Minimize by lying

[dulcia]

they asked me to lie to some of their friends and tell them that I was working rather than embarrass them by saying that I was on disability. I refused.

Good for you. This irritates the hell out of me on your behalf.

 

[Teasel]

Reading posts like this mean a lot to me. This has been a real problem for me over the years. Caused such a lot of pain.

I remember I knew a girl who was very comfortable with her mental health problems and would openly and calmly give a plain description of her issues to anyone who asked, and cause she was so calm and ok with it, they would be too.

I would like to learn how to be more like her in this situation.

 

[ParalyzedMind]

I've found that health care professionals tend to be overly invasive at times in social settings abo...

This is very true and ideally speaking should not happen. I think part of it is that healthcare workers often don't realize what they are doing here. It is like if you have a plumber in your family and there is a problem in the house. Here it seems so natural for the plumber to just give out advice, but as we all know the medical scenarios are totally different.

With regards to "lying" here, I do not really consider it a capital offense, but maybe you could instead find a better strategy, like simply dismissing the inquest if possible. I don't even think it is necessary to "be open" about your sufferings, because people will then extrapolate their own thoughts and get a distorted picture of you anyways. In my place as a physician it is crippling to reputation among colleagues to even admit I have a depression, if I did. Physicians tend to shun other physicians with sufferings like the plague, at least that has been MY impression. I feel the same is the fact with nurses. Healthcare workers often see a need as projecting invincibility and are terrified to admit the tiniest weaknesses. I know this is happening to me and probably pushed me to work much longer than I should.

I think lying is ok in these instances. If people are going to be nosy nosy nosy (RUDE RUDE RUDE)...

Absolutely correct. And inquisitive people also tends to be the ones that are more judgmental so that if you feel pressured to be forthright 24/7, they will keep digging. I think most people are good, but inquisitive personality trait is a very big trip-up for people with mental health issues.

 

[Freida]

I have a service dog and won't tell people why and it makes them nuts. If I'm asked I tell them he's an alert dog and if they keep pushing I tell them his job is to alert when he thinks its time. Then I just look at them. It was really hard at first, but now it makes me giggle. I'm technically not lying but I'm not about to go into a discussion of what caused my PTSD with perfect strangers or even acquaintances. I figure if you weren't around and trusted when I got him you don't get to know the gory details that led to him.

I have been asked by a number of people to share with them my veteran's trauma. They literally want to k...

I was a 911 dispatcher for years and I used to get asked "Whats the worst call you've ever taken?" all the freeking time. The response that got them to back of was "Did you want to know about the ones with the dead kids or the ones with the dead adults?" That usually shut them up pretty quickly.