Dr Phil recovery centre

if your friends are making unhelpful comments perhaps letting them know they are being unhelpful might be a good place to start otherwise perhaps looking for new friends is the way to go. idk just a thought take it or leave it as you desire.

Thanks @Eden1919 , I think in my case I did have issues but the amateur diagnoses just made me feel worse and more misunderstood. But I'm afraid some people use it against others unfortunately.

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@Eden1919 wrote:

otherwise perhaps looking for new friends is the way to go. idk just a thought take it or leave it as you desire.

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There is certainly wisdom in those words, @Eden1919 . But getting new friends can be impossible when you cut your existing contacts loose. Of course, if they aren't introducing you to new friends anyway, you've got nothing lose except your torment.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

With respect, @justanotherguy , I think it might be a bit simplistic to blame this sort of behavior primarilly on Dr. Phil.

I started to get this treatment at a time when Dr. Phil was much less established then he is now, and by people who would've been too young to be paying much attention to him.

Because I wasn't behaving precisely the way they wanted, they would keep lashing out by asking "what's wrong with [me]?". And you hear that enough, you start to believe that something must genuinely be wrong with yourself; because your evidently very poor at making other people happy.

People automatically see a bug in the software, when a person doesn't act the way we want them to act. In common terms, this is referred to as a "mental disorder." People have seeing these things in other people since well before Dr. Phil popularized it. He only started telling people the big words to use to describe these things, creating something of a common vocabulary for people to use to disparage the people they know who aren't doing what they want.

Long-term unemployed? Call them schizophrenic. Avoiding people who treat them like crap? Call them agoraphobic, or antisocial personality disorder. Attempted suicide because their life has nothing good about it whatsoever? Call them clinically depressed, and start spouting theories about what wonky big-word chemicals they have in their brain.

It feels sort of convienient to have formal-sounding names to apply to these 'glitches'. But even without that modern convienience, people have been spotting those glitches in the people who displeased them since time began. Hell, just read the bible some time and see how many accounts there are of men being possessed by demons.

@chibam, yep, if you don't fit the norm, you are on the outer, been like it since forever. It's just Dr Phil gave bullies another way to torment people. I feel so sorry for kids in school for last 20 years, it must have been hell. I saw a few cases of psychological destruction going on, being a caring person has become such a liability for many, and when you try and shut out the pain you get labelled as something else. There's a mental illness for every type of normal human response to stress. After a while I got used to the label and it doesn't bother me so much now, it was just the meds that were awful.

Liking your sense of humour @justanotherguy and attempts to be respectful and inclusive of all comers. It is hard to do.

cheers Apple

Thanks for your support, @Appleblossom , means a lot.

My handle 'justanotherguy' was just an admission of defeat at the time, I didn't feel confident to give myself any sort of identity. It's not like I was thinking of SH but I have to keep remembering I am a unique person (as is everyone else) if I want to acknowledge it. Sometimes it's just easier to be like lichen on rock. I'm tired of being a mushroom.

I must say I used to watch Dr Phil years ago and got something practical out of it.

Less of medical speak but more looking at how relationships could be causing further issues with mental health.

Its unfortunate that mental health is still an outlier in the health system and like dental care is kept separate.

I have often wondered if these areas were incorporated into the general care system whether the needs would be better understood by the general community.

As it is I guess it's like so many things people don't experience or understand, they gravitate to what seems to be the problem.

That problem is ignorance and how dangerous and hurtful it can be.

For those of us left of centre it's a long road but if we walk together you are not alone.