aaww thank you ...
im no one to look up too lmao. ...but thanks. ... *

ok what about the word abuse what does that mean to you? what are the first words that come into your head? what do you think the possible different types of abuse are? and how do you think you would know if somebody was being abuses? how easy or hard do you think it would be to be sure if somebody is being abuse what signs would you be looking for?

Mental health.

well since I'm not an expert I can't really answer you

but most of the shrinks who interviewed me 4 years ago thought I was nuts.

I am here OUTSIDE of the looneybin, proving them wrong with every passing day

well you know what i think good for you. nuts thats a crule word. you know how i think about it? i say we think differently than others and its not a wrong way of thinking about things its just different and people just fear what they dont understand. so they dont understand the way we think and/or why we think differently so the say were nuts, crazy and other mean things like that. but you know how i see it, no wonder they scared they are the ones that are different only having the ability to see things one way and we are lucky to see things in our own way and not restrikted by our minds like them. we can change our way of thinkig many times and most people like us are more careing and consider others more, were not all going to kill others like some do most of us would never hurt anybody at all not ever we would rather hurt ourselfs. i guess if others treated us better instead of thinking of us as nutters we would probably think better of ourselfs but never mind guess we just got to live our lives the best way we know how dont we

well i havent been on this topic for a bit ive been so busy ive had my head stuck in a book instead. this is me i hate and ditest reading but this book is so good i cant seem to stop reading it. its a book called twilight children by a lady called tory hayden. has anybody read this book? i love it, its so true and it kind of reminds me of well me

Wow, it looks like I've missed a good thread.

I'm studying to be a counsler/therapist (a licensed clinical social worker).

I have to read through all of this first though.

Okay, this is SOOOOOO my kind of thread

I noticed people were talking about depression and other mental illnesses or about mental health in general so I thought I would put my two cents in.

People fascinate me, why we are who we are, why we do the things we do etc. I've taken lots of classes on everything from neuroscience, to biology to psychology to anthropology to sociology to religion to try to answer some of those questions. I've also gone on an expedition to Tibet (well what WAS Tibet when it existed) and learned about their ideas of medicine and "mental health". I'm currently a social work major though, but I do have a tendancy to ramble on and on with a lot of psychobabble so beware LOL.

Anyway, my 2 cents:

Personally, I have had my own struggles with depression (or at least what therapists labeled as "depression"). But you can look at it from soooooooo many different angles. I mean psychology and neuroscience and biology will tell you all about what happens in the brain when someone is "depressed". They can tell you how having certain genes will increase you chances of being depressed, they can tell you how stress and anxiety deteriorate your brain and that deterioration causes depressive symptoms. They can tell you how SSRIs and MAOIs (anti-depressants) work.

You can look at it from an anthroplogical or socilogical point of view and see that western societies have more "depression" than other societies. Sociologists will tell you how "mental illness" is a social construct and doesn't really exist. They will show you the Victorians thought that mental illness was caused by m.asturbation. Or they will tell you how misdiagnosis of a mental disorder is much more likely if the doctor is of a different gender or race than the patient. They can tell you how mental health professionals are more likley to diagnose someone as depressed if they are over-weight even if they present no symptoms of depression. Sociologists can tell you how women are much more likely to be diagnosed with neurosis (depression, anxiety etc.) while men are much more likely to be diagnosed with psychosis (split personalities, etc.).

There's just so many aspects to mental health, from genetics to environment to culture etc. It's hard to know where to start.

well gilesmic im so glad you did find this thread you def have a lot to say and yes having alot to say is a good thing. peronaly i agree with you that there are def alot of angles you can look at it from and the weard thing is that to some exstent they are all going to be right in some way dipending on your individual way of looking at it including your own experiences. i guess one of the things that i and many others that experience mental illness of some kind do agree alot on is that there is a benefit to having at least some professionals within mental health service that have personal experience of mental illness, i guess its like when people say to you "i understand" well if they dont have that personal experience they cant truely understand not reallisticly they cant. i know when i say to the professionals around me how things make me feel they say things like "its understandable you feel this way" and i think well if its so understandable then why dont you undarstand. i know the answer all to wel because its not understandable at all they just say that to try and make you feel better but it does not work if they understood they would know that. and why is it that these professionals say that we think negative about ourselfs and should try and see the good in us, yet if you say good things about them and how you feel about them/ the help they give you they say things like "you give me to much credit" and "im not perfect" why do they do that? it makes me feel sometimes when they say that i think 'who needs to think better of themselfs me or you?' i guess if im honest i think we learn by example so if they want us to feel good adout ourselfs they should not want us to be more negative about them, for some people its hard to express what you think and how you feel so any starting point for that expression of thoughts and feelings has got to be better than nothing,right!

Hey BEE!

Yeah, I think it helps if you can feel a connection to the professional, if they've been through it, but at the same time, they are not you and every person is unique and has unique experiences and consequently everyone is always going to experience life in different ways. So even if they have suffered from mental illnesses, doesn't necessarily mean that their experience was anything like yours. It may be in some ways, but then it may not be.

I think they are taught not to assume that their experiences are anything like their clients and to realize that since they are not the client, they can never FULLY understand exactly what the client is feeling, ya know? So to say "I know how you feel" would kind of be a lie because they don't know how you feel, they can get sketch a picture of it, but they won't see it exactly as you do. And putting their own experiences into it may actually mislead them. Like for example, anti-depressants work for some people and not for others. If they worked for that professional, they can't assume that it will work for their client. Each case, each person, is different and unique and has to be treated as such.

As far as them replying to your comments about them, my thoughts are this. If a person has low self-esteem, can't see the good in themselves, part of that may be because they compare themselves to others too much and they tend to over look the flaws in others and judge themselves much more harshly than they judge others. So, by saying "I'm not perfect" "you're giving me too much credit" it sounds like the therapists are responding to a tendency in you to praise others and criticize yourself. It sounds to me like they are trying to get you to see the good in yourself and to have more realistic views of others- realizing that no one is perfect and EVERYONE has flaws.

At least that would be my impression of it.

quote:

Originally posted by gilesmic

As far as them replying to your comments about them, my thoughts are this. If a person has low self-esteem, can't see the good in themselves, part of that may be because they compare themselves to others too much and they tend to over look the flaws in others and judge themselves much more harshly than they judge others. So, by saying "I'm not perfect" "you're giving me too much credit" it sounds like the therapists are responding to a tendency in you to praise others and criticize yourself. It sounds to me like they are trying to get you to see the good in yourself and to have more realistic views of others- realizing that no one is perfect and EVERYONE has flaws.

At least that would be my impression of it.

i understand what your saying and that would be the professional view but thats not the only view i guess with me i say it because i have issues with people leaving and not getting to say how i feel. now im getting used to writting how i feel for people to read so in my mind if they leave i know that they know what i think and feel about them and how they help me. i guess when they say things to me like "you give me to much credit" or "im not perfect" it feels like to me that they are saying that my thoughts feelings and oppinions are wrong and dont matter. i mean perfect means different to each person and is used unequely to how you feel about something or somebody. with me its mostly when i say good things about the people that help me being few they are important to me i guess when your wanting help for such a long time like me and wanting somebody to listen to you, notice your struggleing and provide help i do see them as perfect but in the way that they provide exactly what i was looking for. i guess with me its also that i have had bad things said to me, about me my whole life and feel that lacking so i always want to say as much good and nice things about/to others as i can so they never feel unwanted unliked and unloved like i do. i just feel the need to protect everybody weather they need it or not thats just me thats who i am and what i do, it does help me to be able to say these things

I think boundaries means using your power to make your life more comfortable. Like, if coworkers ask nosy questions at work, you can say with a smile, "I'm not comfortable discussing my personal life at work." Or if you have a family member who drives you crazy, maybe you visit them at Christmas but the rest of the time you don't call or deal with them (easier if they live far away) lol.

quote:

Originally posted by PhoneLinesYerErasin:
I think boundaries means using your power to make your life more comfortable. Like, if coworkers ask nosy questions at work, you can say with a smile, "I'm not comfortable discussing my personal life at work." Or if you have a family member who drives you crazy, maybe you visit them at Christmas but the rest of the time you don't call or deal with them (easier if they live far away) lol.

I like the way u think ^

Originally posted by Identity:
I like the way u think ^

Thanks

lets see what you think of this one then, in the mental health course im doing were just about to start the section on communication, why do you think it is important to have effective communication not just within mental health but within our lives as a whole? do you know what all the different forms of communication are?