Mental Illness

I can’t recommend The Happiness Lab highly enough. Well, I probably could recommend it highly enough, so how about, “I recommend it highly.

Everyone wants advice on how to be more happy. But if you want more than advice, and tend toward skepticism (you think that much happiness advice tends toward squeaky-sounding styrofoam), check this out, because science. A charismatic and somewhat bubbly Yale prof looks at actual research (and creates a podcast with high production value) that examines research and talks to researchers. It’s fun. It may make you think. And it’s guaranteed to make you 37% happier or you get back the episodes you binged.
 
I think we have finally reached stabilization and are now rebuilding. :rose:

My oldest feels like a burden and people often assume that they are a burden that we should throw out of the house. We often feel stressed but I don't feel our oldest is a burden at all because we love them and we are all better when we work together.

Not that they are always pleasant or we are either!

So my point is that your loved ones do not see you as a burden but as someone essential to them and who they love. *HUGS and HUGS*

I hope those who have been struggling are feeling better today. My mental wellbeing has taken a severe nosedive over the past few months. So many major events have happened in a short time frame and I was not prepared for any of them mentally or physically. I am currently unable to work or do much of anything at the moment. I feel like a burden to those close to me because I really am not that pleasant to be around. There are always tears in the corners of my eyes either coping with physical pain or mental anguish. I am hoping for brighter days soon. I don't have a place to vent in my real life... Cue the violins... Lol. Laughter is my coping mechanism. Perhaps it is time to seek mental health help again. Or laugh at a silly joke. :eek:
 
I hope those who have been struggling are feeling better today. My mental well being has taken a severe nosedive over the past few months. So many major events have happened in a short time frame and I was not prepared for any of them mentally or physically. I am currently unable to work or do much of anything at the moment. I feel like a burden to those close to me because I really am not that pleasant to be around. There are always tears in the corners of my eyes either coping with physical pain or mental anguish. I am hoping for brighter days soon. I don't have a place to vent in my real life... Cue the violins... Lol. Laughter is my coping mechanism. Perhaps it is time to seek mental health help again. Or laugh at a silly joke. :eek:

I hope you are doing better Sally. Your recent thread about 'mind-bending sensuality' is a treat for the rest of us and would imagine it is an outlet for your challenges. Lit is a very good place to vent, explore, and lose oneself in a totally other kind of world. Best to you m'lady....
 
I hope you are doing better Sally. Your recent thread about 'mind-bending sensuality' is a treat for the rest of us and would imagine it is an outlet for your challenges. Lit is a very good place to vent, explore, and lose oneself in a totally other kind of world. Best to you m'lady....

Thank you. I'm in a better mindset these days... One day at a time. I appreciate the check-in. I'm glad you are enjoying my thread. I think it has helped to a certain extent. I have new health obstacles to surpass now but I have been able to manage the mental aspect much better than I would have two months ago.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I think that mental illness is any departure from an ability to think in rational and logical terms. It is a departure from the natural process of the brain. To illustrate, there is a natural method of walking that occurs in healthy humans. It is a biomechanical system of movement typical to the human species. So, if a person has as significant disparity in the length of their legs they will walk with a limp. It is a medical condition or illness. The same thing could be said about any normal function of the human body or mind.

When it comes to sexual matters it is easy to cloud social norms with biological reality. Biologically males are hard wired to be attracted to females and vice versa.

A human that is attracted to animals rather than humans is experiencing an abnormal mental condition. A desire in the mind that is socially imbedded rather than hard wired by nature. Thus a mental illness.

This becomes a hot-button issue socially because people that have been socially manipulated to have unnatural desires feel disturbed that society in general sees them as mentally ill. Like priests that have been in the news for unnatural sexual activity.

So, as a social mechanism to soother their distress over being mentally ill or insane, they invent elaborate theories that suggest it is a biological trait rather than an unnatural mental defect.

The need to hide the human body in clothing is unnatural and clearly part of the broad base mental illness of many social orders. In my opinion the human race displays signs of serious collective mental illness.

This is the most absurd nonsense I've read in a long time. Not surprised it's posted by a non-registered "guest".

The entire thing is built upon a false premise; "...When it comes to sexual matters it is easy to cloud social norms with biological reality."

Ironically, the opposite of the above is the more accurate statement — I'll correct it; When it comes to sexual matters it is almost impossible for some to accept biological reality due to the confusion that social norms force on everyone. That sexual roles and identity are as diverse as humanity itself is made crystal clear if one looks at human history, the cultures and social norms that have been...and still are.

This that has been posted by some anonymous "guest" is the kind of 'socially embedded' nonsense that continues to remain blind to science and truth, and is the poster child a of a misguided social norm.
 
The holiday black and blues have arrived.

I've gotten fuck all done today and in fact, am still in my robe. :rolleyes: i did force myself to go sit in the living room with my children for a couple of hours, put on Christmas music and oh! I did some laundry, so i guess today hasn't been a complete waste. It occurs to me that i should have made a survival plan last week, but i didn't, so here i am. I've got to get on top of this. I just ordered pizza and if i can drag myself to the grocery tonight, I've decided to stock up on foods the kids can fix themselves for the next week or so.

I hate that the time of year when it seems the most important for me to be cheery and productive and motherly is when i feel least able to do just that. I'm trying to tell myself that anything is better than nothing, and to keep moving forward, even if it's very slowly, but i feel as though I'm stuck in cement.

Plus I'm not going to be able to see my fella for Christmas and I'm upset about that and feeling insecure and needy, which i don't want him to see because he's got a lot on his mind already. This is not how i imagined our first Christmas together.

Every year i say, 'Next year will be better,' but there is always some new problem to deal with. This year we are having housing issues. I feel like a failure and a disappointment to everyone i love. I don't want sympathy, i just want to feel better so that i can be a good mother and a good girlfriend and most of all be good to myself so that i can do all of those other things i want to do and live my best fucking life.

Bleh. Thanks for letting me vent, guys.
 
The holiday black and blues have arrived.

I've gotten fuck all done today and in fact, am still in my robe. :rolleyes: i did force myself to go sit in the living room with my children for a couple of hours, put on Christmas music and oh! I did some laundry, so i guess today hasn't been a complete waste. It occurs to me that i should have made a survival plan last week, but i didn't, so here i am. I've got to get on top of this. I just ordered pizza and if i can drag myself to the grocery tonight, I've decided to stock up on foods the kids can fix themselves for the next week or so.

I hate that the time of year when it seems the most important for me to be cheery and productive and motherly is when i feel least able to do just that. I'm trying to tell myself that anything is better than nothing, and to keep moving forward, even if it's very slowly, but i feel as though I'm stuck in cement.
Plus I'm not going to be able to see my fella for Christmas and I'm upset about that and feeling insecure and needy, which i don't want him to see because he's got a lot on his mind already. This is not how i imagined our first Christmas together.
Every year i say, 'Next year will be better,' but there is always some new problem to deal with. This year we are having housing issues. I feel like a failure and a disappointment to everyone i love. I don't want sympathy, i just want to feel better so that i can be a good mother and a good girlfriend and most of all be good to myself so that i can do all of those other things i want to do and live my best fucking life.
Bleh. Thanks for letting me vent, guys.

I'm with you W.H. I hate to say that Christmas sucks, but a lot of it is for me. Yes, I do have family contacts, dinners, etc., but inside it feels rather hollow. Part of my problem is bad past associations (e.g. my oldest son died three years ago at this time of year and it's hard to put that aside to make room for Rudolph, etc. ). To be sure, I had a lovely time playing with great-grandchildren yesterday, and that was a positive.

I live in a senior living complex; there was a Christmas party Friday evening; I ate my dinner and extricated myself as quickly as decorum allowed. Treasured the quietude of my apartment.

So I keep on with Literotica, browsing other sites for images to post; seems like a kind of constant I can stay connected with at lonely times.

I think I am a good father and grandfather, etc., and I suspect you are that good mother that you feel you are not living up to; we will be and do our best, and the others will have to make out the best they can with that.

Of all things, be sure to take care of yourself; remember the airliner oxygen mask analogy: when the masks come down, put one on yourself first, otherwise you will not be able to help anyone else.

Your vent is familiar and perfectly all right....take care friend.
 
Bullseye

I think "mental illness ... [being] rampant in Western Society today" is composed of a number of factors, though I wonder if it's truly more prevalent in our society than others, or rather more diagnosed and fragmented. Among those factors, I believe, are these:
  • Overcrowding. It seems there is a higher proportion of "mentally ill" people in urban and mega-urban surroundings than in more rural settings. Studies have shown that when a population of animals, particularly carnivorous or omnivorous animals, grows to a certain density, their behavior becomes equivalent to human "mental illness." Strangely, a few of those studies have indicated that if individuals from that overcrowded situation are removed to a lower density population, many of them revert to "normal" behavior patterns.
  • Overdiagnosis. I believe (without any studies to back up my belief) that the high proportion of doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, etc., to our population as a whole contributes to their (the doctors, etc.) "needing" to justify their existence (and lifestyle) by diagnosing even the smallest psychological issues as being important and needing either therapy or drugs or both. Just as the U.S., with its highest per capita ranking in lawyers:population, leads the world in lawsuits (see "frivolous" in any dictionary :rolleyes: ), I think the high number of medical/psychological professionals to population in Western society contributes to the high number of diagnoses.
  • General wimpiness in a largely sedentary population. Western society has become, for the most part, a society of people who sit on their duffs WAY too much rather than getting out and *doing,* as our forebears did. I think this in itself contributes to a certain portion of the mental illnesses we suffer, as it is not our nature - as shown by tens of thousands of years of historic and pre-historic struggles to survive - to simply sit around. Again, I don't have "facks 'n figgers" to illustrate this, but a lifetime of observing people has led me to believe that there is a much lower percentage of "mental illness" in people who lead a vigorous, active life than in those who spend the majority of their time in a chair answering phones, pounding keyboards, or tapping figures and formulae into spreadsheets.
I'm sure there are other factors that contribute; those are just three that spring immediately to *my* mind.


My son was diagnosed ADHD/depression (and *very* high IQ, higher than mine or his mother's) early on. Through a myriad of cycles of psychoactive drugs and talk therapy, he seemed to find little or no relief from his symptoms, though he did try and sometimes succeeded for short periods of time. He essentially divorced me when his mother and I divorced, and I've had no contact with him for about a decade. I hope he's found a way (or wayS) to deal with his issues and is becoming (or has become) a happy and productive adult in whatever ways can make him happy and give him peace. I empathize with your and her battles, and wish both of you all the best in life. :rose:

You nailed it on this On your first 3!! Let me add lots of big girl panties needed and stop teaching kids to play and BE victims
 
I'm sorry to see people feel a need to slam people brave enough to step forward and say they're not doing well for whatever reason. I frankly don't care why they chose to attack, it's boorish at the very least. I'd expect to see crap like that on a chan board, not here.


All that bullshit aside, I hope everyone gets at least some pleasure this holiday even with all the stress we put on ourselves.
 
The holidays don't give me hives, but they might as well. I'll be glad when they're over. I'm not antisocial, but gah!!!
 
I'm sorry to see people feel a need to slam people brave enough to step forward and say they're not doing well for whatever reason. I frankly don't care why they chose to attack, it's boorish at the very least. I'd expect to see crap like that on a chan board, not here.

This. Somebody who comes to a thread titled "Mental Illness" and then complains that people are talking about mental illness here probably isn't in a great position to criticise others for being over-sensitive cry-babies.
 
So, I hope everyone's taking some time to take care of themselves during this season some find stressful.

Take a long hot shower

Watch a favorite show

Cuddle with someone or a pet or a pillow

Enjoy a little silence


Whatever works best for you.
 
So, I hope everyone's taking some time to take care of themselves during this season some find stressful.

Take a long hot shower

Watch a favorite show

Cuddle with someone or a pet or a pillow

Enjoy a little silence


Whatever works best for you.

I just keep telling myself to enjoy it for my kids. Let them experience the magic and enjoy the days to come. My issues can be put to the side for them for today and tomorrow. Last Christmas was a nightmare so I'm hoping for a more joyful holiday this year. I'm struggling to get anything done today, and my family is coming this evening. I don't know why I agreed to host. I need to remember to say no next year.
 
I just keep telling myself to enjoy it for my kids. Let them experience the magic and enjoy the days to come. My issues can be put to the side for them for today and tomorrow. Last Christmas was a nightmare so I'm hoping for a more joyful holiday this year. I'm struggling to get anything done today, and my family is coming this evening. I don't know why I agreed to host. I need to remember to say no next year.

Bless you Sally. If nothing else, your Forum posts are a treat for the rest of us around here.
:rose:
 
I just keep telling myself to enjoy it for my kids. Let them experience the magic and enjoy the days to come. My issues can be put to the side for them for today and tomorrow. Last Christmas was a nightmare so I'm hoping for a more joyful holiday this year. I'm struggling to get anything done today, and my family is coming this evening. I don't know why I agreed to host. I need to remember to say no next year.

Nothin' wrong with enjoying the kids, and lots right with it too!
 
Spent more than enough of my christmas in the presence of my abuser. Managed it fine but now my brain is trying to process it all properly and its made my mind really noisy. Expect to switch to a different part within next 48 hours 👍🏻😑 If its lil me, i can just look to be in christmas spirit
 
Spent more than enough of my christmas in the presence of my abuser. Managed it fine but now my brain is trying to process it all properly and its made my mind really noisy. Expect to switch to a different part within next 48 hours 👍🏻😑 If its lil me, i can just look to be in christmas spirit

Sorry to hear you hadda do that, but glad to hear that you DID handle it, and that that part's over with for now.

There's plenty of fun distractions here, if you are so inclined!
 
I've been processing my family Christmas over the past few days and came to a really powerful realization that this year will be the last year that my mom is not undergoing cancer treatment. She has an aggressive form of leukemia that is beginning to show it's ugly face. My sister, whom I believe is experiencing a midlife crisis, caused a huge ripple in our time together.

She decided not to show up after she told everyone she would be there. When she finally messaged me saying she would not be coming, 4 hours after we were expecting her, and after I called and texted several times, she sent me a picture of a bonfire and a beer... she was obviously at home just hanging out alone. The message she sent was so insanely selfish I didn't even know what to say.

I had to be the one to tell the family because she didn't have the courage to do it herself. I had to tell my 10 year old niece who had been asking for her all day, which sent her into a stream of tears. Then I had to tell my mom. At first I couldn't understand her reaction. She burst into tears and ran upstairs to her bedroom and wouldn't come out. I thought she was just upset about what my sister said, but now I understand her reaction. This is probably the last "normal" Christmas we will ever have, and my sister chose to spend it alone, being selfish and petty.

I called her shortly after she sent her bullshit message and she declined my call immediately, so I left a message telling her that she needs to talk to our mom face to face about what is bothering her. There is not enough time in this world to be petty. I hope she talks to her but I have a strong feeling it will never happen.

That aside... I hope everyone was able to experience some sort of joy over the holiday, even if it was just for a moment.
 
Back
Top