Some people DO need the help of professionals and medicines in order to function though and just reflecting on one's own feelings and realizing when something is wrong won't always make things right, or even make them work. Believe me, I've tried... I've tried pretty much everything that doesn't involve taking drugs because the ones I was on in the past were awful as far as side effects went and I didn't want that again. I also don't want to fuck up my life and relationships and keep an amazingly increased chance of offing myself either and that, in combination with other factors, is why I went back on drugs.
I agree that people who want help from professionals should get it. But how will they know they need to get it if they can't reflect enough to realize it? I don't think people should be forced to work things out on their own or that help, when wanted, should not be given. There's nothing wrong with getting help, that's not what I'm saying. I'm also not saying that it doesn't work for people. There has been a lot going on in this thread (that hasn't been said by you) with people saying that people with real mental illnesses seek help and you can tell when people are faking because they don't seek help. Or that if someone is not seeking help for from professionals for their mental illness it means that they're not taking responsibility for themselves and their actions and don't care about the effects of their actions on others and are just assholes. I am just trying to tell people that that's wrong. I'm not trying to go in the other direction and tell people not to seek help. I'm just trying to point out that it's okay
not to seek help. Not seeking help doesn't make you an asshole and people in this thread who would say that not seeking help for a mental illness is destructive to those around you are being manipulative and shitty and not very helpful at all.
and there are the people out there who will make comments like "oh, I like to make sure that my desk is kind of neat... I'm so OCD!" or "I'm being moody... I must be bipolar" and things along those lines... comments that not only illustrate the fact that only they have decided this, but also that they don't even have a strong grasp as to what different mental disorders entail. not everyone really understands much about psychology aside from what they see on movies or on tv, and I think that we can agree that portrayals on either of those are not particularly accurate. This doesn't stop people from claiming to suffer from these disorders when it is convenient for them to do so, and by making excuses along those lines they are dragging down the perception of people who genuinely DO have those problems in the process. Just like the tv and movies do... the perceptions just reinforce the perceptions without anyone really becoming educated on the issues and that DOES annoy me
I agree that people shouldn't be doing that. But making your desk kind of neat is not being an asshole. It's shitty to associate that with OCD nonetheless, because then people don't realize how serious OCD is. But yeah, people should take mental illness more seriously and not use it as a descriptor for behaviour that they find quirky or don't like in themselves.
I don't know how many times I can say it. I agree with you. This thread quickly snowballed into deciding what people with PTSD do and do not want to do (as a classifier to decide whether or not they really have PTSD. Guess I don't have it then.) Of talking about the huge number of people with mental illnesses who are assholes without even realizing it. Of patting oneself and eachother on the back for not being
that kind of mentally ill person. Of talking about dealing with "faked attacks and melodrama" and giving people "stricter parameters" because they're
so good at faking. And a good sign of fakers = people who won't get treatment. And having to classify which mental illnesses are more severe because people with more severe mental illnesses apparently have more of a reason to be assholes, which is different than having an excuse.
The above paragraph isn't my line of thinking, it's what I've gathered from other people in this thread. And it's gross.