Mental health awareness over-saturation

[changeling188]

I was today reflecting on the newfound cultural obsession with mental health awareness in which people are told to be completely open and forthcoming about their pain and suffering with the rest of the world and embark on a journey of self-development which, in advanced economies, is facilitated by government/insurance remunerated or privately paid-for treatments by psychotherapists, counsellors and psychiatrists.

Mental health awareness as an ideology also seeks to diversify the types of people who disclose this information and turn men or Indigenous people for example into spokespersons for their movement by encouraging their community to adopt the same types of behaviour. For example breaking down the supposed stereotype that men don't talk about their feelings and are ashamed to present to others with sadness or grief. Obviously within this there is some truth, but I feel as though now we have reached this point of critical mass where we have achieved mental health awareness, and yet people are not mentally more well for it and there are now just different more specific gender expressions of sadness like new age sensitive guys. Like we basically have subcultures of mental illness now...

It has come to be accepted with almost no scrutiny that these practices are helpful and result in a more developed sense of self or a higher state of consciousness. There are numerous anecdotal reports of how seeing psychologists changed an individual's life and set them free from their psychological shackles to achieve true happiness and so on. I'm not denying this is useful to many people and I get that the renewing of the mind and the breaking of old habits is generative to a more flexible, reactive way of living which aligns with what I believe in. But just on the level of observation, it hasn't actually done anything but advertise and spread misery.

In every advanced economy, scripts for anti-depressants and anti-psychotics rise rapidly and by observation the psychological issues of people are becoming more acute and beginning earlier. None of this turmoil is ever accurately accounted for with statistics but collectively from where i stand the impression is that over the last 10 years especially, life has become far less enjoyable and far less fulfilling for a far greater number of people. More and more degrading and disturbing means of coping with these problems are presenting themselves, and being disseminated across media platforms.

This will seem obvious to many people I'm sure.

This issue is so broad and complex and relates to so many factors it seems impossible to condense my frustrations into well-defined points but i thought i would list some off:
- the denial that advances in technology have hugely exacerbated mental problems
- the refusal to opt out of these technologies
- use of technology has become mandatory for children in primary school and high school, and the option to opt-out becomes more and more remote
- use of technology now required to work and participate in civilian life
- the grievances that people present to psychotherapists with seem to be more and more vague, and despite tangible improvements in quality of life or the achievement of success many people still struggle to find meaning or fulfilment in life
- decades of 'progress' for women resulted in a failed sexual revolution where women were encouraged to delay reproduction for career advancement so generational age gaps grow larger and tri-generational families are less common
- the same sexual revolution saw the normalisation of divorce, promiscuity, transient romantic and sexual relations, the pill, male non-commitment to relationships with women, father absenteeism and many other degenerations in how men and women interacted with one another leading to the next point:
- destruction of the unit of the nuclear family, which shielded the individual from the dizzying changes of the world around them
- all social progress disguising massive economic inequalities and the increased disappearance of a middle class capable of achieving the dreams of their parents or grandparents like home ownership
- the cultural tirade against men and masculinity more recently, period. the confusion men experience regarding their role in society and how they relate to other men and to women.
- feminisation of health culture and diet
- diminished outdoors culture and sense of adventure

+ issues related to toxicity, metabolic health that RP forum users would be aware of. Chiefly the war on cholesterol, saturated fat and sugar i believe to be an enormous factor in widespread intellectual decline, mass docility and a culture of anti-intellectualism as well as the deconstruction of western civilisation in critical cultures taught in universities. For example, the emphasis on critique of visual arts using frameworks of morality and not beauty.

Issues more specific to psychology and psychiatry:
- SSRI anti-depressants, period.
- the lack of specificity of clinical approach in modern psychology, catch-all approaches and the lack of intellectual rigour required to become a psychologist or counsellor.
- anti-philosophical and overly broad, overly shallow medical education provided to doctors and psychiatrists, lack of historical scope in their skillset or knowledge
- the lack of spirituality, mysticism, cosmic or poetic thinking in modern psychology that was at least present in times when Freudian or Jungian psychoanalysis was the predominant working theorem
- the distance enforced by the clinician/patient relationship, in which the role once occupied by a priest, grandparent, parent, sibling, friend, animal or environment becomes an enforced power-dynamic where no matter how close one may feel to the professional, they remain a stranger and assist in a professional capacity as opposed to someone with an actual stake in your wellbeing or your quality of life.
- reframing of psychologically normal and abnormal behaviour is just a more humane articulation of the ideology of insane asylums, lobotomies, sterilisations or witch-hunts
- institutional coercion framed as encouragement to attend these treatments for people in the criminal justice system, and the role these sessions play in how these people are processed by that system for example their successful participation in these programmes is looked upon favourably regarding their probation or release so there is an issue of manufactured consent to the treatments in the first place
- pre-diseasing by telling people mental illness is genetic or hereditary
- creation of a constant state of trauma by refusing to let people move on from negative experiences by demanding them to constantly focus on uncovering new layers of that experience. this is a common testimony of people who are recovered alcoholics is that they might not have drank for five years yet still refer to themselves as a recovering alcoholic. or the belief that mental illnesses never go away or aren't curable

possibly my main frustration: the transformation of language and vocabulary around how we talk about psychic issues or emotions to a very standardised, scientific system. Rather than discuss sadness in terms of actual personal experience distinct from disease, all these problems are now integrated within a linguistic framework that identifies and codifies disordered behaviours. The obvious contradiction being that so many of these overlap that someone could, on an off day, be diagnosed with several mental illnesses based on the presentation of at least the defined number of observed or described symptoms of that illness.

Most notable is how relationships and interpersonal circumstances are described so frequently as 'toxic' or 'abusive', the first word being quite dramatic and vague and the second having once been defined in a clear objective way as physical violence has expanded to encompass more and more vague displays of perceived aggression or hostility.

My issue with this approach, other than that is comes off as completely insincere and patronising, is that the entire emphasis is placed on the individual to undergo a process of transformation and change their attitude, their behaviour, their reactions and to adapt to the scenario they are presented with when what that scenario is is often a much larger and more sinister cultural phenomenon that cannot be individualised.

Not to mention, the issue that this entire approach rests on the supposed reliability of language and oral communication in the realms of problem solving and providing a therapeutic experience. Of course there are art therapies and somatic therapies but these are mostly an in-patient offering or an exception to the rule.

These issues have been systematised and enclosed within a pseudo-scientific framework seems to have distracted people from the obvious conclusion that many of these problems seem to have similar origins, whether that is a shared metabolic state of illness, a reaction to a sociocultural situation or a need to self-identify or create a distinction of the ego within the boredom and blandness of life.

And I'll do the bad faith reading and say that from what I can see mental illness has become competitive. I've known people who insist on having access to electroshock treatment because they are convinced that their depression is so severe that only this will work. I've seen that basically every two years among young people there is a new mental disorder that is on the uptake among people. Each has a particular tonal allure like depression comes across culturally as a very romantic, melancholic, cinematic experience. more recently borderline personality disorder and autism. The rapid increase of the description of ex lovers as narcissists or even the offhand usage of terms like sociopath.

Would just be keen to hear some insight from people in other countries or feelings about this! I find that being young I feel so suffocated by the over-saturation of these attitudes and beliefs about mental illness and the western exceptionalism of psychological experience in general but I'm also not convinced that stoicism or traditionalism is a meaningful alternative because it seems dogmatic in the other direction which is the avoidance of sensitivity and emotional vulnerability in favour of the power of denial and discipline to avoid gazing into the abyss. Or if anyone has any resources about this topic I'd love to see it! It is also concerning that the tax-payer is the one who ultimately foots the bill for this cultural creep, as at least here in Australia the government subsidises ten sessions of counselling as well as psychiatric consultations, in-hospital psychiatric treatments, psychiatric medicines are on a pharmaceutical benefit scheme etc. Basically it's very cheap to access all of these services and relatively easy.

And before anyone says it: i'm not depressed or apocalyptic nor do i feel like the world is doomed. and i don't need to cheer up because i feel fine and i have better mental wellbeing than most people from what i can see. I'm just putting into words a phenomenon that's all around me that I deal with daily because it has infected the very language people use to communicate and understand each other with. It concerns me that there is very often no alternative presented to a person who is suffering and in need of specific, individualised care and support from someone who truly cares about their wellbeing and it disturbs me that there is so little public criticism or discussion concerning the approaches and techniques of people in these professions or the efficacy of the approach to begin with. It seems that if anything were to be suspect of being a conspiracy or a global reset it would be the mass psychological reprogramming of a population?

Selected quotes from The Mass Psychology of Misery by John Zerxan

- Therapy is a key ritual of our prevailing psychological religion and a vigorously growing one. The American Psychiatric Association’s membership jumped from 27,355 in 1983 to 36,223 by the end of the ’80s, and in 1989 a record 22 million visited psychiatrists or other therapists covered to at least some extent by health insurance plans. Considering that only a small minority of those who practice the estimated 500 varieties of psychotherapy are psychiatrists or otherwise health insurance-recognized, even these figures do not capture the magnitude of therapy’s shadow world.

- Philip Rieff termed psychoanalysis “yet another method of learning how to endure the loneliness produced by culture,” which is a good enough way to introduce the artificial situation and relationship of therapy, a peculiarly distanced. circumscribed and asymmetrical affair. Most of the time, one person talks and the other listens. The client almost always talks about himself and the therapist almost never does. The therapist scrupulously eschews social contact with clients. another reminder to the latter that they have not been talking to a friend, along with the strict time limits enclosing a space divorced from everyday reality. Similarly, the purely contractual nature of the therapeutic connection in itself guarantees that all therapy inevitably reproduces alienated society. To deal with alienation via a relationship paid for b the hour is to overlook the congruence of therapist and prostitute as regards the traits just enumerated.

- Gramsci defined “intellectual” as the “functionary in charge of consent,” a formulation which also fits the role of therapist. By leading others to concentrate their ‘desiring energy outside the social territory,” as Guattari put it, he thereby manipulates them into accepting the constraints of society. By failing to challenge the social categories within which clients have organized their experiences, the therapist strengthens the hold of those categories. He tries, typically, to focus clients away from stories about work and into the so-called “real” areas-personal life and childhood.

- Psychological health, as a function of therapy, is largely an educational procedure. The project is that of a shared system: the client is led to acceptance of the therapist’s basic assumptions and metaphysics. Francois Roustang, in Psychoanalysis Never Lets Go (1983), wondered why a therapeutic method whose “explicit aim is the liberation of forces with a view toward being capable ‘of enjoyment and efficiency’ (Freud) so often ends in alienation either...because the treatment turns out to be interminable, or...(the client) adopts the manner of speech and thought, the theses as well as the prejudices of psychoanalysis.”

- Ever since Hans Lysenko’s short but famous article of 1952, “The Effects of Psychotherapy,” countless other studies have validated his finding: “Persons given intensive and prolonged psychotherapy are no better off than those in matched control groups given no treatment over the same time interval.” On the other hand, there is no doubt that therapy or counseling does make many people feel better, regardless of specific results. This anomaly must be due to the fact that consumers of therapy believe they have been cared for, comforted, listened to. In a society growing ever Colder, this is no small thing. It is also true that the Psychological Society conditions its subjects into blaming themselves and that those who most feel they need therapy tend to be those most easily exploited: the loneliest, most insecure nervous, depressed, etc. It is easy to state the old dictum, “Natura sanat, medicus curat” (Nature heals, doctors/counselors/therapists treat); but where is the natural in the hyper-estranged world of pain and isolation we find ourselves in? And yet there is no getting around the imperative to remake the world. If therapy is to heal, make whole, what other possibility is there but to transform this world, which would of course also constitute a de-therapizing of society. It is clearly in this spirit that the Situationist International declared in 1963, “Sooner or later the S.I. must define itself as a therapeutic.”

 

[Jib]

Been involved with mental health systems my whole life.

As a man, I'll say this much: men have been misled into thinking being vulnerable and open is a good thing. It's not. I've had severe struggles in my life, and the only thing that comes of being vulnerable and open is judgment, criticism, and a loss of dignity and self-respect, because you become perceived as "less than" by everyone else. Despite all the popularity of "mental health awareness," people have not overcome their basic instincts, which are to avoid people that are "mentally ill" or present with mental and emotional difficulties.

I can only speak as a man: Respect is important. The worst thing is to be pitied. Especially by people who have no conception of what you've been through. It's like a war veteran who saw all of his friends die being babied by someone who's been sheltered their entire life and never had any real problems. Real, deep, painful isolation comes more from pity than from indifference. To be looked down on and pitied is worse than to suffer in silence while maintaining your dignity and respect/esteem from others.

I'll say this much: mental health awareness can actually help, in anonymously letting people know they're not alone. We have the comfort of the Internet now, and we can see that we actually aren't alone in our struggles, if we care to do a quick Google search. In this sense, mental health awareness has been great.

But the encouragement to be open/vulnerable is mistaken. At least for men. In general, women seem to do better being open and vulnerable and receiving sympathy and support. From my personal experience as a man, the most healing thing for me is to feel like I have a purpose in life, and above that, authority and respect. Being pitied as a mental and emotional cripple is not a prize worth fighting for.

It's actually adding insult to injury, literally -- to be traumatized by horrific experiences, and then to be insulted by being pitied by people who have no idea what those horrors are like. As if they could understand. It's adding insult to injury in the truest sense of the phrase.

And I know all this because I've lived it. Because of what I've gone through in my life, a major problem of mine has been being too open with everyone, even near strangers. So much for 'mental health awareness' -- the reality is that you will be treated like a feral, rabid animal. People want to get as far away from you as possible once they realize you're spilling your mental and emotional problems and they're leaking on them.

Insult to injury. Vulnerability and openness, at least as a man, is bad. 100%. What's even worse than being traumatized is losing the respect and esteem of other people for being traumatized. Therefore, the 'strong silent type' is actually the best way to go, at least for men.

I used to be all about vulnerability and openness and seeking support from others, and exactly 100% of the time it made my life worse. There is a huge deception in this "mental health awareness" that discussing problems with anyone other than a therapist is a good idea.

I've been pretty vehemently anti-therapy, because of my personal experiences, until now. I managed to find a very good therapist who basically does not say anything. I used to think he was terrible, but now I realize there is actually a lot of value in opening up to someone who doesn't even try to give you advice, and just listens. The reason being that doing that with literally any other person on the face of the earth will result in a loss of dignity and self-esteem 100% of the time -- and that's if you're lucky.

I actually have to make a mantra of keeping my problems to myself as much as I can. Even with close friends and family and romantic partners, it is not a good idea to discuss personal problems in any capacity at all. I would actually advocate for anti-mental health awareness in the sense that more people would benefit from bottling up their thoughts and feelings as much as possible and if they actually need to express them badly enough, to find a therapist, as it's the only appropriate outlet for those expressions. If you want to lose your dignity and self-respect, then open up about your personal experiences to anyone who is not a therapist. The reality is that people are extremely judgmental and by showing weakness you make your life infinitely worse and infinitely harder for yourself for no reason. The idea that you will gain some benefit from it is a bold faced lie -- a complete delusion.

 

[LUH 3417]

Been involved with mental health systems my whole life.

As a man, I'll say this much: men have been misled into thinking being vulnerable and open is a good thing. It's not. I've had severe struggles in my life, and the only thing that comes of being vulnerable and open is judgment, criticism, and a loss of dignity and self-respect, because you become perceived as "less than" by everyone else. Despite all the popularity of "mental health awareness," people have not overcome their basic instincts, which are to avoid people that are "mentally ill" or present with mental and emotional difficulties.

I can only speak as a man: Respect is important. The worst thing is to be pitied. Especially by people who have no conception of what you've been through. It's like a war veteran who saw all of his friends die being babied by someone who's been sheltered their entire life and never had any real problems. Real, deep, painful isolation comes more from pity than from indifference. To be looked down on and pitied is worse than to suffer in silence while maintaining your dignity and respect/esteem from others.

I'll say this much: mental health awareness can actually help, in anonymously letting people know they're not alone. We have the comfort of the Internet now, and we can see that we actually aren't alone in our struggles, if we care to do a quick Google search. In this sense, mental health awareness has been great.

But the encouragement to be open/vulnerable is mistaken. At least for men. In general, women seem to do better being open and vulnerable and receiving sympathy and support. From my personal experience as a man, the most healing thing for me is to feel like I have a purpose in life, and above that, authority and respect. Being pitied as a mental and emotional cripple is not a prize worth fighting for.

It's actually adding insult to injury, literally -- to be traumatized by horrific experiences, and then to be insulted by being pitied by people who have no idea what those horrors are like. As if they could understand. It's adding insult to injury in the truest sense of the phrase.

And I know all this because I've lived it. Because of what I've gone through in my life, a major problem of mine has been being too open with everyone, even near strangers. So much for 'mental health awareness' -- the reality is that you will be treated like a feral, rabid animal. People want to get as far away from you as possible once they realize you're spilling your mental and emotional problems and they're leaking on them.

Insult to injury. Vulnerability and openness, at least as a man, is bad. 100%. What's even worse than being traumatized is losing the respect and esteem of other people for being traumatized. Therefore, the 'strong silent type' is actually the best way to go, at least for men.

I used to be all about vulnerability and openness and seeking support from others, and exactly 100% of the time it made my life worse. There is a huge deception in this "mental health awareness" that discussing problems with anyone other than a therapist is a good idea.

I've been pretty vehemently anti-therapy, because of my personal experiences, until now. I managed to find a very good therapist who basically does not say anything. I used to think he was terrible, but now I realize there is actually a lot of value in opening up to someone who doesn't even try to give you advice, and just listens. The reason being that doing that with literally any other person on the face of the earth will result in a loss of dignity and self-esteem 100% of the time -- and that's if you're lucky.

I actually have to make a mantra of keeping my problems to myself as much as I can. Even with close friends and family and romantic partners, it is not a good idea to discuss personal problems in any capacity at all. I would actually advocate for anti-mental health awareness in the sense that more people would benefit from bottling up their thoughts and feelings as much as possible and if they actually need to express them badly enough, to find a therapist, as it's the only appropriate outlet for those expressions. If you want to lose your dignity and self-respect, then open up about your personal experiences to anyone who is not a therapist. The reality is that people are extremely judgmental and by showing weakness you make your life infinitely worse and infinitely harder for yourself for no reason. The idea that you will gain some benefit from it is a bold faced lie -- a complete delusion.

Just curious what your thoughts are on the idea of the therapist simply being a means to the persons inner healer? I just finished reading Karen Horney’s book “neurosis and human growth” and she makes it clear that part of the neurotic character structure is seeing the therapist as the healer. The therapeutic relationship is really supposed to be a way for a person to work out whatever defenses they have that are keeping them from relating to people pleasurably. Of course most therapists now days are what I like to call post modern personality managers, but besides that, I’m interested to read what you think about methods to discover the healing powers that reside within a person. I don’t think a therapist can heal you of anything. I think in the best case scenario they have techniques that help bring things into conscious awareness which may be too difficult to understand without the reflexivity of another person mirroring you back.

 

[LUH 3417]

Just curious what your thoughts are on the idea of the therapist simply being a means to the persons inner healer? I just finished reading Karen Horney’s book “neurosis and human growth” and she makes it clear that part of the neurotic character structure is seeing the therapist as the healer. The therapeutic relationship is really supposed to be a way for a person to work out whatever defenses they have that are keeping them from relating to people pleasurably. Of course most therapists now days are what I like to call post modern personality managers, but besides that, I’m interested to read what you think about methods to discover the healing powers that reside within a person. I don’t think a therapist can heal you of anything. I think in the best case scenario they have techniques that help bring things into conscious awareness which may be too difficult to understand without the reflexivity of another person mirroring you back.

Sorry I meant that for OP not Jib

 

[ThinPicking]

Another great post @changeling188. Good brain.

When our allegedly royal family started peddling the "mental health" meme some years ago it was the final straw for me.

 

[LUH 3417]

Been involved with mental health systems my whole life.

As a man, I'll say this much: men have been misled into thinking being vulnerable and open is a good thing. It's not. I've had severe struggles in my life, and the only thing that comes of being vulnerable and open is judgment, criticism, and a loss of dignity and self-respect, because you become perceived as "less than" by everyone else. Despite all the popularity of "mental health awareness," people have not overcome their basic instincts, which are to avoid people that are "mentally ill" or present with mental and emotional difficulties.

I can only speak as a man: Respect is important. The worst thing is to be pitied. Especially by people who have no conception of what you've been through. It's like a war veteran who saw all of his friends die being babied by someone who's been sheltered their entire life and never had any real problems. Real, deep, painful isolation comes more from pity than from indifference. To be looked down on and pitied is worse than to suffer in silence while maintaining your dignity and respect/esteem from others.

I'll say this much: mental health awareness can actually help, in anonymously letting people know they're not alone. We have the comfort of the Internet now, and we can see that we actually aren't alone in our struggles, if we care to do a quick Google search. In this sense, mental health awareness has been great.

But the encouragement to be open/vulnerable is mistaken. At least for men. In general, women seem to do better being open and vulnerable and receiving sympathy and support. From my personal experience as a man, the most healing thing for me is to feel like I have a purpose in life, and above that, authority and respect. Being pitied as a mental and emotional cripple is not a prize worth fighting for.

It's actually adding insult to injury, literally -- to be traumatized by horrific experiences, and then to be insulted by being pitied by people who have no idea what those horrors are like. As if they could understand. It's adding insult to injury in the truest sense of the phrase.

And I know all this because I've lived it. Because of what I've gone through in my life, a major problem of mine has been being too open with everyone, even near strangers. So much for 'mental health awareness' -- the reality is that you will be treated like a feral, rabid animal. People want to get as far away from you as possible once they realize you're spilling your mental and emotional problems and they're leaking on them.

Insult to injury. Vulnerability and openness, at least as a man, is bad. 100%. What's even worse than being traumatized is losing the respect and esteem of other people for being traumatized. Therefore, the 'strong silent type' is actually the best way to go, at least for men.

I used to be all about vulnerability and openness and seeking support from others, and exactly 100% of the time it made my life worse. There is a huge deception in this "mental health awareness" that discussing problems with anyone other than a therapist is a good idea.

I've been pretty vehemently anti-therapy, because of my personal experiences, until now. I managed to find a very good therapist who basically does not say anything. I used to think he was terrible, but now I realize there is actually a lot of value in opening up to someone who doesn't even try to give you advice, and just listens. The reason being that doing that with literally any other person on the face of the earth will result in a loss of dignity and self-esteem 100% of the time -- and that's if you're lucky.

I actually have to make a mantra of keeping my problems to myself as much as I can. Even with close friends and family and romantic partners, it is not a good idea to discuss personal problems in any capacity at all. I would actually advocate for anti-mental health awareness in the sense that more people would benefit from bottling up their thoughts and feelings as much as possible and if they actually need to express them badly enough, to find a therapist, as it's the only appropriate outlet for those expressions. If you want to lose your dignity and self-respect, then open up about your personal experiences to anyone who is not a therapist. The reality is that people are extremely judgmental and by showing weakness you make your life infinitely worse and infinitely harder for yourself for no reason. The idea that you will gain some benefit from it is a bold faced lie -- a complete delusion.

I think I agree with you about opening up to most people. I made this mistake thinking it would bring me closer to certain friends but ultimately I think it’s very rare to meet people who will understand you and not judge you, or use your trauma against you. There’s also an aspect of throwing oneself under the bus, i had this awful quality of constantly talking about myself in a self demeaning or self effacing way because I didn’t want to make others feel bad, so I would volunteer and make myself feel bad. This happened to me the other day, I got lunch with a friend and she kept gossiping about how shitty other people are and blah blah it was making me so comfortable and I realized how little we had in common because every time I tried to talk about something objective like politics or culture she would not have much to say, but then because I didn’t want to gossip about other people with her I just ended up revealing personal stuff about my life and afterwards I felt awful, I still feel awful, it’s like I made myself look like ***t just to be able to relate to her and her ***t.

 

[changeling188]

Just curious what your thoughts are on the idea of the therapist simply being a means to the persons inner healer? I just finished reading Karen Horney’s book “neurosis and human growth” and she makes it clear that part of the neurotic character structure is seeing the therapist as the healer. The therapeutic relationship is really supposed to be a way for a person to work out whatever defenses they have that are keeping them from relating to people pleasurably. Of course most therapists now days are what I like to call post modern personality managers, but besides that, I’m interested to read what you think about methods to discover the healing powers that reside within a person. I don’t think a therapist can heal you of anything. I think in the best case scenario they have techniques that help bring things into conscious awareness which may be too difficult to understand without the reflexivity of another person mirroring you back.

that's a good question. i think there is an amazing power in having a conversation of depth with a person you do not know that well. it's almost romantic to meet someone and to undergo these processes of story-telling and self-analysis and dialogue, but especially given the social environment nowadays in which going up to a random stranger and starting to chat about something complex would seem weird. but again this also conditions people to place enormous faith in the power of the spoken word for communication and conflict resolution when really so much of the problem seems to be related to circumstance. perhaps the truth is that many people are just in the wrong place, at the wrong time, in the wrong relationship. early therapy for anorexics in the U.K. was to go on a holiday to the seaside and drink a lot of milk - in short, to create a dynamic environment and rediscover the enjoyment of novelty.

i think that spontaneity is powerful in and of itself, and i think the jolt to the system that self-organisation has to a person's system (the feeling that they have organised to do something they believe is caring for themselves) is also enormously therapeutic, so in that way the actual content or orientation of the therapy itself is more or less arbitrary compared to the actual act itself. i suppose in neurobiological terms, that somatic therapies like EMDR which place the mind and the body in a state where it is perhaps more inclined to repair or revitalise seem more legitimate to me, because it also circumvents the issue of having to present the problem as a worded statement to another person or to even have another person present when at the end of the day, when the therapist is gone, it's just you and your soul and your ego left.

I also find that reading a good fiction book or story or historical account amounts to something more valuable than any therapist could provide which is the experience of having your sense of self and your ego so to speak transported to another context and almost a kind of projection into an imaginative space which your mind decorates and embellishes. That seems to me a very healthful thing to do to encourage the mind to regenerate and repair and transform itself, is to engage in its most exuberant and high-energy functions. Although i concede that for some their mental pain might be so intense that this type of cognitive ability is lost.

Regarding reading, the eye movement from side to side in a book is similar to the theory involved in EMDR, which is why i think that particular therapy might be useful.

 

[LUH 3417]

that's a good question. i think there is an amazing power in having a conversation of depth with a person you do not know that well. it's almost romantic to meet someone and to undergo these processes of story-telling and self-analysis and dialogue, but especially given the social environment nowadays in which going up to a random stranger and starting to chat about something complex would seem weird. but again this also conditions people to place enormous faith in the power of the spoken word for communication and conflict resolution when really so much of the problem seems to be related to circumstance. perhaps the truth is that many people are just in the wrong place, at the wrong time, in the wrong relationship. early therapy for anorexics in the U.K. was to go on a holiday to the seaside and drink a lot of milk - in short, to create a dynamic environment and rediscover the enjoyment of novelty.

i think that spontaneity is powerful in and of itself, and i think the jolt to the system that self-organisation has to a person's system (the feeling that they have organised to do something they believe is caring for themselves) is also enormously therapeutic, so in that way the actual content or orientation of the therapy itself is more or less arbitrary compared to the actual act itself. i suppose in neurobiological terms, that somatic therapies like EMDR which place the mind and the body in a state where it is perhaps more inclined to repair or revitalise seem more legitimate to me, because it also circumvents the issue of having to present the problem as a worded statement to another person or to even have another person present when at the end of the day, when the therapist is gone, it's just you and your soul and your ego left.

I also find that reading a good fiction book or story or historical account amounts to something more valuable than any therapist could provide which is the experience of having your sense of self and your ego so to speak transported to another context and almost a kind of projection into an imaginative space which your mind decorates and embellishes. That seems to me a very healthful thing to do to encourage the mind to regenerate and repair and transform itself, is to engage in its most exuberant and high-energy functions. Although i concede that for some their mental pain might be so intense that this type of cognitive ability is lost.

Regarding reading, the eye movement from side to side in a book is similar to the theory involved in EMDR, which is why i think that particular therapy might be useful.

I remember reading brothers karamazov and crying so intensely when it was over because I didn’t want it to be over, but also being so attached to the characters and seeing parts of myself in them, having a sort of inner transformation following their lives.

What books are you reading?

 

[LUH 3417]

that's a good question. i think there is an amazing power in having a conversation of depth with a person you do not know that well. it's almost romantic to meet someone and to undergo these processes of story-telling and self-analysis and dialogue, but especially given the social environment nowadays in which going up to a random stranger and starting to chat about something complex would seem weird. but again this also conditions people to place enormous faith in the power of the spoken word for communication and conflict resolution when really so much of the problem seems to be related to circumstance. perhaps the truth is that many people are just in the wrong place, at the wrong time, in the wrong relationship. early therapy for anorexics in the U.K. was to go on a holiday to the seaside and drink a lot of milk - in short, to create a dynamic environment and rediscover the enjoyment of novelty.

i think that spontaneity is powerful in and of itself, and i think the jolt to the system that self-organisation has to a person's system (the feeling that they have organised to do something they believe is caring for themselves) is also enormously therapeutic, so in that way the actual content or orientation of the therapy itself is more or less arbitrary compared to the actual act itself. i suppose in neurobiological terms, that somatic therapies like EMDR which place the mind and the body in a state where it is perhaps more inclined to repair or revitalise seem more legitimate to me, because it also circumvents the issue of having to present the problem as a worded statement to another person or to even have another person present when at the end of the day, when the therapist is gone, it's just you and your soul and your ego left.

I also find that reading a good fiction book or story or historical account amounts to something more valuable than any therapist could provide which is the experience of having your sense of self and your ego so to speak transported to another context and almost a kind of projection into an imaginative space which your mind decorates and embellishes. That seems to me a very healthful thing to do to encourage the mind to regenerate and repair and transform itself, is to engage in its most exuberant and high-energy functions. Although i concede that for some their mental pain might be so intense that this type of cognitive ability is lost.

Regarding reading, the eye movement from side to side in a book is similar to the theory involved in EMDR, which is why i think that particular therapy might be useful.

Also your response about wrong place wrong time and novelty reminds me of this poem:

When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone,
no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.

There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your home
tonight.

The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.

You must learn one thing.
The world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn

anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive

is too small for you.

 

[changeling188]

Been involved with mental health systems my whole life.

As a man, I'll say this much: men have been misled into thinking being vulnerable and open is a good thing. It's not. I've had severe struggles in my life, and the only thing that comes of being vulnerable and open is judgment, criticism, and a loss of dignity and self-respect, because you become perceived as "less than" by everyone else. Despite all the popularity of "mental health awareness," people have not overcome their basic instincts, which are to avoid people that are "mentally ill" or present with mental and emotional difficulties.

I can only speak as a man: Respect is important. The worst thing is to be pitied. Especially by people who have no conception of what you've been through. It's like a war veteran who saw all of his friends die being babied by someone who's been sheltered their entire life and never had any real problems. Real, deep, painful isolation comes more from pity than from indifference. To be looked down on and pitied is worse than to suffer in silence while maintaining your dignity and respect/esteem from others.

I'll say this much: mental health awareness can actually help, in anonymously letting people know they're not alone. We have the comfort of the Internet now, and we can see that we actually aren't alone in our struggles, if we care to do a quick Google search. In this sense, mental health awareness has been great.

But the encouragement to be open/vulnerable is mistaken. At least for men. In general, women seem to do better being open and vulnerable and receiving sympathy and support. From my personal experience as a man, the most healing thing for me is to feel like I have a purpose in life, and above that, authority and respect. Being pitied as a mental and emotional cripple is not a prize worth fighting for.

It's actually adding insult to injury, literally -- to be traumatized by horrific experiences, and then to be insulted by being pitied by people who have no idea what those horrors are like. As if they could understand. It's adding insult to injury in the truest sense of the phrase.

And I know all this because I've lived it. Because of what I've gone through in my life, a major problem of mine has been being too open with everyone, even near strangers. So much for 'mental health awareness' -- the reality is that you will be treated like a feral, rabid animal. People want to get as far away from you as possible once they realize you're spilling your mental and emotional problems and they're leaking on them.

Insult to injury. Vulnerability and openness, at least as a man, is bad. 100%. What's even worse than being traumatized is losing the respect and esteem of other people for being traumatized. Therefore, the 'strong silent type' is actually the best way to go, at least for men.

I used to be all about vulnerability and openness and seeking support from others, and exactly 100% of the time it made my life worse. There is a huge deception in this "mental health awareness" that discussing problems with anyone other than a therapist is a good idea.

I've been pretty vehemently anti-therapy, because of my personal experiences, until now. I managed to find a very good therapist who basically does not say anything. I used to think he was terrible, but now I realize there is actually a lot of value in opening up to someone who doesn't even try to give you advice, and just listens. The reason being that doing that with literally any other person on the face of the earth will result in a loss of dignity and self-esteem 100% of the time -- and that's if you're lucky.

I actually have to make a mantra of keeping my problems to myself as much as I can. Even with close friends and family and romantic partners, it is not a good idea to discuss personal problems in any capacity at all. I would actually advocate for anti-mental health awareness in the sense that more people would benefit from bottling up their thoughts and feelings as much as possible and if they actually need to express them badly enough, to find a therapist, as it's the only appropriate outlet for those expressions. If you want to lose your dignity and self-respect, then open up about your personal experiences to anyone who is not a therapist. The reality is that people are extremely judgmental and by showing weakness you make your life infinitely worse and infinitely harder for yourself for no reason. The idea that you will gain some benefit from it is a bold faced lie -- a complete delusion.

i understand what you're saying. it seems a lot of people were quick to deconstruct the idea of a strong, stoic man who hides his struggles and decree that it was too unenlightened yet the replacement we are presented with is practically no better. I also think that men are more likely to commit suicide based on perhaps being more motivated or more impulsive particularly when they become agitated, not because they have this vast sadness inside of them they can no longer bare. This same motivation in the opposite direction is part of the strength of men, is that energy to act on impulse. Two sides to every coin in that way. Suicide seems very impulsive for many and happens in the heat of the moment often under the influence of drugs and alcohol, so i'm unsure if it really indicates the type of mental anguish people attribute it to.

I agree about finding people who just listen and don't preach. There's nothing worse than having someone regurgitate some self-help rhetoric. That's what i mean about finding a personal language within mental health culture at large is that people don't know how to deal with other people's sadness so they borrow terminology from psychology and self-help and motivational speakers and it ends up being so condescending and almost offensive. Most people just want to be received neutrally.

 

[changeling188]

I remember reading brothers karamazov and crying so intensely when it was over because I didn’t want it to be over, but also being so attached to the characters and seeing parts of myself in them, having a sort of inner transformation following their lives.

What books are you reading?

I love that book. I love the character of Alyosha.
I read The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth recently which is a beautiful book written by a great thinker. He was once an environmentalist but become disillusioned with the movement becoming diluted into fighting for more wind turbines and electric cars instead of downscaling industrialised living and consumption. His talks are good as well. Elizabeth Costelloe by J.M. Coetzee. VALIS by Philip K. ****. Some of my favourite books are Nobber and Hostages both by Oisin Fagan, Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici is a book that really shifted my understanding of the history of the modern time and how people think about their lives now vs. pre-Enlightenment, To Our Friends by Invisible Committee is another amazing book about environmentalism and political activism. The Book of Dave by Will Self as well.

 

[Jennifer]

And I know all this because I've lived it. Because of what I've gone through in my life, a major problem of mine has been being too open with everyone, even near strangers. So much for 'mental health awareness' -- the reality is that you will be treated like a feral, rabid animal. People want to get as far away from you as possible once they realize you're spilling your mental and emotional problems and they're leaking on them.

Insult to injury. Vulnerability and openness, at least as a man, is bad. 100%. What's even worse than being traumatized is losing the respect and esteem of other people for being traumatized. Therefore, the 'strong silent type' is actually the best way to go, at least for men.

I can understand wanting to be the “strong silent type” having faced such reactions from people but for what it’s worth, I’ve read a few of your posts over the years and have never once felt pity for you or thought you less of a man. I just thought with all that you’ve been through, you didn’t give a rip that others may judge you. I have a lot of respect for how candid you’ve been, something I had to work at myself, even as a female, and think even anonymously on a forum, it takes courage to be so honest and risk being judged.

 

[LUH 3417]

I love that book. I love the character of Alyosha.
I read The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth recently which is a beautiful book written by a great thinker. He was once an environmentalist but become disillusioned with the movement becoming diluted into fighting for more wind turbines and electric cars instead of downscaling industrialised living and consumption. His talks are good as well. Elizabeth Costelloe by J.M. Coetzee. VALIS by Philip K. ****. Some of my favourite books are Nobber and Hostages both by Oisin Fagan, Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici is a book that really shifted my understanding of the history of the modern time and how people think about their lives now vs. pre-Enlightenment, To Our Friends by Invisible Committee is another amazing book about environmentalism and political activism. The Book of Dave by Will Self as well.

I’ll check those out but yes I love Caliban and the witch!! I remember I found an illustration in there of a “witch”being dragged to trial with a mask on her face, I’ll post if I find it again. My imagination went wild thinking about the peasantry and their common lands dancing together haha

 

[changeling188]

I’ll check those out but yes I love Caliban and the witch!! I remember I found an illustration in there of a “witch”being dragged to trial with a mask on her face, I’ll post if I find it again. My imagination went wild thinking about the peasantry and their common lands dancing together haha

 

[LUH 3417]

Ah yes I was thinking of this one, I however misremembered the context

 

[Jib]

I think I agree with you about opening up to most people. I made this mistake thinking it would bring me closer to certain friends but ultimately I think it’s very rare to meet people who will understand you and not judge you, or use your trauma against you. There’s also an aspect of throwing oneself under the bus, i had this awful quality of constantly talking about myself in a self demeaning or self effacing way because I didn’t want to make others feel bad, so I would volunteer and make myself feel bad. This happened to me the other day, I got lunch with a friend and she kept gossiping about how shitty other people are and blah blah it was making me so comfortable and I realized how little we had in common because every time I tried to talk about something objective like politics or culture she would not have much to say, but then because I didn’t want to gossip about other people with her I just ended up revealing personal stuff about my life and afterwards I felt awful, I still feel awful, it’s like I made myself look like ***t just to be able to relate to her and her ***t.

I've done the same. It takes conscious effort to restrain yourself. Just the other day I was talking with a friend and was facing my own discomfort with silence. Any time there was a pause where he stopped speaking, I noticed intense discomfort in myself and an urge to fill the silence with words. Saying nothing and allowing the silence to be there can feel extremely uncomfortable if you're not used to it.

It can help to use that silence as time to think of a well thought out response. Or a question. I've been trying to make things more about other people than myself. I seem to just get into nothing but trouble when I relay personal anecdotes in an attempt to relate. I didn't realize this can come off as "making everything about me" when in my mind, I only bring up stories about myself when I see it as relevant. Like to relate to someone or explain a concept. But a lot of times people don't take it that way.

i understand what you're saying. it seems a lot of people were quick to deconstruct the idea of a strong, stoic man who hides his struggles and decree that it was too unenlightened yet the replacement we are presented with is practically no better. I also think that men are more likely to commit suicide based on perhaps being more motivated or more impulsive particularly when they become agitated, not because they have this vast sadness inside of them they can no longer bare. This same motivation in the opposite direction is part of the strength of men, is that energy to act on impulse. Two sides to every coin in that way. Suicide seems very impulsive for many and happens in the heat of the moment often under the influence of drugs and alcohol, so i'm unsure if it really indicates the type of mental anguish people attribute it to.

I agree about finding people who just listen and don't preach. There's nothing worse than having someone regurgitate some self-help rhetoric. That's what i mean about finding a personal language within mental health culture at large is that people don't know how to deal with other people's sadness so they borrow terminology from psychology and self-help and motivational speakers and it ends up being so condescending and almost offensive. Most people just want to be received neutrally.

I agree about suicide being impulsive. You can almost think of it like second degree murder: a crime of passion. At least for emotional reasons. Terminally ill people are another story, and for many of them, suicide may simply be a way of consciously exerting control over their lives and directly confronting their fear of impending death.

Or samurai committing seppuku of their own volition. Obviously not the ones forced to do it. It does go to show that suicide can be a force of will. But for the kind we're talking about -- surely impulsive. Drugs and alcohol frequently being involved, as you mentioned, corroborate this. Many suicide attempt survivors, jumpers, for example, claimed that immediately upon jumping, their survival instincts kicked in.

Death by hanging, well. I'd imagine it's the same. Just like jumping, there is no going back, and you can guarantee the body frantically thrashing around is survival instincts kicking in. The real tragedy is you may never have even really tapped into your will to live until those final moments, where it's too late. I wonder how many people committing suicide like this, in those final moments, would give up anything in their life just to reverse that final decision.

It's morbid, but in case anyone suicidal reads this, it's worth thinking about. It can be a helpful practice to imagine yourself committing suicide and then regretting that decision in those final moments. It can make you realize you actually want to live more than you currently believe you do.

I can understand wanting to be the “strong silent type” having faced such reactions from people but for what it’s worth, I’ve read a few of your posts over the years and have never once felt pity for you or thought you less of a man. I just thought with all that you’ve been through, you didn’t give a rip that others may judge you. I have a lot of respect for how candid you’ve been, something I had to work at myself, even as a female, and think even anonymously on a forum, it takes courage to be so honest and risk being judged.

I appreciate that. Perhaps I'll rethink this current commitment to sharing less. As far as judgment goes, there's a zen koan that posits judgment/insults as gifts:

"If someone comes to you with a gift, and you don't accept it, who does it belong to?"

 

[Jennifer]

As far as judgment goes, there's a zen koan that posits judgment/insults as gifts:

"If someone comes to you with a gift, and you don't accept it, who does it belong to?"

I like that. :)

 

[stressless]

I feel as though now we have reached this point of critical mass where we have achieved mental health awareness, and yet people are not mentally more well for it and there are now just different more specific gender expressions of sadness like new age sensitive guys. Like we basically have subcultures of mental illness now...

This has been on my mind as well. I think mental health awareness is a good and necessary thing BUT I the term "mental health" has lost its original meaning, has become vague and all-encompassing, and is now just a buzzword (like racism, feminism, etc. which don't really have a definition anymore).

We (in western civilization) are part of a culture that rewards victimhood above almost anything else, so one of the negative side effects of mental health awareness is another means for people to identify as a victim. Identifying as someone with a mental illness without using that knowledge to work towards fixing it isn't doing anyone any good. I want to be sensitive and empathetic to anyone who suffers from mental illness - I personally know how debilitating it is - but I also know how easy it is to get stuck in the victim mentality, especially since our culture rewards this behavior.

- decades of 'progress' for women resulted in a failed sexual revolution where women were encouraged to delay reproduction for career advancement so generational age gaps grow larger and tri-generational families are less common
- the same sexual revolution saw the normalisation of divorce, promiscuity, transient romantic and sexual relations, the pill, male non-commitment to relationships with women, father absenteeism and many other degenerations in how men and women interacted with one another leading to the next point:
- destruction of the unit of the nuclear family, which shielded the individual from the dizzying changes of the world around them
- all social progress disguising massive economic inequalities and the increased disappearance of a middle class capable of achieving the dreams of their parents or grandparents like home ownership
- the cultural tirade against men and masculinity more recently, period. the confusion men experience regarding their role in society and how they relate to other men and to women.
- feminisation of health culture and diet

+ issues related to toxicity, metabolic health that RP forum users would be aware of. Chiefly the war on cholesterol, saturated fat and sugar i believe to be an enormous factor in widespread intellectual decline, mass docility and a culture of anti-intellectualism as well as the deconstruction of western civilisation in critical cultures taught in universities. For example, the emphasis on critique of visual arts using frameworks of morality and not beauty.

- SSRI anti-depressants, period.

These are all part of a larger culture war which is aimed at destroying what is Good and True in this world. In order to destroy society, you have to destroy the family unit, and that's easier to do when people are unhealthy. I truly believe this has been perpetrated on us, on purpose, by evil people over decades and decades. This is not happening by accident. If you are not actively fighting to find the Truth, I don't see how you can't fall into these traps.

- creation of a constant state of trauma by refusing to let people move on from negative experiences by demanding them to constantly focus on uncovering new layers of that experience. this is a common testimony of people who are recovered alcoholics is that they might not have drank for five years yet still refer to themselves as a recovering alcoholic. or the belief that mental illnesses never go away or aren't curable

This is a very interesting point, I hadn't thought of this!

And I'll do the bad faith reading and say that from what I can see mental illness has become competitive.

100%!!

Each has a particular tonal allure like depression comes across culturally as a very romantic, melancholic, cinematic experience. more recently borderline personality disorder and autism.

TikTok is a major contributor here

It is also concerning that the tax-payer is the one who ultimately foots the bill for this cultural creep

It's disgusting... in the US we have this too

And before anyone says it: i'm not depressed or apocalyptic nor do i feel like the world is doomed. and i don't need to cheer up because i feel fine and i have better mental wellbeing than most people from what i can see. I'm just putting into words a phenomenon that's all around me that I deal with daily because it has infected the very language people use to communicate and understand each other with.

This kind of thing will take a toll on even the healthiest person - you're not alone, I get exhausted being around this as well.

It concerns me that there is very often no alternative presented to a person who is suffering and in need of specific, individualised care and support from someone who truly cares about their wellbeing and it disturbs me that there is so little public criticism or discussion concerning the approaches and techniques of people in these professions or the efficacy of the approach to begin with.

This is such a good point. We've come a long way from the "old days" when neighbors and people at the local churches helped out the suffering of the community. People now expect the government to take care of them and to tell them what they should do and care about. People don't donate money or time to charity as much as they used to. I guess this is just another side effect of the destruction of the family unit.

It seems that if anything were to be suspect of being a conspiracy or a global reset it would be the mass psychological reprogramming of a population?

I'd believe this

 

[Herbie]

Been involved with mental health systems my whole life.

As a man, I'll say this much: men have been misled into thinking being vulnerable and open is a good thing. It's not. I've had severe struggles in my life, and the only thing that comes of being vulnerable and open is judgment, criticism, and a loss of dignity and self-respect, because you become perceived as "less than" by everyone else. Despite all the popularity of "mental health awareness," people have not overcome their basic instincts, which are to avoid people that are "mentally ill" or present with mental and emotional difficulties.

I can only speak as a man: Respect is important. The worst thing is to be pitied. Especially by people who have no conception of what you've been through. It's like a war veteran who saw all of his friends die being babied by someone who's been sheltered their entire life and never had any real problems. Real, deep, painful isolation comes more from pity than from indifference. To be looked down on and pitied is worse than to suffer in silence while maintaining your dignity and respect/esteem from others.

I'll say this much: mental health awareness can actually help, in anonymously letting people know they're not alone. We have the comfort of the Internet now, and we can see that we actually aren't alone in our struggles, if we care to do a quick Google search. In this sense, mental health awareness has been great.

But the encouragement to be open/vulnerable is mistaken. At least for men. In general, women seem to do better being open and vulnerable and receiving sympathy and support. From my personal experience as a man, the most healing thing for me is to feel like I have a purpose in life, and above that, authority and respect. Being pitied as a mental and emotional cripple is not a prize worth fighting for.

It's actually adding insult to injury, literally -- to be traumatized by horrific experiences, and then to be insulted by being pitied by people who have no idea what those horrors are like. As if they could understand. It's adding insult to injury in the truest sense of the phrase.

And I know all this because I've lived it. Because of what I've gone through in my life, a major problem of mine has been being too open with everyone, even near strangers. So much for 'mental health awareness' -- the reality is that you will be treated like a feral, rabid animal. People want to get as far away from you as possible once they realize you're spilling your mental and emotional problems and they're leaking on them.

Insult to injury. Vulnerability and openness, at least as a man, is bad. 100%. What's even worse than being traumatized is losing the respect and esteem of other people for being traumatized. Therefore, the 'strong silent type' is actually the best way to go, at least for men.

I used to be all about vulnerability and openness and seeking support from others, and exactly 100% of the time it made my life worse. There is a huge deception in this "mental health awareness" that discussing problems with anyone other than a therapist is a good idea.

I've been pretty vehemently anti-therapy, because of my personal experiences, until now. I managed to find a very good therapist who basically does not say anything. I used to think he was terrible, but now I realize there is actually a lot of value in opening up to someone who doesn't even try to give you advice, and just listens. The reason being that doing that with literally any other person on the face of the earth will result in a loss of dignity and self-esteem 100% of the time -- and that's if you're lucky.

I actually have to make a mantra of keeping my problems to myself as much as I can. Even with close friends and family and romantic partners, it is not a good idea to discuss personal problems in any capacity at all. I would actually advocate for anti-mental health awareness in the sense that more people would benefit from bottling up their thoughts and feelings as much as possible and if they actually need to express them badly enough, to find a therapist, as it's the only appropriate outlet for those expressions. If you want to lose your dignity and self-respect, then open up about your personal experiences to anyone who is not a therapist. The reality is that people are extremely judgmental and by showing weakness you make your life infinitely worse and infinitely harder for yourself for no reason. The idea that you will gain some benefit from it is a bold faced lie -- a complete delusion.

100% agree.

I was a car mechanic, sustained spinal injury, couldn’t walk or stand, was on the dole, did youth work course, did mental health first aid course, volunteered at a disability place for six months, couldn’t get a job ended up homeless, absolutely demoralised, got frustrated, moved state, became a self employed taxi driver, dole provider tried to stop me, did it for two years 100 hours, 7 days a week spine healed, moved country now car mechanic for 18 months, thinking about management.

Always appear strong no matter what.

 

[LUH 3417]

The Case Against Therapy - Chicago Reader

A Conversation With Dissdent Freud Scholar Jeffrey Masson

chicagoreader.com

Looks like this guy wrote a book entitled against therapy, he was head of the Freud archives and realized that Freud had covered up sexual abuse and incest within his patient’s therapy, In order to protect the Viennese bourgeoise. The article is excellent, talks about how people were hospitalized in the 19th century for eccentricity and opposing social oppression. Really reveals the roots of mental health awareness and the therapeutic culture in general.