Mental Illness Thread

[visibleghost]

- snip -

yeah i see what you’re saying and i agree, lying about issues leads to uhh bad things (but that’s another issue kind of sghjkjkkhgfd) and whatever but i still don’t think it’s okay to act like you’re the victim when someone else attempted suicide and to basically say that they aren’t really suffering because they need/want attention lol

both invalidating others’ experiences and bragging or lying about mental health issues for attention or w/e are ****ty things to do, even if there can be reasons behind it doesn’t mean it’s cool lol. i’m really done w the negativity and anti recovery that’s everywhere where mental illness is a topic idk can’t people just drink a kale smoothie and be miserable without intentionally making others miserable too

and w the mental health professional compassion thing Yeah thats partly why therapists are supposed to be in therapy themselves right

I acted like you are now - that if you ever ignored a call or ever had trouble believing it, you have a terrible attitude about it.

also i Would Like To Say That i don’t..... do that. ...
not sure if thats what you meant but it didnt seem like a general ”you” lol and i just want to Clarify things

 

[Acruoxil]

No, I'm mentally healthy

 

[Rhapsody]

yeah i see what you?re saying and i agree, lying about issues leads to uhh bad things (but that?s another issue kind of sghjkjkkhgfd) and whatever but i still don?t think it?s okay to act like you?re the victim when someone else attempted suicide and to basically say that they aren?t really suffering because they need/want attention lol

both invalidating others? experiences and bragging or lying about mental health issues for attention or w/e are ****ty things to do, even if there can be reasons behind it doesn?t mean it?s cool lol. i?m really done w the negativity and anti recovery that?s everywhere where mental illness is a topic idk can?t people just drink a kale smoothie and be miserable without intentionally making others miserable too

and w the mental health professional compassion thing Yeah thats partly why therapists are supposed to be in therapy themselves right

Yeah, I get what you mean. I do think people who are attention seeking are suffering - I mean, they clearly don't know a healthy way to get attention, and 9 times out of 10 they have self esteem issues and are attempting to seek validation from other people when they should be getting actual help instead. After all, that was the issue that I personally had; I kept trying to have other people essentially fix my own issues by constant cries for help instead of looking into methods in which I could help myself. It's fine to come to other people for support, but relying on others as a crux not only hurts them, it also hurts you in the long run because no one human being is able to support you that much.

I don't think in that person's case they were trying to turn it into a contest. But hey, maybe I'm wrong. It's taken me years to get the view of mental health that I have today.

I'm very much in agreement about the anti-recovery thing, too. I think as of late there has been a general shift of encouraging people to stay miserable, which I'm wholeheartedly in disapproval of. I think we should be encouraging people that they're not only worth helping, but it's worth it for them to pursue things that help themselves. If there's a way your life could be better, why deny yourself of it?

also i Would Like To Say That i don?t..... do that. ...
not sure if thats what you meant but it didnt seem like a general ?you? lol and i just want to Clarify things

Ah, I believe I exaggerated in my haste to get that post out of the way since I was anxious while typing it lol. I was worse about it than you were, for sure. I wouldn't suggest that that person couldn't have phrased it better. It's just that nowadays I attempt to understand what someone is trying to say as opposed to how they say it, if that makes any sense.

 

[WolfyWolf]

I don't feel like I can afford a therapist, while simultaneously being convinced they'd be completely useless.

The best person I ever talked to was a counselor on campus weekly, and even that didn't really solve or resolve anything; it just gave me a space to dump everything with someone who wasn't involved. I guess I just want that again, but since I had that for free I can never justify paying stupid amounts of money, figuring out insurance which I'm going to lose on my next birthday anyway not that I understand how decent my coverage is right now because we don't tell 20 somethings how to be adults in college and then they graduate and four years later have no effing clue!

 

[Metal Scorpion]

I have depression and anxiety-related issues (social and general anxiety) as my mental illnesses.

 

[Rhapsody]

I don't feel like I can afford a therapist, while simultaneously being convinced they'd be completely useless.

The best person I ever talked to was a counselor on campus weekly, and even that didn't really solve or resolve anything; it just gave me a space to dump everything with someone who wasn't involved. I guess I just want that again, but since I had that for free I can never justify paying stupid amounts of money, figuring out insurance which I'm going to lose on my next birthday anyway not that I understand how decent my coverage is right now because we don't tell 20 somethings how to be adults in college and then they graduate and four years later have no effing clue!

To be fair, counselors are absolutely no substitute for actual CBT. They aren't trained like actual therapists are, otherwise they wouldn't be counselors; just doesn't pay as well. CBT isn't really supposed to be about someone listening to you, but rather someone who gives you tools to retrain your brain in order to manage your thoughts and emotions more effectively by turning your line of thinking around. The basic teachings of CBT you can probably just glean online for the most part, though, so if you're looking for free alternatives you could just browse what goes into CBT. It's not really the same as having someone work with you hands-on to address you specifically, but it does give you the general things they go over in CBT.

In addition, another thing you can learn about for free to look into is mindfulness meditation, which I find is helpful as long as you keep with it consistently!

The problem is that a lot of people go to therapists or they go to meditation and believe it's a fix, that it gets rid of the anxiety, that it's a cure. But it's not really a "cure" in the sense that the symptoms will go away. Think of it like having a chronic illness; you're never going to be fully rid of it. CBT and mindfulness meditation act as tools that allow you to manage those symptoms and make the best out of your life with them still there. That might not sound very useful, but it does make a huge difference if you keep with a program or you keep up with mindfulness meditation on a consistent basis for, let's say, a month, as it'll make a noticeable contrast from when you first started the programs. Depression gradually goes from being so crippling you can hardly get out of bed to certainly being there but not stopping you from functioning like a neurotypical human being.

It's the "gradually" part that makes people say that CBT and mindfulness meditation don't work/weren't worth their time. They don't keep up with it consistently because they're expecting instantaneous results. If you want instant results, you're best off talking to your doctor about getting on medication. The problem is that medication comes with a load of side effects, and it's not even guaranteed to work because your brain chemistry isn't the same as your neighbor's and what have you.

 

[Cheshire]

I feel like I’ve been damaged beyond repair a long time ago. But whenever I tried telling anyone about this in the past, I was met with dismissal or ridicule (or both). Ever since then, I‘ve tried to hide it and remain as functional as I can; but it‘s only ever getting worse instead of better. I‘m honestly scared of talking to a therapist.