplated going off Zoloft, but I figure why mess with it? I don't ever want to feel like that again.

[jajdude]

The world is not a sane place. If you are sane, functioning OK, usually, not suffering too much from emotional problems, then maybe you are doing better than average.

[The Atheist]

Hear hear. I'd say that about half of the people on this forum are suffering from depression of varying degrees.

I have run polls on internet fora many times in the past, because it certainly seems that way, and the results indicated that there is indeed a higher percentage of posters on fora that admit to mental illness, but I'm not sure the actual number is higher or lower than in "normal" society.

[Paulclem]

I have run polls on internet fora many times in the past, because it certainly seems that way, and the results indicated that there is indeed a higher percentage of posters on fora that admit to mental illness, but I'm not sure the actual number is higher or lower than in "normal" society.

I have read or heard that 1 in 4 people expereince some kind of mental illness - depression etc - at some time. That's a UK figure.

[The Atheist]

I have read or heard that 1 in 4 people expereince some kind of mental illness - depression etc - at some time. That's a UK figure.

That seems to hold true worldwide.

There are five people in our family.

:D

[G L Wilson]

That seems to hold true worldwide.

There are five people in our family.

:D

My whole family is nuts - what are you talking about?

[virginiawang]

Mental disorders are terms minted by psychiatrists to earn benefits and their status. I would like to recommend cchr, an organization against psychiatry, and Scientology, a branch of Christian church that is also against psychiatry, to my friends here, because they disclosed many ugly facts about psychiatry in their websites.
Each human being is created in a unique manner, so to be different can be expected. If everyone is the same, it is a dead world.

[Venerable Bede]

Mental disorders are terms minted by psychiatrists to earn benefits and their status. I would like to recommend cchr, an organization against psychiatry, and Scientology, a branch of Christian church that is also against psychiatry, to my friends here, because they disclosed many ugly facts about psychiatry in their websites.
Each human being is created in a unique manner, so to be different can be expected. If everyone is the same, it is a dead world.

But the fact is that mental disorders do exist. Sure, everyone's different and has their quirks, but if you have voices in your head, or split personalities, that can only be considered a disorder.

[jajdude]

Mental disorders are terms minted by psychiatrists to earn benefits and their status. I would like to recommend cchr, an organization against psychiatry, and Scientology, a branch of Christian church that is also against psychiatry, to my friends here, because they disclosed many ugly facts about psychiatry in their websites.
Each human being is created in a unique manner, so to be different can be expected. If everyone is the same, it is a dead world.

I don't know what these people are saying against psychiatry but I'd like to think it has helped us better understand and treat mental illness. Surely it has as old methods have been replaced with better ones.

[Gladys]

I don't know what these people are saying against psychiatry but I'd like to think it has helped us better understand and treat mental illness.

I'd like to think so too, but evidence in support comes from within psychiatry and is hardly disinterested. Would you trust tobacco industry assessments of smoking on health? Even with conventional medicine, most established treatments eventually prove useless and sometimes harmful.

After an century of modern medicine, so many fatal or disabling conditions no longer affect us. After a hundred or so years of psychiatry, mental illness rates have multiplied. I smell a rat.

[OrphanPip]

I'd like to think so too, but evidence in support comes from within psychiatry and is hardly disinterested. Would you trust tobacco industry assessments of smoking on health? Even with conventional medicine, most established treatments eventually prove useless and sometimes harmful.

After an century of modern medicine, so many fatal or disabling conditions no longer affect us. After a hundred or so years of psychiatry, mental illness rates have multiplied. I smell a rat.

I'd have to disagree Gladys. Psychiatry has a dark past, but since the 70s it has undergone radical reform (Psychiatry after all is modern medicine, it is practiced by MDs not psychologist). Schizophrenics, sufferers of bipolar disease, and those with severe OCD now live much more productive lives than they ever could have hoped to in the past. 50 years ago a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia would have meant a lifetime in a padded cell, now many of them can hold jobs and live normal lives if effective medication can be found.

We could signal out neurologist and complain that they have yet to cure Alzheimer's or MS, but there is great value in those treatments which at least improve quality and length of life for those suffering from those fatal diseases.

I would probably agree that psychoanalysis is largely bunk. The "speaking cure" pioneered by Freud is an effective therapeutic, but current research suggest that it is the social aspect rather than any special insight of the psychologist which helps the patient.

[G L Wilson]

As a mental outpatient, I am bloody thankful to modern medicine.

[virginiawang]

But the fact is that mental disorders do exist. Sure, everyone's different and has their quirks, but if you have voices in your head, or split personalities, that can only be considered a disorder.

To have voices in one's head or to have one's personality split does not hurt anybody else, and if one enjoys having these, it is perfectly OK to keep them, for they are some of those endowments bestowed by God. To look at it from another point of view, modern psychiatry hurts minds and brains in order to fix the problems, which more often than not are not problems at all. Those who've been healed lose their function against their will. They cannot think fast, memorize well, and feel earnestly. Nobody has a right to deprive people of their sanity, with which they were born.

[jajdude]

Wow, just wow. I cannot reply to that.

[Vonny]

I have a reply for someone who talks about God and wants to eliminate all mental health services, when I get a chance to type it.

[G L Wilson]

I have a reply for someone who talks about God and wants to eliminate all mental health services, when I get a chance to type it.

She is obviously unwell, Vonny, leave her be.

[Gladys]

To have voices in one's head or to have one's personality split does not hurt anybody else, and if one enjoys having these, it is perfectly OK to keep them...

Everyone interprets the many strange happenings in their own head differently. And likewise, happenings in the heads of others. Much is to be said for more tolerance.

Weren't the so-called mentally ill revered as mystics a millennia ago?

[thebagman]

A millennia is a long time ago. Much has changed for the better since then.

[MarkBastable]

After an century of modern medicine, so many fatal or disabling conditions no longer affect us. After a hundred or so years of psychiatry, mental illness rates have multiplied. I smell a rat.

Well, a hundred years ago there was no real way of measuring it - so by what comparison of data do you say that mental illness rates have multiplied?

In the last hundred years, to take an example from another branch of science, the number of components of an atom have multiplied too. So either atomic physicists are making up new particles in order to keep themselves in work; or the improvements in techniques and approaches have led to more particles being identified.

[Gladys]

Well, a hundred years ago there was no real way of measuring it - so by what comparison of data do you say that mental illness rates have multiplied?

I offer you one telling example from The Americanization of Mental Illness (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/magazine/10psyche-t.html). There many others, including the rocketing rates of depression in Japan in the past decade following advertising campaigns by multinational drug companies.


Western ideas did not simply obscure the understanding of anorexia in Hong Kong; they also may have changed the expression of the illness itself. As the general public and the region’s mental-health professionals came to understand the American diagnosis of anorexia, the presentation of the illness in Lee’s patient population appeared to transform into the more virulent American standard. Lee once saw two or three anorexic patients a year; by the end of the 1990s he was seeing that many new cases each month.

[Delta40]

Isn't it possible that the so called multiplication of mental health conditions are a socialized default way of coping in an ever increasing pressured society? That is the theory for PMS. Society allows this off the rails behaviour so long as it has a name. Perhaps more and more people are adopting these traits.

[G L Wilson]

Mental illness is terribly common, and modern medicine is not perfect. But at least some care is better than none.

[virginiawang]

Gladys, I really agree with you. As I said in a previous post, CCHR official website can provide evidence for what you proposed here.

[virginiawang]

Mental illness is terribly common, and modern medicine is not perfect. But at least some care is better than none.

If the care is meant to kill the souls of human beings, how is it better? The care mental health offers by way of moden medicine destroys a man's talents, dashes his spirit, makes him a dead living man, a good for nothing, and deprives him of his confidence. It extinguishes his enthusiasm for life in a short space of time because the drug functions quickly in his body.

Will you feel sad when you see a man walk with an unbalanced gait, talk with his mouth watering, and look at you with his eyes fixed, vacantly?

[G L Wilson]

If the care is meant to kill the souls of human beings, how is it better? The care mental health offers by way of moden medicine destroys a man's talents, dashes his spirit, makes him a dead living man, a good for nothing, and deprives him of his confidence. It extinguishes his enthusiasm for life in a short space of time because the drug functions quickly in his body.

Will you feel sad when you see a man walk with an unbalanced gait, talk with his mouth watering, and look at you with his eyes fixed, vacantly?

I have gone through what you describe, and none of what you say is true.

[virginiawang]

I have gone through what you describe, and none of what you say is true.

What do you mean by the phrase go through? What I said is true.

[G L Wilson]

What do you mean by the phrase go through? What I said is true.

I have been the man that I should feel sorry for.

[papayahed]

Isn't it possible that the so called multiplication of mental health conditions are a socialized default way of coping in an ever increasing pressured society? That is the theory for PMS. Society allows this off the rails behaviour so long as it has a name. Perhaps more and more people are adopting these traits.

PMS is came about because society allowed the behaviour? erm, isn't that putting the cart before the horse?

Now, restless leg syndrome....that a whole other story...

[cl154576]

I know this thread has been inactive for a while, but I saw it today and it disturbs me, deeply.

virginiawang, I am not trying to attack you personally. I have seen some of your other posts and I respect them. I understand that someone might have your viewpoint, I merely wish to state that I feel totally, totally differently because of what I have experienced.


To have voices in one's head or to have one's personality split does not hurt anybody else, and if one enjoys having these, it is perfectly OK to keep them, for they are some of those endowments bestowed by God. To look at it from another point of view, modern psychiatry hurts minds and brains in order to fix the problems, which more often than not are not problems at all. Those who've been healed lose their function against their will. They cannot think fast, memorize well, and feel earnestly. Nobody has a right to deprive people of their sanity, with which they were born.

Although I do not personally have schizophrenia, I have been in psychiatric wards with other patients who have it. I would argue that it hurts someone if that person hears voices out of the past constantly playing on their guilt and shame, voices that tell them to hurt themselves and others sometimes.

I was twelve then and in the adolescent wing; right now I am thirteen. I can't claim authority on this subject, but I don't wish to imagine that there are people who would find it anything less than exceedingly, exceedingly painful to see a friend – because this person was extremely friendly, and gentle – screaming, totally transformed, scratching herself hard and hitting other people until the friend is restrained. Personally for a month afterward my dreams were so haunted with shrieks that I was afraid to sleep and forbade myself to sleep until I started fainting from exhaustion.

As for "split personalities," (now called Dissociative Identity Disorder), I don't know anybody with it, but I know it to be classified as a personality disorder (I have a personality disorder and have researched quite a few). A personality disorder is defined as affecting the other people in the person's life more strongly than other disorders like depression and anxiety. There are strong influences. I do not want to make this post overly long so I will post a link here – http://psychcentral.com/lib/?cat=54,60&intersect=1&dissoc=1

Furthermore, I should think that abilities such as thinking quickly and memorizing well cannot be fully made use of if one is constantly attempting suicide. I should also imagine that while many of us mental patients have certain insights given to us by our suffering, when we are suffering we would wish to be comforted.


Mental disorders are terms minted by psychiatrists to earn benefits and their status. ... Each human being is created in a unique manner, so to be different can be expected. If everyone is the same, it is a dead world.

I am not trying to argue in favor of medication. I was on several medications and I quit them secretly because they worsened my symptoms (I have a personality disorder, which cannot be "cured" with medicine, and is sometimes worsened by it). But sometimes medication can be of use if it is administered properly. If by artificially changing moods it can keep your loved one from suicide from a week, many people are willing to try it. It is meant to help one get through a difficult time in one's life, not to tie one down forever. A lot of people are eventually weaned off of it.

Also, psychotherapies (CBT, DBT, Group Therapy, Family Therapy, etc.) do not involve medicine. Even if one is not "mentally ill" many people feeling stressed go to therapists for a while. Therapists are friends if chosen properly. It can be comforting to have someone to listen to you, for anyone.

Without being offensive, I would like to say that your ending lines "If everybody is the same, it is a dead world" can be quite unfair. Imagine you are very wealthy and someone else is very poor, starving, cold, living on the streets, struggling to support a family and begging some support. But the world needs poor people for diversity. If everybody had water to drink and clothes to wear, the world would be a dead world. Of course you can refuse to help. It is in the interest of world diversity.


If the care is meant to kill the souls of human beings, how is it better? The care mental health offers by way of moden medicine destroys a man's talents, dashes his spirit, makes him a dead living man, a good for nothing, and deprives him of his confidence. It extinguishes his enthusiasm for life in a short space of time because the drug functions quickly in his body.

Will you feel sad when you see a man walk with an unbalanced gait, talk with his mouth watering, and look at you with his eyes fixed, vacantly?

I am in treatment for existential depression, PTSD, dissociation, Borderline Personality Disorder, panic attack disorder, and OCD among other more personal issues I don't wish to list here. I don't feel I have a soul. The disorders offered me by way of God's grace have impeded my talents, dashed my spirits, and made me a dead living machine, capable of nothing oftentimes, and left wondering if confidence, love, and joy exist. In a short time (a lot of my issues have developed or become more apparent in the past year) I have lost enthusiasm for everything because these God-given graces function very quickly on me, hurtling me into a situation in which I feel hopelessly trapped.

Will you feel sad when you see me, thirteen years old, cuts all over my arms, legs, hips, and stomach, bruises from being hit, wondering every day how long it is until I succeed in suicide, hating myself desperately, feeling threatened and afraid even now?


Maybe I have said what should not be said. Maybe it would be better if I never wrote this. But I am anonymous, you are anonymous, I haven't spoken openly to anyone for over a year, I feel lonely, and I haven't slept for two nights. I am sorry if it makes you uncomfortable. I can only say this will make me equally as uncomfortable, if not more.

[Delta40]

I've been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder which I think is funny. Borderline of what? and we all have personality traits that are a combination of postiive and negative. I'm not sure what separates me from humankind since it is estimated that 75% of the population have it in one form or the other. I tend to discount this as a mental health issue only because I think BPD is the latest explanation of the consequences of living in a fast moving consumerist society where families are breaking down (God help us that humankind is to blame for dysfunction!) Admittedly I have not researched it at great length and I don't even require medication to manage it. Can't I just embrace my makeup and adopt practical ways to use it to enhance my quality of life?

[Calidore]

Is it a disorder if 75% of the population has it? Sounds like the new ADD.

[cl154576]

If you want to you can view it this way – BPD is just a pattern of interacting with the world, a sort of adjective that describes people with a certain set of traits. 75% of people probably experience scattered parts of it but not the whole concentration, which is quite painful at times. There are some genetic components but I think it's largely environment-influenced ...

http://psychcentral.com/lib/2007/symptoms-of-borderline-personality-disorder/
There are a few decent memoirs including Get Me Out of Here (Rachel Reiland) and Buddah and the Borderline (Kiera Van Gelder).

I don't view it as defining who I am, just as a description for a particular trend of behaviors and emotions I have in common with some other people who "have" it.

Should I leave these forums? I feel quite ashamed now ...

[JuniperWoolf]

Should I leave these forums? I feel quite ashamed now ...

Don't be, you'd be suprised by how ****ed up some of us are. We're just not as open with it as you. I have PTSD too, and I've spent time in a psych ward in my mid-late teens. No big deal.


I was twelve then and in the adolescent wing; right now I am thirteen.

I know that this is outrageously off topic and somewhat superficial, but you're thirteen years old?

[Delta40]

If you want to you can view it this way – BPD is just a pattern of interacting with the world, a sort of adjective that describes people with a certain set of traits. 75% of people probably experience scattered parts of it but not the whole concentration, which is quite painful at times. There are some genetic components but I think it's largely environment-influenced ...

http://psychcentral.com/lib/2007/symptoms-of-borderline-personality-disorder/
There are a few decent memoirs including Get Me Out of Here (Rachel Reiland) and Buddah and the Borderline (Kiera Van Gelder).

I don't view it as defining who I am, just as a description for a particular trend of behaviors and emotions I have in common with some other people who "have" it.

Should I leave these forums? I feel quite ashamed now ...

Definitely don't leave! You described what I feel about BPD beautifully!

[The Atheist]

Should I leave these forums? I feel quite ashamed now ...

You shouldn't do either. I give you plenty of kudos for writing it down instead of keeping it in.

But you gotta sleep. Sleep is the enemy of a happy brain and life. Work out physically until you're tired enough to sleep.

Get some sleep!

The come back and tell us how much better you feel.

[Revolte]

I have been battling Panic Disorder for over a year now, while I managed to slip it into the depths of my mind, the physical ailment never went away. I also suspect that I have Manic Depression, seeing as how my moods are always extreme and can shift suddenly. But I refuse to go to the docs for it. If I told them all the things I feel are true I would be locked up in the mental hospital, not to mention my history with attempted suicide.

I do not however believe we dont have mental disorders, I don't think they are disorders at all. I think they are part of who we are, and considering how many people have them, I would say it's more normal then not to have them, and if anything not having them would be the disorder. Life is rough, we experience trauma that will mess us up really bad. If one wasn't to be affected, that would be the greater worry.

google "The Icarus Project". That's the view I have and it and it's people give me a lot of comfort when I experience extreme states.

Again we don't have mental disorders, we have personality blessings.

[G L Wilson]

You shouldn't do either. I give you plenty of kudos for writing it down instead of keeping it in.

But you gotta sleep. Sleep is the enemy of a happy brain and life. Work out physically until you're tired enough to sleep.

Get some sleep!

The come back and tell us how much better you feel.

Well said. Laddie or lass, you stick around, right? That's an order.

[echo75]

I love my forums for ADD management. It's the hidden disability. It's one of those high functioning things that can catch on a fence when you are running and looking the other way. It can take you down and those all around you as well if you don't watch it. I'm no stranger to the pyche ward myself, but I had no diagnosis when I was discharged. Anxiety is my constant companion as well as slight heightened moments of paranoia. I often can't regulate my emotions and get way too overstimulated when I am around too many people. I fatigue quickly and need meds to think/function. I am a very unpleasant person to be around most often. This is why the forum is a great outlet as long as it doesn't get me paranoid or crazy, as can happen when the boards go up in flames. Wink-- Wilson. Seems like you can take a joke now.

How's that for a confession? I think you should stay on the boards as long as they are serving a purpose for you such as socialization, mental stimulation, or for a friendly nod when needed.

[cl154576]

I know that this is outrageously off topic and somewhat superficial, but you're thirteen years old?

Yes, I'm thirteen ... i jus dont rite laik diz

Thank you everyone for your support.

[Gladys]

I do not however believe we dont have mental disorders, I don't think they are disorders at all. I think they are part of who we are, and considering how many people have them, I would say it's more normal then not to have them, and if anything not having them would be the disorder. Life is rough, we experience trauma that will mess us up really bad. If one wasn't to be affected, that would be the greater worry.

Listening to a podcast this week I learned that some highly lauded, long-term, fighter pilots in WWII escaped PTSD but, long after the war, coped worse psychologically that those that had succumbed. Human psychology is far from simple.


Again we don't have mental disorders, we have personality blessings.

A glass half-full perspective makes sense. I wonder whether, a millennium on, any "mental illness" conditions will be entirely cured by medical means. Perhaps, one or two?

[cl154576]

I wonder whether, a millennium on, any "mental illness" conditions will be entirely cured by medical means. Perhaps, one or two?

Depends on what "cure" means. Right now, there's no claim to a cure for anything. Maybe ECT is a "cure" but as far as I know medications are supposed to help, not cure.

[G L Wilson]

The best cure for mental illness ever found is love and attention, I say.

[cl154576]

The best cure for mental illness ever found is love and attention, I say.

If you can accept it.
When people try to do that for me I think they are lying.

[G L Wilson]

If you can accept it.
When people try to do that for me I think they are lying.

"To find love, one must first love."

It's not always easy but strength comes from finding your way.

[Gladys]

If you can accept it.
When people try to do that for me I think they are lying.


"To find love, one must first love." It's not always easy but strength comes from finding your way.

Perhaps, a little hope helps here.



"Hope" is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—

And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—
And sore must be the storm—
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm—

I've heard it in the chillest land—
And on the strangest Sea—
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb—of Me.

Emily Dickinson

[cl154576]

Perhaps, a little hope helps here.

The things with feathers have a tendency to fly away too easily.
Hope, for what?

[G L Wilson]

The things with feathers have a tendency to fly away too easily.
Hope, for what?

Hope because there is nothing else better to do.

[Gladys]

The things with feathers have a tendency to fly away too easily.

Indeed. Tread lightly so as not to frighten it off its perch.


Hope, for what?

Hope for love? Both from yourself and others.

[Delta40]

I do not however believe we dont have mental disorders, I don't think they are disorders at all. I think they are part of who we are, and considering how many people have them, I would say it's more normal then not to have them, and if anything not having them would be the disorder. Life is rough, we experience trauma that will mess us up really bad. If one wasn't to be affected, that would be the greater worry.

I don't think mental disorders as we know them can be cured. I'd rather take the stance that the tapestry of my being is who I am and my goal is use my uniqueness to better enhance my existence. This includes mood swings and depression. Just as I would not define myself in terms of epilepsy, I fail to see why a person with a mental health diagnosis would have to either. We all face challenges and some mountains may never be climbed but we can adapt to the landscape and use it to our benefit.