# Should we be less open about mental illness?



## Give Her The D (Jan 23, 2020)

It seems like everyone is mentally ill now, and I don't know if we should be talking about it. It seems to be only making us unhappier to know we're fucked up, should mental illness be re-stigmatized, and placed under the "do not talk about" category? It just doesn't seem to help anything to say you have a mental health problem to me.


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## Varg Did Nothing Wrong (Jan 23, 2020)

Only retards are mentally ill.


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## The Sauce Boss (Jan 23, 2020)

It's a double edged sword, as someone who lives with a mental illness.

On the one hand, you have a bunch of dumb kids who go through a rough patch and decide they're 'clinically depressed', or you have people that milk the 'possibility' of having a disorder or what my therapist used to call a 'soft diagnosis'. 

On the other, you have people like me, where I didn't confront my demons or seek help because I was convinced my mental illness was a character flaw. While it's not been a fun or easy experience fixing my life, it's most definitely been more rewarding, and I certainly would have had a harder time if there was more of a stigma against being open about your feelings and mental state.


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## Give Her The D (Jan 23, 2020)

littlearmalite said:


> On the other, you have people like me, where I didn't confront my demons or seek help because I was convinced my mental illness was a character flaw. While it's not been a fun or easy experience fixing my life, it's most definitely been more rewarding, and I certainly would have had a harder time if there was more of a stigma against being open about your feelings and mental state.



Well yeah, speaking to your doctor and psychologist is one thing, but then it's another thing to open up about your mental illness to "raise awareness". That's what I mostly meant, the last part just feeling like an embarassment to people who actually have mental health problems.


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## The Cunting Death (Jan 23, 2020)

Yes


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## The Sauce Boss (Jan 23, 2020)

Kacchan said:


> Well yeah, speaking to your doctor and psychologist is one thing, but then it's another thing to open up about your mental illness to "raise awareness". That's what I mostly meant, the last part just feeling like an embarassment to people who actually have mental health problems.



IDK, I feel like, again, it's a case by case things. Sometimes, really insecure or closed-in people might hear an authority figure or a person they respect being open about their problems, and it might inspire them to seek help. It's not a situation that has a simple answer IMO.


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## Shield Breaker (Jan 23, 2020)

I think it depends on why you're talking about it. Like, if you are a writer or director, and you want to talk about how movies and books portray mental illness versus your own experiences, I think that is fine.


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## crocodilian (Jan 23, 2020)

The entire goal of transparency about mental illness in the first place was to keep people from feeling defective, alienated or ostracized. In all but the most severe cases you can live a normal life with a mental illness, but you have to develop a sense of self-discipline, get the right treatment and feel genuine support from someone around you. Despite your flaws (which everyone has one way or another), you have to feel like you "fit in." These aren't unfair things to ask of polite society.

The problem with this is some people have decided to take advantage of charity. Stunted, wannabe opportunists beg for support when they don't need it. They have no urge to improve. They perceive sympathy and empathy as things to be used, like a perverted sense of power, and try to exert that power over the very same people they begged for mercy to start with. Then when people realize what's happening and try to kick back, the supposed "aggressor" is treated like the devil. They learn exactly why these charlatans feel (and in some ways, truly are) so powerful.

It feels like the plan has failed. Everyone feels broken somehow, everyone feels like they don't belong, everyone wears a mask because they feel like they need it to survive. Mental illness has become an us-versus-them issue, like every other issue seems to be nowadays. Just replace "mental illness" with sexuality or race, the same problems I describe arise every time.


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## Francis York Morgan (Jan 23, 2020)

The problem isn't people being open about their mental illnesses. The problem is that too many people believe that being open about their mental issues gives them free reign to be an asshole and not have to face any repercussions for it while additionally not seeking legitimate treatment.


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## WeWuzFinns (Jan 23, 2020)

The problem with mental illnesses isn't the open display of these disturbed individuals, but the improper treatment of them. Too often the mentally ill are just given some medicine, and sent on their merry ways. The way the gender confused individuals are treated is appalling, the "treatment" just caters to their delusions instead of properly training them to be comfortable in their own bodies.


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## Edgeworth (Jan 23, 2020)

"There's a time and a place". 

Twitter during your sister's wedding is neither of those.

There's also an "overexposure" problem wherein the more someone showcases it, the less people care because most people suffer from compassion fatigue. Also people turn it into a competition? That's especially common with younger individuals who conflate "personality" with "labels". Mental illness is, for lack of better terminology, "trendy" because it's so widely accepted relatively speaking and relatable. And some people use it to be cunts without having to fix their problems because "it's not muh fault".

I always have been and probably will always be in the camp of "mental illness is an explanation, not an excuse". Use it to explain, never to excuse because that's where the lazy, entitled pricks come in.


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## Thumb Butler (Jan 23, 2020)

WeWuzFinns said:


> The way the gender confused individuals are treated is appalling, the "treatment" just caters to their delusions instead of properly training them to be comfortable in their own bodies.



This is how we end up with people like Fire. I don't believe he's gender confused at all. It's sad really.


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## Petronella (Jan 23, 2020)

I don't think it's merely talking about mental illness that's the problem, but the way we talk about mental illness. I've noticed it's increasingly become a trend to consider mental illness to be a part of your personality, if not your entire personality, and so treating your mental illness is seen as erasing a part of yourself. It also factors into Woke Culture, as it's become considered ableist to seek treatment, or to even acknowledge mental illness is something that needs treatment in the first place.


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## WhoBusTank69 (Jan 23, 2020)

Petronella said:


> I don't think it's merely talking about mental illness that's the problem, but the way we talk about mental illness. I've noticed it's increasingly become a trend to consider mental illness to be a part of your personality, if not your entire personality, and so treating your mental illness is seen as erasing a part of yourself. It also factors into Woke Culture, as it's become considered ableist to seek treatment, or to even acknowledge mental illness is something that needs treatment in the first place.


The argument of "There's nothing to fix, you're not broken" is dangerous as hell. There was a retard with schizophrenia in one of my classes - lots of occasions we heard him mumble and whisper to himself right before going into tard rages nobody could do anything about.
That's not a personality, that's a clusterfuck in his skull.


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## Lina Colorado (Jan 23, 2020)

Yeah romantisizing or even fetishizing mental illness is something that is happening more and more.
We shouldn't do that at all, nobody will get better from that. Talking about my issues has definitly made the burden less heavy for me and it warns people for why I act a certain way.

Stigma is still heavy here and accessibility to doctors who understand is still an issue.. But that's everywhere, really.
Alot of doctors think you are faking it.. Thanks to all the actual fakers that come over their floor.


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## Idiotron (Jan 23, 2020)

I think that not being open about mental illness is what what we have right now.
There are places in the world where you will get into legal trouble if you speak your mind about things like transgenderism.
At the very least, you might get fired and/or have trouble with getting future employment.
That's not what I would call being open.
We're supposed to accept men turning their penises inside out as normal because......... BECAUSE!!!
We're supposed to accept Yaniv as normal.

People who put tattoos all over their faces, sexual deviants, obese monsters who weigh as much as 5 people and can't even walk, media addicts who literally die in their own feces because they've been sitting in front of a screen for 70 hours like zombies, the list goes on.
We don't talk about these things, we're just told to accept them and we do for the most part, that's why they're everywhere now.
If we all could openly talk about mental illness without repercussions, things would look a lot different.
A lot of us have to come to KF to talk properly about this because everywhere else, we're being told to be quiet or else.

Also, you can't learn about something without talking about it.
There's so much misunderstanding when it comes to various mental illnesses and other conditions, it's ridiculous.
There needs to be way more awareness.


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## NIGGER ASS PEE POOPY RAPE (Jan 23, 2020)

accelerationist option: be more open about mental illness, including mental illnesses you don't even have. "I'm not misbehaving, I have autism." "I'm not racist, I have tourette's." also if you get good enough at faking it you can get prescription drugs for it.


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## Petronella (Jan 23, 2020)

WhoBusTank69 said:


> The argument of "There's nothing to fix, you're not broken" is dangerous as hell. There was an exceptional individual with schizophrenia in one of my classes - lots of occasions we heard him mumble and whisper to himself right before going into tard rages nobody could do anything about.
> That's not a personality, that's a clusterfuck in his skull.


There's a Kelly Clarkson song that goes "can someone just hold me, but don't fix me or try to change a thing, I'm broken and it's beautiful" that they play fucking constantly at my work and it makes me want to stab my eardrums out every time it comes on. I feel it perfectly encapsulates this line of thought. There is nothing "beautiful" about mental illness.


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## Pedosnake (Jan 23, 2020)

If you actually have a mental illness, better get help from someone who knows what it is that you have. Don't tell us about it on your Twitter about it and treat it like a social event, otherwise you just look like an attention whore that actually dosen't have an illness and is just being an annoying cunt.


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## The Fool (Jan 23, 2020)

I'd be fucking embarrassed if I talked about my mental state to anyone.

I just wanna be normal.


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## queerape (Jan 23, 2020)

I have had depression and PTSD for 10 years. The fad of people claiming to me mentally ill makes me second guess all the suffering I went through, because I worry people will think I am just making my conditions up because I put in so much effort to be high functioning. It takes a ton of my energy to be put together, I can’t do it like that nor can I choose not to have to put this energy in like trenders can. I was barely functional for 5 years of my life, it took me 9 before I could properly independently manage it


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## Psyduck (Jan 23, 2020)

"How you doin" 

"Ugh im so depressed"

Answer to yer question is yes


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## heyilikeyourmom (Jan 23, 2020)

If I don’t tell people I’m a violent sexual deviant with boundary issues, they’re still gonna find out eventually.  Still, maybe it’s kinder not to warn them since there’s nothing they can do about it anyway.  And it’s not like there can be much of a dialogue about it when only one person in the van isn’t gagged.


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## Dom Cruise (Jan 23, 2020)

Agent Nahman Jayden said:


> I always have been and probably will always be in the camp of "mental illness is an explanation, not an excuse". Use it to explain, never to excuse because that's where the lazy, entitled pricks come in.



That's what it comes down to, it's simply not an excuse for bad behavior.

I have a cousin who is bipolar who I haven't spoken to in coming up on 8 years due to mistreatment of me and from what I've learned from speaking with another cousin who's interacted with them after I did they still remain a toxic, malicious person and there's simply no excuse for that.


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## Rice Is Ready (Jan 23, 2020)

Yes and we should stop taking our medications too! I did years ago and I feel fine!!


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## heyilikeyourmom (Jan 23, 2020)

Rice Is Ready said:


> Yes and we should stop taking our medications too! I did years ago and I feel fine!!


Tfw you’re off your meds and online


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## clusterfuckk (Jan 23, 2020)

I agree to a certain extent. As other posters have mentioned, mental illness has now become an excuse for shitty people to continue to be shitty with no repercussions. It almost feels like so many people are claiming to have it, that they outnumber the people who do not have it, making it appear to be the norm. Its a slap in the face to people who are struggling to hold it together every day and live some sort of 'normal' existence. Many times these people (me included) don't want people to know they have a legitimate mental illness and not a 'made for social media' one.
Every asshole who had a bad day bleats their hearts out on SM about how much they are suffering, because someone misgendered them ffs. 
That is not a mental illness; unless you count not knowing anything about biology and what sex organs mean a mental illness.


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## Agent Abe Caprine (Jan 23, 2020)

The problem is mental illness gives pity points. If stuff like depression and anxiety were treated as obstacles that can be debilitating, they wouldn't be an attention seeker's wet dream. Many, many people have these and live or try to live normal lives.

Many genuinely mentally ill people don't want pity or attention, they are being hurt by the ones pretending or exaggerating their problems. Hell, the fakes on Twitter and Tumblr can end up confusing the legits and causing them to spiral further downhill. 

For someone suffering from mental pain, those hugboxes seem comfy at first. Everyone seems nice and supportive. The pain blinds the rational part of the brain, so they can't see that the crowd of attention whores in the hugbox are detrimental to someone with already poor mental health.

Be open but not with your brain sliding out your ears.


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## mr.moon1488 (Jan 23, 2020)

I'm not really sure.  Here's the issue.  From what I've seen in forensic psychology, there are a lot of people who still never seek help, however on the flip side, I've seen a lot of people who just instantly run off to the psychologists office every time something goes bad in their life.  I think more than anything, psychological problems need to be treated like any other medical issue.  You don't go around talking about yourself as some kind of class that needs saving if you have serious hemorrhoids, but you do still go to the doctor.


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## Damn Near (Jan 23, 2020)

There's a very wide and temperate middle ground between acknowledging mental illness and wallowing around in it like a hog in shit


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## Petronella (Jan 23, 2020)

queerape said:


> I have had depression and PTSD for 10 years. The fad of people claiming to me mentally ill makes me second guess all the suffering I went through, because I worry people will think I am just making my conditions up because I put in so much effort to be high functioning. It takes a ton of my energy to be put together, I can’t do it like that nor can I choose not to have to put this energy in like trenders can. I was barely functional for 5 years of my life, it took me 9 before I could properly independently manage it


Hard agree, my dude. I hope things look up for you.


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## ArnoldPalmer (Jan 23, 2020)

Well, there are some things that I take issue with. The first, being that openness is the wrong word. I think people should be less public about it. It requires a certain degree of openness for treatment to be possible, as jumping into someone's head isn't exactly possible.
Another thing is that nobody seems to understand that there's a threshold between "mental illnesses", and "personal problems". Many people treat responding negatively to negative stimuli as a mental illness, because socially, it is expected that you shrug off every bad thing that happens to you, and put on a face for the world, lest you make someone else upset with your misery. For instance, I don't think that depression is a mental illness, unless you've got absolutely no reason to feel sad. It's the most overdiagnosed, overtreated thing that the medical world has ever seen, and I think that sometimes, people deserve to be unhappy.

That and PTSD is a fandom unless you've been in war. Cyberbullying didn't give you PTSD.


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## JambledUpWords (Jan 23, 2020)

On one hand, I’m glad more people are open about their mental issues. I think because of it, people are more educated about certain mental illnesses, and it has become just as legitimate a disability, like physical disabilities are.

On the other hand, there are many exceptional individuals out there that abuse mental illness, by claiming it to excuse terrible behavior. Another way it’s abused is from those that self diagnose and decide not to seek professional help afterwards, and claim any treatment is “ableist”. Trust me, if these people that used mental illness as a personality trait actually had the mental illnesses they claim, they’d probably wish it could go away. For example, autism is a hip thing to diagnose yourself with, because it’s viewed as “quirky” and not debilitating (at least in the case of high functioning autism). This cannot be further from the truth in cases of real autism. Even for high functioning autistics, it requires years of therapy and lots of patience to get an autist that appears “normal”. On top of it, the social issues are there for life, and autists will always be behind in terms of social development and behavior compared to the rest of the population (hence many autistics acting younger than they actually are). No amount of smarts can cover up lack of social skills, and as a result, many autistics face unemployment in greater numbers than the general population. The people that fake these kinds of disorders will only make it harder for people with the diagnosis to seek treatment, since their problems are seen as less severe than they actually are.

Tl;dr Exceptional individuals ruin things for everyone


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## soft breathing (Jan 23, 2020)

If there's a reason to talk about it - yes, sure, you should be open about it.

Inform your future partner that there's something not quite right with you.
Inform your boss if it's impairing your ability to give 100% at your workplace.
But also - get help. Don't just roll around in the pity points and suffering - actively work on getting better; for your own sake.

And don't fucking turn it into a suffering contest or romanticize it though; like so many love to do.

Having a mental illness is not fun, it's not quirky, it's not cute and it's especially not romantic or makes you special - it fucking sucks. For you and everyone around you.


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## Foghot (Jan 23, 2020)

Pepole with no personality with access to the web shitted up that question long ago, i'm afraid.

The real question would be how could we make pepole acknowledge that they aren't and never will be anything else than losers unless they start working on themselves all around, but that would require entire entertainement branches to stop glamorizing life ruining mental illnesses, mainstream social media to stop existing altogether and goodwill from extremely flawed pepole. Mental illness has been over-trivialised and it just saddens me to think that snowflakes who overreact by posting "i have X illness asspat me UwU" because they didn't clip one of their nails right think they have deep mental issues while pepole with legit problems just struggle with no way to express it cause they'd fear being lumped together and mocked with these douchebags.

EDIT: corrected typos


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## LazarusOwenhart (Jan 23, 2020)

I don't think anybody should suffer in silence, but building your entire identity around that illness and then using it to manipulate people is another matter entirely.


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## UnclePhil (Jan 23, 2020)

If someone asks "How are you?" and it's a genuine question, not the rhetorical casual greeting kind, go for it. If you're having a discussion with someone about anxiety, depression, etc. and exchanging experiences, go for it, but avoid monopolizing the conversation with your own sadbrains. If you're talking to a therapist or psychiatrist, spill it because that's what you're paying them for.

Don't use it as a crutch. Don't use it make yourself into a super-special person. Don't mope around and miss work and make every excuse to be lazy because of it. Don't drag an entire room down with you. And don't post pity-party vaguebook shit on Facebook. Your health matters as much as everyone else's, but everyone else has their own pain and stress to deal with.


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## snailslime (Jan 24, 2020)

no. it's just that attention whores without mental disorders love to pretend they have them, and think that flexing them is cool


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## Mrs Paul (Jan 24, 2020)

Depression and anxiety are really much more common than people believe, but the notion that they're "just part of one's personality" pisses me off, quite frankly.  Being depressed sucks donkey balls, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.  And people who go around with the whole, "well, why do you take pills -- it'll just change your personality?"  have no business commenting, because they don't know jackshit about mental illness.  

But it shouldn't be used as an excuse to be a dick.  If you truely, surely, can't be expected to follow the rules because of your illness, and if you're so far gone that you can't be held responsible for your actions, then you have no business going around unsupervised.  And those people I truely, deeply feel sorry for.

 If you CAN control your actions, however,  you can't just say, "well, I can't help it, I'm sick!"  And especially don't try and speak for others -- "they can't help it, they're depressed/anxious/blah blah blah" when said person didn't even ASK for your help, or even said specifically, they didn't want special treatment.  I've seen this too -- someone mentions that they have a mental illness, or they're autistic, or whatever, but they say, "hey, I don't want special rules, I want to be treated like everyone else", and some SJW thinks otherwise.  

That's part of the problem.  Compassion is one thing and understanding is one thing.  Being patronizing, or using it to try and get pity, or get out of trouble -- you're a douchebag.  



And also, when people talk about autism and "quirkyness", then freak out at parents who express a wish for a cure, they really need to be more aware of people farther down on the spectrem.  Non-verbal, throwing things, self-harming, screaming, etc.  It's rare, but it's scary.  And to claim that's just "being quirky", well....fuck you very much.  


(Sadly though, it's not always easy to get help, at least with our fucked up healthcare system.  THAT is for a totally different thread, though)


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## Strong Tomato (Jan 24, 2020)

It seems that having certain mental illnesses has become trendy over the years, in a similar way that being a part of the LGBT community has. Claiming to have one or more to make you more quirky or add to your personality has sadly been normalized by teens and some younger millenials thanks to the internet. Just because you have a bad day every once in a while doesn't mean you need a sweater with "lol hi anxiety" or something similar written on it, or that you need a list of all of your supposed mental illnesses in your about me section of your social media profiles. This is the kind of shit that really nerds to stop, in my opinion. On one hand, it's making people more aware of the peoblem, but on the other it's making people take it less seriously, which makes it harder for those people who are actually suffering from mental illness. 

I want to blame the internet for making it this way, really. I'm not sure that people actually just go out in public and talk about their mental problems with random people in person, because no one fucking cares. But they love to brag about it online because it gets them attention from all the other attention seeking people. 

Basically I think it's good that people are more aware as it can help people that actually deal with this stuff, but it's kind of a double edge sword because of the rest of the people not taking it seriously.


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## Mrs Paul (Jan 24, 2020)

ArnoldPalmer said:


> Well, there are some things that I take issue with. The first, being that openness is the wrong word. I think people should be less public about it. It requires a certain degree of openness for treatment to be possible, as jumping into someone's head isn't exactly possible.
> Another thing is that nobody seems to understand that there's a threshold between "mental illnesses", and "personal problems". Many people treat responding negatively to negative stimuli as a mental illness, because socially, it is expected that you shrug off every bad thing that happens to you, and put on a face for the world, lest you make someone else upset with your misery. For instance, I don't think that depression is a mental illness, unless you've got absolutely no reason to feel sad. It's the most overdiagnosed, overtreated thing that the medical world has ever seen, and I think that sometimes, people deserve to be unhappy.
> 
> That and PTSD is a fandom unless you've been in war. Cyberbullying didn't give you PTSD.



Yes and no.  Keep in mind, depression isn't just "being sad or unhappy".  If you've ever been depressed trust me, you can tell the difference!  

Depression can indeed result from major tragedies in person's life -- the death of a loved one, a serious illness, losing your job, etc.  Better to go and seek help than to try and manage on your own and end up going postal.  I've known people who could probably have benefited from therapy after suffering from a major loss.  I don't think my grandmother ever got over my aunt's death, and I think talking to a therapist could have done her a lot of good, for example.

Or if someone suffers from a mental illness, depression, anxiety, etc -- it can become much worse.

And PTSD can indeed result from things other than war.  Child abuse, domestic violence, serious accidents, etc.  If someone grew up being molested by one of their parents, I don't think PTSD would be out of line.  Surviving a plane crash, nearly dying and suffering severe injuries?  Yeah, that sounds completely reasonable.

Finally, there's still a lot we don't know about how the brain works.  There can be physical causes of mental illness, such as strokes, or major head trauma.  It's only recently we discovered that just how serious the problem of multiple head injuries in sports, that it's NOT just a case of "getting your bell rung."

Psychology and psychiatry are really still in their infancy, you know. How long has it been since the Catholic church actually stopped automatically condemning people to hell for committing suicide, for example? We still don't know all of the causes of mental illness.


Now, that all being said, cyber-bullying will generally NOT give you PTSD.  Unless it spills over into real life, and you're being out and out stalked, turn off the computer.


I highly reccomend the book, "A Matter of Inches", by Clint Malarchuk.  Malarchuk is a former NHL goalie who is famous for the time he accidentally had his throat slashed wide open by another player's skate blade, and almost bled out right there on the ice.  It's probably one of the worst accidents in sports history (it's definitely one of the most gruesome)   He had suffered from OCD since he was a child, and the accident only made it that much worst.  He developed a serious drinking problem and was later diagnosed with PTSD.  (Here's an article he wrote for The Players Tribune)


And here's the video -- might not wanna watch while you're eating.



Spoiler: Just to be on the safe side


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## StarkRavingMad (Jan 26, 2020)

Yes, we should be less open about it.

I mean, I absolutely encourage people to seek help from professionals, family, and close friends ... But nobody should be encouraged to talk about it all of the time in the manner in which so many people do these days.  People are making their mental illnesses their full identities, and it's obviously making everyone more miserable.

It's one thing to get things off your chest.  It's another thing to be obsessive about it.  If your mental illness is all you ever talk or think about, then guess what?  You're not liberated, you're letting the mental illness take full control of your life.


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## Kaiser Wilhelm's Ghost (Jan 26, 2020)

As with anything in life, it is good that people are being more open to the fact that this exist, but it's something you disclose to your employer, partner, family, not something you discuss online or with a wider "community" unless it can be avoided.

There will always be a portion of the population who either through "self diagnosis" or official diagnosis use it as an excuse to be and act like trash. 

Just like how having high functioning autism is not an excuse for peculiar behavior, or glandular disease is no excuse for shitty eating habits, you know you will find a subset of people who think they can do no wrong because they have whatever quirky medical malady that enables then.


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## Ellesse_warrior (Jan 26, 2020)

Dom Cruise said:


> That's what it comes down to, it's simply not an excuse for bad behavior.
> 
> I have a cousin who is bipolar who I haven't spoken to in coming up on 8 years due to mistreatment of me and from what I've learned from speaking with another cousin who's interacted with them after I did they still remain a toxic, malicious person and there's simply no excuse for that.


This is fairly typical with bipolar. I don't have bipolar but have a lot of experience with it. People who have it are difficult to deal with for family and friends. They can be particularly manipulative and malicious seemingly over nothing but that's part of being bipolar and to a certain extent they can't help it only manage it with meds and therapy.
 IME cutting them off only justifies their shitty behaviour to themselves but I wouldn't blame you for cutting ties either because it is a really difficult situation for everyone involved.


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## ⠠⠠⠅⠑⠋⠋⠁⠇⠎ ⠠⠠⠊⠎ ⠠⠠⠁ ⠠⠠⠋⠁⠛ (Jan 26, 2020)

The idea that 'more openness is needed about mental illness' is a con to convince people in socially and economically alienating societies that it is normal to be depressed because they have few really close friends, vastly less family ties to people further and further away, and less and less ties to local social and religious organizations than ever before.

Obviously, it is normal to be depressed when your life is depressing, but the solution has to be to try and find ways to reconnect despite the deliberate engineering of an alienating society, and if possible try to find ways to fight back against it.


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## tasty humane burger (Jan 26, 2020)

As other commentators have said, I think there is a time and a place. Being more open about mental health is vital to decrease stigma and better understanding. It also allows for people to know they're not alone and take a step back and say 'wait this isn't normal' and seek the help they need. 

I think 'influencers' and celebs who are open about their mental health are great at normalising mental health issues and again, allow more people to speak up. But yeah, this also leads to much more clout chasing and using your MH condition to be a shitty person. Especially with the exceptional people we mock on here. It also opens up the gates for people to think every single thing is a quirk of their mental illness. Or that they indeed have a mental illness for feeling stressed during their finals or sad when they experience a breakup. Whilst these incidents can trigger a MH crisis, it's often not the case. People will talk about their 'anxiety' and 'mini panic attacks' in everyday conversation when they're really just talking about trivial stress.

There is also now a culture of indie artists and companies using being open about mental health to sell products and ultimately profit off of people who are suffering. I know someone who spent £150+ on a website ran by a 'mental health advocate' essentially on cutesy stationary and lavender soaps in the name of 'self care'. 

Adding from this, we spend a lot of time being open about depression and anxiety, which is great because a lot of people suffer from these or may experience them during lows in their lives and they can absolutely cripple you. These can be normally be  helped without great professional input. But, equally, there is no shame in reaching out for more help and managing if you truly are struggling to cope. But, we don't speak enough about the more 'scary' mental health problems - psychosis, bipolar, etc. And we leave people with a much more challenging and complex illness still relatively isolated and possibly even more stigmatised because the rhetoric is very much so 'you can function super normally with a mental illness'.


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## Dom Cruise (Jan 26, 2020)

Ellesse_warrior said:


> This is fairly typical with bipolar. I don't have bipolar but have a lot of experience with it. People who have it are difficult to deal with for family and friends. They can be particularly manipulative and malicious seemingly over nothing but that's part of being bipolar and to a certain extent they can't help it only manage it with meds and therapy.
> IME cutting them off only justifies their shitty behaviour to themselves but I wouldn't blame you for cutting ties either because it is a really difficult situation for everyone involved.



To be fair part of the reason we haven't interacted in so long is simply because she has lived very far away from me.

I have made some efforts though recently to reach out to her though because I'm not one to hold a lifelong grudge.


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## Ellesse_warrior (Jan 26, 2020)

Dom Cruise said:


> To be fair part of the reason we haven't interacted in so long is simply because she has lived very far away from me.
> 
> I have made some efforts though recently to reach out to her though because I'm not one to hold a lifelong grudge.


Sorry, I misunderstood your post then


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## Crunchy Leaf (Jan 26, 2020)

There's a lot of young people these days who can't handle even minor stressors. Go on to any forum discussing college and you'll see so many people talking about having mental breakdowns. Being a nutcase has been normalized to the point where Gen Z has developed a culture-bound anxiety disorder. 

It's because of lawnmower parenting. You see people saying 'I coasted through high school getting As for showing up and now that I'm in college I don't know what to do!' A high school diploma shouldn't be a participation trophy, but because parents whined that their little snowflake was failing, now it is. 



3119967d0c said:


> The idea that 'more openness is needed about mental illness' is a con to convince people in socially and economically alienating societies that it is normal to be depressed because they have few really close friends, vastly less family ties to people further and further away, and less and less ties to local social and religious organizations than ever before.
> 
> Obviously, it is normal to be depressed when your life is depressing, but the solution has to be to try and find ways to reconnect despite the deliberate engineering of an alienating society, and if possible try to find ways to fight back against it.


You are absolutely correct, but a lot of people also purposely isolate themselves because they can't handle social interaction. Do you think there's anywhere in America that doesn't have a church or two or ten? There's the cult of the 'introvert', the 'I'm too cool for small talk and partying', and it's a cope for anxiety. People like the comfort of the online world where you can deliberate over your conversation choices for hours and where you can easily switch from the KiwiFarms tab back to the massively addictive video games whenever you want.


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## No Nuts No Glory (Jan 26, 2020)

I typed out a long reply but people already stated most of my points so I'll cut down to a point I don't think was brought up already:

People who feel the need to coddle those they know (or assume) have mental illness. I'm not talking about pity parties (those suck too) but rather people who think they need to "save" me because I have mental illness.

I don't like to be open about my problems partially for that but mostly because of other issues people have posted already.


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