• Dear Guest, Please note that adult content is not permitted on this forum. We have had our Google ads disabled at times due to some posts that were found from some time ago. Please do not post adult content and if you see any already on the forum, please report the post so that we can deal with it. Adult content is allowed in the glory hole - you will have to request permission to access it. Thanks, scara

Does anyone suffer from mental illness on here?

My paranoia is so bad that it’s left me feeling frozen in life, scared to go forward as I’m stuck thinking of all these worst case scenarios. Too often I don’t want to exist as I’d prefer that than to live through a nightmare reality. I’ve contacted Steps 2 Well-being and having a phone consultation with them later this week.
 
DTA said:
I think Scara made that post with the best of intentions.

I think he was trying to express a persons value is not determined by their own perception of their reliability.

that’s how I read it anyway.
Click to expand...

Me too.

El Guepardo said:
My paranoia is so bad that it’s left me feeling frozen in life, scared to go forward as I’m stuck thinking of all these worst case scenarios. Too often I don’t want to exist as I’d prefer that than to live through a nightmare reality. I’ve contacted Steps 2 Well-being and having a phone consultation with them later this week.
Click to expand...

You are taking positive action. That’s a very good thing, and a really important step.
 
El Guepardo said:
My paranoia is so bad that it’s left me feeling frozen in life, scared to go forward as I’m stuck thinking of all these worst case scenarios. Too often I don’t want to exist as I’d prefer that than to live through a nightmare reality. I’ve contacted Steps 2 Well-being and having a phone consultation with them later this week.
Click to expand...

How long does it take you to realise thoughts you have are paranoia, rather than rational concerns that everyone has?

If you’ve had the consultation I hope it has gone well with some solid advice and not just given you a rehashed version of “Feeling anxious? Just don’t worry about it!!!!”
 
Ok, I've thought about posting to the crazies for a while
spurspinter1 said:
How long does it take you to realise thoughts you have are paranoia, rather than rational concerns that everyone has?

If you’ve had the consultation I hope it has gone well with some solid advice and not just given you a rehashed version of “Feeling anxious? Just don’t worry about it!!!!”
Click to expand...
It's great that your comment is the first I've come across. I think it highlights the biggest problem the understanding of mental illness has. There is a physical response to your thought process, that physical response then affects and guides your future psychological response and around it goes.
The Body Keeps The Score is an amazing book that maybe everyone should read.
I spent 8 months in a Psych ward in the early 90s aged 18. It made me really fudging angry at the normals that took the teenage years as a right, mine didn't look like that.

People hate to think about mental illness because it's something in you, you can't punch it, you can't drop it, it is not something you can wake up and say " pull your socks up " your brain is depressed, it's a fudging illness, all your logical brain is still there but your brain isn't perceiving it in the normal way. In my experience it is an altered reality that I can only fight against for so long beforebit becomes a brutal truth. But I'll pull my socks up bitches!
 
The Psych ward I was in was called Northgate clinic in Colindale, it was for young people aged 16 to 21. It was like Girl Interrupted but the birds weren't as hot.
The staff there were just incredible but. I don't think I'll ever really be able to process properly just how out there am experience like that is. I was a kid, I lost all my friends who were too young to understand what was going on and incapable of being true friends. My girlfriend of 2 years who didn't visit.
My father that rang 5 days from discharge. There are many people that now talk about understanding mental illness, tokenistic flimflam.
It of course sounds like a sob story. It's just a true story.
I spent 8 months with a girl who in some ways changed my life, I shall call her Dave, because....comedy
She came in crying and shaking, so distressed, fudging he'll it was frightening to see a girl like That, she was 18, I did what w'ed all do and just offered some attempt at calm. I was more a man then then I am now.
She has just come from the abortion of her brothers child.
In a group meeting she was asked if there was anybody she could trust to talk to and she pointed me
 
Sorry I've gone on a bit. Haven't even started on the seriously deep cutter, the huge Sonic Boom/Spiritualized girl I would definitely have married if she could have just kicked the skag for a while.
 
FolkestoneSpur said:
Ok, I've thought about posting to the crazies for a while

It's great that your comment is the first I've come across. I think it highlights the biggest problem the understanding of mental illness has. There is a physical response to your thought process, that physical response then affects and guides your future psychological response and around it goes.
The Body Keeps The Score is an amazing book that maybe everyone should read.
I spent 8 months in a Psych ward in the early 90s aged 18. It made me really fudging angry at the normals that took the teenage years as a right, mine didn't look like that.

People hate to think about mental illness because it's something in you, you can't punch it, you can't drop it, it is not something you can wake up and say " pull your socks up " your brain is depressed, it's a fudging illness, all your logical brain is still there but your brain isn't perceiving it in the normal way. In my experience it is an altered reality that I can only fight against for so long beforebit becomes a brutal truth. But I'll pull my socks up bitches!
Click to expand...

It’s very tricky and whilst true to say “Everyone experiences things differently and has struggles”, that can diminish those with actual mental health conditions as opposed to suffering from poor mental health.

Appreciate the book suggestion, the title sounds familiar, will have a look.

I’ve got to get through “Lost Connections” first, recommended by an old friend, looks at understanding and combating depression / anxiety through means other than the typical ever increasing dosage of antidepressants.

Sounds like your time in a ward was a mixed experience, thanks for sharing.
 
FolkestoneSpur said:
The Psych ward I was in was called Northgate clinic in Colindale, it was for young people aged 16 to 21. It was like Girl Interrupted but the birds weren't as hot.
The staff there were just incredible but. I don't think I'll ever really be able to process properly just how out there am experience like that is. I was a kid, I lost all my friends who were too young to understand what was going on and incapable of being true friends. My girlfriend of 2 years who didn't visit.
My father that rang 5 days from discharge. There are many people that now talk about understanding mental illness, tokenistic flimflam.
It of course sounds like a sob story. It's just a true story.
I spent 8 months with a girl who in some ways changed my life, I shall call her Dave, because....comedy
She came in crying and shaking, so distressed, fudging he'll it was frightening to see a girl like That, she was 18, I did what w'ed all do and just offered some attempt at calm. I was more a man then then I am now.
She has just come from the abortion of her brothers child.
In a group meeting she was asked if there was anybody she could trust to talk to and she pointed me
Click to expand...

I think there is a real need for various mental health conditions to "come out" and be accepted and understood more. It is happening slowly. In the 90s and until recently it was all largely hidden. And people had no idea what was happening if someone had a breakdown or how to approach it. How do you talk to a person with mental health difficulties? Just the same as you do anyone else of course. Slowly this barrier of understanding and 'otherness' is changing. Hollywood films, threads on football forums, 'schizophrenic' people diagnosed by the medical model taking control and living relatively comfortably with their voices and no drugs...or with drugs and accepting of who they are. Whatever works.

What others and society have routinely done to people who were suffering with mental fatigue/stress/breakdown is truly awful and saddening. Psych hospitals are probably deeply damaging places. It is mainly because of a lack of understanding, which still pervades despite the progress that is being made.
 
Last edited:
SpurMeUp said:
I think there is a real need for various mental health conditions to "come out" and be accepted and understood more. It is happening slowly. In the 90s and until recently it was all largely hidden. And people had no idea what was happening if someone had a breakdown or how to approach it. How do you talk to a person with mental health difficulties? Just the same as you do anyone else of course. Slowly this barrier of understanding and 'otherness' is changing. Hollywood films, threads on football forums, 'schizophrenic' people diagnosed by the medical model taking control and living relatively comfortably with their voices and no drugs...or with drugs and accepting of who they are. Whatever works.

What others and society have routinely done to people who were suffering with mental fatigue/stress/breakdown is truly awful and saddening. Psych hospitals are probably deeply damaging places. It is mainly because of a lack of understanding, which still pervades despite the progress that is being made.
Click to expand...
.
Thank you so much for your response mate. I'm not going to go into my current situation too much now, I revealed too much yesterday, booze, always does that.
Why has or does mental illness even exist? You won't find it within any other species other than species that have had contact with people. Gabor Mate has a very good explanation of infant, adult primary care giver attachment theory that I think makes sense of how modern western culture has failed children so much. It goes much deeper than that but, I'm tired and maybe lazy, a well thought out and wonderfully intentioned response to my mad ramblings is Great, thanks mate
 
FolkestoneSpur said:
.
Thank you so much for your response mate. I'm not going to go into my current situation too much now, I revealed too much yesterday, booze, always does that.
Why has or does mental illness even exist? You won't find it within any other species other than species that have had contact with people. Gabor Mate has a very good explanation of infant, adult primary care giver attachment theory that I think makes sense of how modern western culture has failed children so much. It goes much deeper than that but, I'm tired and maybe lazy, a well thought out and wonderfully intentioned response to my mad ramblings is Great, thanks mate
Click to expand...

When I get some time, I'll be checking out your book or author tips. It is a fascinating area with a few special people who seem to have gems of insight. You wonder why more people don't listen to this enlightened few.

I think it is also important to remember people are fascinated by mental health conditions. Being candid and open with people you meet might freak a few people out on the way, but why not push their boundries!? Ultimately it can help liberate and get greater acceptance. And in today's world, one of the greatest sins is being normal.
 
I had the privilege of working with a lady who is about 24. In her teenage years she was locked up in psych hospital. What an awful thing to happen to you when you are suffering. This girl did what a lot of people do in this situation, she lied that the voices had gone away. Simply so she could get out of this jail.

With some help she learned to live side by side with her voices. Accepting them and working with them. She and others call themselves voice hearers rather than 'schizophrenic', which is the medical model's definition. She lives a free relatively normal life, and doesn't find medication helpful - though many do. I was involved putting on an event and invited her to tell her story. It dwarfed everything else that was covered that day. I know now that she had her voices with her before and after the talk. 7 of them. She takes a moment beforehand where she gives some time to the voices and makes an agreement with them, giving her space to then deliver the seminar. She manages it incredibly well. And how she could tell her story! The room was transfixed, moved, fascinated...

Then I've met plenty of other people who are understandably less forthcoming about their condition. They try to minimise any shock to others. I think it compromises them, however. This is why I think there needs to be a 'coming out' as it were for those with mental health conditions. And this thread shows people want and need to do this. Maybe embrace the shock value to an extent, and be proud of who you are. Insist society adapts not the other way around. Not sure exactly how all this would work (!) but it is something I've thought about after working with lots of incredibly smart people who have a lot to give but seem to be pushed to the sidelines.
 
SpurMeUp said:
I had the privilege of working with a lady who is about 24. In her teenage years she was locked up in psych hospital. What an awful thing to happen to you when you are suffering. This girl did what a lot of people do in this situation, she lied that the voices had gone away. Simply so she could get out of this jail.

With some help she learned to live side by side with her voices. Accepting them and working with them. She and others call themselves voice hearers rather than 'schizophrenic', which is the medical model's definition. She lives a free relatively normal life, and doesn't find medication helpful - though many do. I was involved putting on an event and invited her to tell her story. It dwarfed everything else that was covered that day. I know now that she had her voices with her before and after the talk. 7 of them. She takes a moment beforehand where she gives some time to the voices and makes an agreement with them, giving her space to then deliver the seminar. She manages it incredibly well. And how she could tell her story! The room was transfixed, moved, fascinated...

Then I've met plenty of other people who are understandably less forthcoming about their condition. They try to minimise any shock to others. I think it compromises them, however. This is why I think there needs to be a 'coming out' as it were for those with mental health conditions. And this thread shows people want and need to do this. Maybe embrace the shock value to an extent, and be proud of who you are. Insist society adapts not the other way around. Not sure exactly how all this would work (!) but it is something I've thought about after working with lots of incredibly smart people who have a lot to give but seem to be pushed to the sidelines.
Click to expand...

I'd love to hear her talk, do you know if there are any ways to see one online?

My wife's cousin is suffering from schizophrenia/hearing voices, and has been in and out of psych wards. She's adamant that medicines are not helping her, and that she quite enjoys hearing the voices (or angels, as she calls them). They're kind to her and encourages her. The downside to her particular case of it is that the voices will often give her too much confidence, and will make her take a lot of irresponsible decisions. She's gambled away tons of money, she's started a ton of bizarre businesses that all amount to nothing but hot air (she tried to sell plastic wrapping for houses at one time) - but is adamant that her life is better with the voices rather than being on medicines and being without the voices (the medicines have all kinds of other nasty side effects for her, of course). So ... she prefers being happy and quite ... irresponsible, instead of unhappy and more responsible. Can't really blame her for that, but it's difficult for her family.

I've worked at various psych wards for short periods of time, and some of them ... goddamn, no wonder people don't get better. The state of the "treatment" people are getting are nothing short of a disgrace, even in a country like Norway, where we pride ourselves on such good healthcare. People basically just locked up in cells in these dreary dreary places, with no freedom (one dude had to keep asking for permission to smoke as much as he wanted to ffs) and with this incredibly hierarchical system above them that decides their every move - a lot of the psych ward guys just completely untrained, unskilled duds from the street who happens to be working there. One guy told me how he forced a patient to take a shower by shouting at him and physically pushing him into the showers. When I asked him if he was allowed to do that (I was a student at the time), he just shrugged and said "how else are we gonna get him to shower?". A lot of these people are just completely without basic human rights, even in the year 2022. It's a disgrace. I really hope, as you say, that mental illnesses will continue to become normalized, and something we treat with more dignity and normalcy in the years to come, because what we're doing now is doing more harm than good for most people.
 
I hate it how the brain can cast illusions, can trick us and create an alternate reality for us to exist within. Within mine, I feel trapped. It’s claustrophobic and it leaves me wanting to not breathe. I fight it, some days more successfully than others but it seems as if the fight can never be one over which I enjoy victory.
 
El Guepardo said:
I hate it how the brain can cast illusions, can trick us and create an alternate reality for us to exist within. Within mine, I feel trapped. It’s claustrophobic and it leaves me wanting to not breathe. I fight it, some days more successfully than others but it seems as if the fight can never be one over which I enjoy victory.
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear that, mate. It's great that you can share here and for what it's worth, the fact that you can is a positive thing. You have strength!
 
90291Spur said:
Sorry to hear that, mate. It's great that you can share here and for what it's worth, the fact that you can is a positive thing. You have strength!
Click to expand...

Honestly it’s weird. There is no objective reality, that’s something that I have learned over time. Instead we each have our own individual reality created within our minds from the stimuli around us. Our reality will be based upon our senses, our values, our memories etc and we will all have a different take on what happens and what is there.
Unfortunately, when the brain is misfiring then it starts to create illusions and we gain a false belief over life which can be very damaging. So in the end we get trapped by our own minds.

That’s a very short version but over the past year I have developed a very strong interest in learning about consciousness, reality, spirituality and other connected matters.

My head is still feeling spaced out and not quite with it now so sorry if I’ve written out a jumbled mess.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back