Redefining Mentally Ill

[Recovery4Me]

Cool Joey, but didn't see the source. I must have missed it?

Perhaps we should have a definition toolbox located in our site somewhere that Anthony oversaw? Dunno, just a thought to prevent sputtering.

 

[joeylittle]

It's in my post #40; Nah, I don't think we need a definitions toolbox (myself); looking things up is what the Internet is for :p

 

[Recovery4Me]

@joeylittle

Point taken and Anthony seems to like your answer..lol. However if you choose, take a quick gander at this site for Personality Disorders toolbox. The members just refer to it during intense conversations and it seems to work to cut down on misunderstandings.

outofthefog.net

I have used the net since it was born, doesn't mean that I found out the info given at this site and with our dedicated members! ;)

Just roast this peanut, if the idea seems out of line. Thanks JL for all you do.

 

[shimmerz]

But the DSM lists paraphilia as a category of disorders including One of the criteria is either having distress over the disorder; or causing distress in others for engaging in the disorder (edited by joey little to match an edit in the original post) . Cassey Disorders Fact Sheet.pdf

But this is what you posted @joeylittle. Post number 47 or 48. It didn't come across as a quote me item as it didn't carry across to the second page. So is it this statement that you are saying is incorrect? I didn't actually confirm it - I took it as something that you have researched and posted as a resource from you.

 

[joeylittle]

@shimmerz you are very correct; I was posting too quickly and mentally garbled my criteria for paraphilic disorders and antisocial personality disorder.

I edited my original post, then edited your quote of mine above to match.

That's what I get for typing faster than my brain can handle. Sincere thank you for pointing it out.

 

[shimmerz]

No worries @joeylittle ;)

 

[Pencil]

Well, if PTSD is a normal reaction to an abnormal situation, then I am going to say that yes, I am healthy.

:tup: I agree.

 

[Pencil]

currently causing distress or impairment to the individual

an odd thing about psychopathology is that it has to cause distress for the sufferer

distress to self

This is a very important point in abnormal psychology - as much as in life in general.

Let me use an example from my life: I have a sister who is one of the most destructive bitches on God's green earth. She is vindictive, irrational, vicious. She was also my primary caretaker, and has a good share in my 'condition'. She has started four official processes to get custody of my daughter, simply because she wants her, simply to hurt me, simply because she's f*cking crazy. She has now twice requested the court to appoint a designated social worker to remove my child from my care, in the presence of the police (because I'm so crazy and violent) and to place my daughter in her care. On both occasions a social worker got battle ready, gathered a few strong policemen and a buddy social worker, and pitched to take my daughter. On all four (two were not ordered by the court, two weren't) occasions, the posse arrived, and thank God that prudence, common sense and a few other positive things prevailed, and each time they delegation returned with the verdict: The child is happy, well adjusted, well taken care of and not in need of protection or care'. But any of these official processes could have gone horribly wrong, and the impact on both me and my daughter could have been devastating. AND if my daughter was ever placed in my sister's care, she would have been bent for life. On one of the two occasions when she did not go through the court, a social worker from the police and a massive policeman arrived at my house to have me admitted to a psychiatric unit for observation as I am 'a danger to myself, to my daughter and society'. I was at my desk working, when the arrived. Two hours later, after the arrival of a senior police officer, it was unanimously decided that I was acting like a person who would not hurt a mouse. It later came out that she thought that if I were 'institutionalized' she would automatically 'get' my daughter.

I moved to another town. I'm keeping all information about us confidential. Only three people in my life know where we are. A lot of my work is done via the internet, so I now have a false profile, with a fake pic, etc. I'm living like an abductor and a fugitive. Yet, she has found me.

The point is that if I act like a NORMAL person who gets distressed by this, and I pulverize the cow, I'll be crazy one. Not a single person is questioning my sister's sanity. She is self righteous, and her only 'distress' is caused by not succeeding. She has now broken a few laws, and therefore I can now get a protection order against her. But it took me seven years of tension and fear, and a lot of strategizing to be able to show that she has acted in violation of the Protection of Private Information Act to be able to get a protection order on a minor infringement. Her mental health is still not questioned. I am the one who is investigated - time and time again.

I have to get my daughter ready for school. I'll come back and get to the point.

 

[Pencil]

I'm back ... with a point.

I'm often frustrated by the following: There's a family with more than one child. One child is a total brat and provokes another child. The parents don't pay attention. But wait for the second child to react, then all hell breaks lose. Then the brat screams blue murder, and they are both punished, or the second child gets reprimanded. It's very seldom that the parents will intervene and tell the brat to stop his / her shit, or afterwards say to the brat: 'In fact, you DID start it, so suffer the consequences and quit whining'. I see the exact same thing in the criminal courts. I see the same thing in office politics. I see ...

What I see in @shimmerz OP is nothing but momentary anger at having had a life of suffering due to others' ostensibly non-certifiable, non-criminal behaviour, behaviour that, as far as we know, caused NO DISTRESS for the perpetrators. What I see in the OP is a wish for a clear headed society that starts looking at these things differently, and stops stigmatizing the sufferers, I see a utopian ideal, in which inhuman behaviour is seen as abnormal, and the suffering of the victim isn't. And in such a utopia Dylan Farrow would not be victimized for speaking out, and Woody Allen would not somehow become the victim. And even if she literally thinks the whole of the DSM should be thrown out and re-conceptualized, she'll be in the company of the best thinkers in the field of mental health.

I don't see why the original post is not seen in the spirit it was written, and why it is interpreted so literally.

 

[anthony]

Mental health is very sliding scale... it can help you, it can hinder you. Which it does at any given time... well... that is the guessing game.

Like your sister @Pencil, some people are just crazy, bad people. Maybe your sister is simply undiagnosed with a mental health condition? The problem with mental health, is that you usually have to self-destruct for it to be noticed, at which point you have no choice other than to be honest when filling in some assessment, because at that point, you need help... the problem is that it can stick with you for life, just like being incarcerated can.

 

[shimmerz]

((((((Pencil)))))) I feel like this posting has come from a place that many people have not visited. One where a person is targeted, victimized, continually harassed, the focus of someone's deep seated hatred. Yes, this posting spun out from the situation I am in AGAIN, where people are targeting me and I know how bad that can get. I feel like your sister, having continually attempted to 'go after' your daughter by proxy should have been a red flag to the societal powers that be that she needed a mental health assessment.

I have seen in myself over the past week a huge slide back. I am now on meds, am trying to figure out where to turn again, feel like there is no safe place to hide. Those friends in my life who were not privy to what happened last time I was a target of these men automatically assume that this can't happen - therefore I must be overreacting. I am not. It took me a few days to figure that out as I went back into a place of disbelief myself (in myself). I am, in fact, reacting the way anyone would if they were in the same situation. A normal reaction to an abnormal situation.

Until society at large can get their heads out of their a**es and see that these things do happen, can happen, continue to happen and stop living in denial just because it hasn't happened to them, then these people over the course of a lifetime can destroy life after life after life. There is no stopping them. It is like a game of power and control.

I thank god that your little one had a mother that knows these things happen and was willing and able to fight for her - knowing the fragments her psyche would have ended up in due to ignorance of society as a whole.

This happens - call it what you will - it happens. I call it mental illness that hides, that nobody wants to acknowledge. That causes countless people who are actually very stable to fall into a life of the reality of what our current mental health system provides for those who bear the brunt of these people.

the problem is that it can stick with you for life, just like being incarcerated can.

All this while the perp tosses you to one side if you break and then looks for his or her next victim.

 

[shimmerz]

something bad

I do believe their is a difference between doing something bad and deliberately and chronically targeting a person.

and make a snap decision to use that power to take something that isn't theirs.

I am not speaking of snap decisions here. I am talking intent, conscious thought, planning and execution (pardon the pun).