Do you believe it?

@Eden1919 Hey Eden1919 personally I think I am possessed by an evil spirit and that is the god's own truth. I know that I have been diagnosed with a mi but sometimes when I hear the voices or have these strong feelings of disorder I firmly believe there is something else going on besides a simple mi. I am not a religious person but am spiritual. Love peaxx

Hi @Eden1919

I think that there are Mental Disorders and they can be severe but mostly I think people have Emotional Discomfort and that covers all sorts of things like depression, anxiety or just not fitting in

And society loves labels - it's as if it's necessary to have a description to fit each person and have them in the right folder with the correct labet and it can be really confusing and upsetting

So I would believe you if you told me you didn't have a mental illness or disorder and I would also be very disinclined to believe anyone that tried to stick a label on me

For me I find it important to believe in myself and my own choices etc - maybe you too - I really understand that you have something different going on inside you and it's really up to you to hold onto that

And if we see professional people about our emotional discomfort or whatever we have happening then they will need a dx to give the whole thing validity for their professional standards but in the long run it's up to us to have faith in ourselves

So for you it's really hard to show others what your thoughts are etc - and that is okay for you - but it's exhausting

I had a session with a therapist a long time back - and I told her I'd had a near-death experience and she tried really hard to convince me that I had not - really - and I think you would understand that if a person knows they have had such an experience and they are convinced of it then it's pretty much a waste of breath trying to change their mind

So - I know you battle with things like that but I do hear you even if I am short of the mark - but yes -

Have faith in yourself and I am sure that will help

Dec

@Owlunar teased out important issues about self confidence and belief in oneself. Without belief in oneself how do we make decisions and grow a life worth living...??

Sometimes in life, we have to admit that we dont know everything, and check our facts or opinions a little, so a little caution can be good too.

I started out in life, trying to understand all the labels put on my family, and studied a lot at uni. I came to the firm belief that mental illness is a social construct and a psycho social issue and that some form of trauma is involved. I have known many different people with different problems, backgrounds, skills and education with MI. There are different levels of coping and thinking. Now I am in the position of having to accept a label on myself in order to access support. That is a new thing for me, as I was only called depressed and anxious but it has been "upgraded". As my functioning is so much better with the support and I do contribute to the community I guess I will find a way to accept it. It keeps me active rather than torn with self doubt. My doc is also very cautious about labels on me, and dodges the question, but NDIS needs them, so it will probably happen eventually. So thats me.

For you, in another generation, age and stage, things are different. I believe its great you are studying and curious and talking about things, better than bottling everything up.

@Appleblossom I do believe a lot of mental health issues are social and trauma has an impact but I do believe there are some people myself included where that is not the case as for me trauma did not happen before the issues I was simply born like this. I had a safe and reasonably happy environment as a child and nothing traumatic happened until I was 18 and I have had mental health issues my whole life before that. Still I do believe that the way we label and the manner in which we look at these issues is social in nature and that there is nothing that objectively proves that mental illness is an illness in the brain.

@Owlunar I also agree that it really should be more about the individual and what approach is best for them and that they should be driving the support they receive. I think it is hard to say that the somewhat one size fits all approach of diagnostic labels is best for everyone when each human is so different and no one person will respond to a situation the same way.

@Bunniekins I think something kind of similar deep down there is a lot going on spiritually for me like you not so much religious but spiritual very much.

@Velociraptor I don’t think you are a failure.

@Velociraptor If you are someone that believes morality is relative then no one can be objectively a bad person also I don’t know your story or why you feel the way you do but I think the only person who can make you feel less bad about your self is you. I truly think that sort of deep feeling has to come from inside you.

I don't believe I have a mental illness - I just think my brain goes too quick for my own good - and that my imagination takes over my reality.

all teh medication that I am on just slows my brain down, and the ECT treatment that I had stuffed my working memory up majorly.