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I am beginning to notice quite a disturbing trend with fora, a situation where if a person has an unusual viewpoint, they can be accused of being mentaly ill, just what is this all about ? As far as I am aware the only people who can diagnose mental illness are the psychiatry profession, not any other, despite what they think they know or have read, so what is it with people, is this accusation of mental illness a means of destabilising an other in a conversation or what ?

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ORIGINAL: Termyn8or
My credit has gone down from absolutely perfect to absolutely nothing. I have filed for disability. I am finding it difficult to use the lawyer I want for the bankrupcy because of money problems, and I don't want to lose my house.
T

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ORIGINAL: tigreetsa

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ORIGINAL: SirPumpy

The mentally ill tag is far too often used on people who are just plain old different and I believe this is because some people are not happy unless everyone and everything is in a neat categorised box.

I'm jumping in here in complete agreement. Straightforward social stigmatizing.. We discriminate as this is a normal social process as a way of differentiating and identifying unique characteristics in someone. However when trying to put people into neat little boxes we tend to oversimplify things into 'us'and 'them' ascribing labels based on popular cultural or social beliefs.

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ORIGINAL: SirPumpy

It is also a control tactic.

Exactly.

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ORIGINAL: SirPumpy

Take for instance the "Disruptive" child in class, this may be a child who has an enquiring mind or has been encouraged by their parents to ask questions.

Exactly, or a child who is a genius or exceptionally gifted in some way.

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ORIGINAL: SirPumpy

Or in the 50's if your wife didnt agree with your household policies and became "Difficult" you'd have a chat to your family doctor who would prescribe a little something to calm her down and make her compliant sometimes leading to shock therapy.

In some places in Eastern Europe, for example in the Ukraine, women can be 'sectioned' by their husbands in a secure psychiatric hospital, even for months or years.

The Church employs exactly the same tactic when it comes to homosexuality when it strives to find a direct relationship between homosexuality and paedophilia.

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ORIGINAL: SirPumpy

Add a constant barrage of accusations regarding your mental health and after a while you'd definitely become a tad twitchy as self doubt and uncertainty set in.

Exactly, because you tend to learn a lot about yourself through your relationships with other people. It can be easy to deceive other people, it's even easier to deceive yourself.

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ORIGINAL: SirPumpy

I believe that if you lead a happy life and are productive then you are entitled to some odd behaviour so long as you harm no one including yourself.

Exactly, and especially when you consider that 90% of people suffer from some form of mental illness in their life, even if it's a mild bout of depression.

This is something which makes me laugh on the boards. It's almost like a troupe of cheerleaders at a football game, but come across any thread in which there's problems in a relationship or even the merest hint of some sort of dysfunction and out comes the chorus of (mainly) American posters ...'get therapy', 'see your kink-friendly therapist', 'you need to put yourself in therapy', 'therapy'... 'therapy'.. 'therapy'..

Maybe this is the effects of colonialism, with Brits exporting religious nutters, criminals, social misfits and loonies across the Atlantic but you know after three centuries of therapy, self-help books and 'miracle cures' you can still make out the original demographics even today (just visit the Politics and Religion section).

No I'm not being entirely serious here but the behaviourism which is so prevalent in American culture and society - not to mention American social and cultural norms, or even for that matter the culture of BDSM isn't something shared with the rest of the world or even among many of the posters here.

From this perspective on this side of the Atlantic sometimes the behaviour on these boards is comical, where we have certain American posters objecting to those they deem to be dysfunctional from other countries and yet when it comes to certain dysfunctional US posters not a dicky bird is mentioned.

Here in the UK we don't rush off for therapy at the slightest sign of dysfunction but somehow try to deal with it ourselves and if we're not sure we contact our GP or family doctor who makes the decision over whether we need specialist help or not. I guess this comes from having universal healthcare.

Even SirPumpy's last statement, which I completely agree with, suggests to me that Australians also might not fully subscribe to behaviourism as a reliable indicator of mental illness and certainly from the Australians I know in real time here in London this also seems to be the case.

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ORIGINAL: LadyPact

So where do you think they go?  The people who would do much better with a thirty day or ninety day in patient program, but either couldn't get it or wouldn't get it?  Not every person who may not even be legally sane is under a bridge somewhere.  If they are just squeaking past the borderline, showing at least the capacity to pay bills, they really are going to the home they have, even though they need treatment.  Oddly enough, that criteria can be one of the very things that makes them a good candidate not to get a spot.  They seem to be functioning.

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ORIGINAL: SirPumpy
Hell, any culture that reveres an armed robber, murderer and thief like Ned Kelly needs to take a good hard look at itself.

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Yes, it is deplorable that people feel the need to take medication against depression, especially as depression is the natural condition for some people. It sucks, I know, but there are compensating advantages.

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ORIGINAL: LaTigresse


Do the mentally unstable always realize they are mentally unstable or do they just see themselves as different, in some way?

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ORIGINAL: barelynangel

crazyml, i don't respond to posts that chop up other posts with sentences here and there it kills my eyes and i stopped responding to people a long time ago who do that to my posts as well as I write posts as a whole concept not as separate concepts -- it all goes together so nitpicking sentences to me is ridiculous.

However, i will respond to yours this once. Do it again and i will ignore you.

1. If someone threatens on an anonymous message board under a nickname to cut off their leg and eat it, i usually just shrug -- i may THINK they are nuts for doing so but to tell them or tell them they have a mental illness -- why? The way i see it is if they do it I am sure we will all know cause they will come running in to tell us about it, until then, i don't really take them seriously. I am one of those people who calls people's bluffs. What do you do sit and home biting your nails and trying to make the anonymous nickname talk to you and save him from his own damnation of mutilation because YOU don't agree with it.

Do you really sit around worrying about it? I mean seriously? Wow.


2. The examples are all over this board -- no, i am not going to waste my time itemizing for you what i have seen, my comments were based upon things i have seen on this board and they aren't hard to find. I will say this -- you mention that i have a solid concept in the bandwagoning so that leads me to believe that you know exactly what i am talking about and have seen it and simply are trying to play games.

3. Yes i do, and i also think many people on these boards have a double standard for people they consider friends and those they don't like. And to save you sometime, i have no qualms calling my friends out on shit i don't accept from people who aren't my friends. What people define as their integrity is very important to me, i don't allow much deviation in same.

4 and 5. Okay am i supposed to think something because you want to play games? You are trying to make this ABOUT me, and trying to use some reverse psychology on me? Please don't insult my intelligence or yours. Making this about me shows a desperation that you are too afraid to see the whole of the situation. When you are ready, you will. Until then, you will continue to try and justify things by trying to turn responses back on the individual instead of the topic. Interesting approach but completely inaccurate approach.

You seem to be caught up in some idea that i need to convince you, i really don't. Just so i know -- are you someone i should be concerned about, someone worth my time to convince or are you simply an online anonymous nickname whom i won't remember beyond this thread? You probably won't like what i do deem you.

Finally, I am sitting here incredulous you decided on frustration and more so anger from my posts - i shouldn't be surprised that's the easiest words to use to try and make someone defensive --- grins, do you really expect me to come into the game you are trying to play? Nice try. Again, perhaps you should reaccess your approach and make it about the topic instead of the individual -- unless of course you are waiting for that bandwagon to come ring your bell.

angel