mental illness vs attention whoring?

[prplchknz]

where do you draw the line?

how do you know which is which?

is it easy to tell?

what are your biases in your decision one way or the other?

 

[Merced]

I think attention whoring is a symptom of mental illness/disorder, so it's hard to say that the people who do it aren't being truthful. (I'm assuming this is talking about people who actually have mental illness vs people who pretend to have mental illness for attention.) I have less sympathy for people who explicitly attention whore or people who are quick to excuse everything they do on mental illness.

In the end, I think it's a matter of finding the proper outlets and the proper help, because attention whoring means you currently don't have one or the other.

 

[prplchknz]

I think attention whoring is a symptom of mental illness/disorder, so it's hard to say that the people who do it aren't being truthful. (I'm assuming this is talking about people who actually have mental illness vs people who pretend to have mental illness for attention.) I have less sympathy for people who explicitly attention whore or people who are quick to excuse everything they do on mental illness.

In the end, I think it's a matter of finding the proper outlets and the proper help, because attention whoring means you currently don't have one or the other.

Im not thinking of them seperately like when is one using mental illness as an excuse to act shitty?

 

[Merced]

Im not thinking of them seperately like when is one using mental illness as an excuse to act shitty?

I wouldn't be able to tell the difference in the act, only afterwards, if that's what you're asking.

 

[prplchknz]

I wouldn't be able to tell the difference in the act, only afterwards, if that's what you're asking.

I don't know anymore

 

[LucieCat]

The line is blurry honestly. I have noticed a lot of people with some degree of mental illness who aggressively seek out attention and drama. And it does correlate well. But that isn't also sufficient evidence to say "Oh look that person is mentally ill," some people just seem to love the spotlight and are very aggressive in pursuing it.

I find that people who do this are often looking for some sort of praise, validation, and love to compensate for a certain insecurity or emptiness/lonliness they feel inside.

I tend to be more sympathetic to these people than anything.

 

[prplchknz]

I wouldn't be able to tell the difference in the act, only afterwards, if that's what you're asking.

yeah i guess that's true, sorry for being dismissive earlier i should've just not answered.

honeslty i'm thinking of the whole kanye shenigans which he is dxed bipolar but i think his actions isn't because of the illness but rather to stay in the lime light.

 

[prplchknz]

you can't really tell, that is all. you can always be wrong online.

 

[Mayflower]

It depends on the situation. You can be one or the other or both. Someone can attract attention as a result of their mental illness (i.e. Schizophrenia). Someone attracts attention deliberately due to their mental illness (i.e. Histrionic). And then there are those that attract attention without having a mental illness and do so deliberately. To identify which, one has to look at it like Jungian functions; the why behind the actions. Example. Take this recent Roseanne controversy. Is she doing it to attract attention or is it a result of her mental illness, or both?

 

[Cellmold]

This is one of those areas where it can be difficult not to appear as if one is denigrating the experiences of others. And I think those who attention seek in the most destructive fashion rely upon that fear as a way to continue to control and gain undue favour from others, particularly as a way of removing accountability from ones actions.

What I have observed is that attention seeking through the proclamation of illness tends towards illnesses that are somewhat vague or struggle to be pinned down. This allows a safe level of doubt that one can fall back on if challenged.

A good example is something like Irlen's Syndrome, which, after nearly 30 years of research, has consistently evaded any settled definition or passed any rigorous testing with regards to empirical evidence.

There is a good article here on the subject: Irlen Syndrome – Science-Based Medicine

Many of these medical treatments or systems, after being discarded by science because they failed in rigorous evaluation, continue on as scientific zombies – unkillable, immune to evidence and reason, going through the motions of life without actually being alive.

Irlen syndrome is yet another example of a medical diagnosis and treatment that was promoted prior to adequate scientific evidence to establish that it is real, and treatments based upon the diagnosis are effective. A quarter of a century later evidence is still lacking, and what evidence we do have that is reasonably rigorous is negative.

The most parsimonious interpretation is that Irlen syndrome is not real. The label is being applied to a heterogeneous group of patient who have many other conditions. Colored lens therapy does not appear to work.

Interestingly a colleague of mine at work had an ex he was dating for a short period of time who he broke up with because he felt she was using him as a crutch for her emotional and mental issues, most notably what appeared to be a mixture of borderline personality disorder and depressive tendencies. However I am reluctant to state this as a fact, hence 'appears', since I am not trained in the area of mental illness and so I am not qualified to make that diagnosis, merely suggest my opinion or impression after spending time with her.

And I'm not saying he necessarily dealt with it in the best way either, not to mention the bias of one person's experience over another, but parting ways did seem to be the only forthcoming outcome I could predict.

In any case, after a few months of breaking up, she started to post lots of pictures and announcements on Facebook, most notably that she had Irlens Syndrome. I normally only use Facebook for communication within my wargaming group, but these caught my eye as she became increasingly combative with others on the platform and ended up buying what can only be described as the biggest pair of coloured lens glasses I've ever seen, think of the kind normally used as a comedy prop. It was something that was obviously bound to garner attention. So I started to research the syndrome and found that the evidence for it's basis was shaky at best.

The interesting factor is that when I see something like this I can't say, too cynically, that the person doesn't indeed feel they have a genuine condition and the placebo effect can be remarkably powerful in that area of self-deception. But when the behaviour in day to day life has such an unbalanced element to it (in this case using any and every opportunity to discuss the syndrome as a way of currying sympathy) I think I detect a half-conscious need to attention whore, to the detriment of all involved.

Having said all this, though, I also recognise that many people have been dismissed in their search for diagnosis or help for issues they feel they have experienced. In particular the history of medicine has not exactly been kind to women, generally on grounds of hysteria, although there is a large amount of discussion (anecdotal and otherwise) that has discussed this problem, so I won't go into great detail about it.

I do also recognise (with a degree of apprehension from those who find the enlightenment mentality the only valid one) that a rigid empiricism is not necessarily always the best tool for truth, though it is certainly a very useful one and not to be discounted.

 

[tkae.]

I don't really draw the line between the two. From my experience, deciphering between the two isn't worth the effort you put into it. What I've learned (the hard way) is to operate on the rule of not putting more effort into their recovery than they're putting into it.

 

[StarFollowed]

There is a difference between mental illness and attention whoring.

When you reach-out to people who are attention-whoring out of concern, they will usually brush you off. They just like the attention and sympathy that any mental illness gives them. I’m bipolar, and I know so many others (who have depression/anxiety) who rant on social media for the sake of feeling special and important.

Whereas simply spreading awareness about mental health (as an example) is less “look at me! Look at me!” And more subtle. These people truly seek connection and depth and meaning when spreading awareness.