Jim, I am open to helping others while learning myself. To answer you question I would need more information. There are mental disorders that are real disorders through chemical imbalance, emotional imbalance or a physical defect such as cancer or brain trauma. There are other things that are considered mentally "ill" but are not really an illness but more of an injury. PTSD is one of those areas where it listed as an illness but it is an emotional trauma. I will need to you to guide me in the direct you wish to take this topic.

MENTALJIM said:

I need support please-NO MONEY INVOLVED!

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mentally different people can be interesting I guess.... few and far between though :-/

I know I love them. I think they are the most interesting people I every meet.

Hiccups24-7 said:

mentally different people can be interesting I guess.... few and far between though :-/

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What is that sebadoh lyric? "crazy people are right". I always liked that theory that some people can dig too deep and it can make them go insane and because of that no one believes them... but they can still be fundamentally right in a way .. I mean it's possible.. right?
I always found richey edwards to be interesting.. well before he ended up in a mental institution only to be released then to disappear into thin air...

My initial diagnosis was social phobia, which was given by a therapist. The actual psychiatrist tacked on Panic Disorder, OCD, and Major Depressive Disorder. I have some psychopathic tendencies and traits of several personality disorders, as well. I'm on Lexapro for the anxiety and depression, conversational and cognitive behavioral therapy for the rest. I get financial assistance with it, because of my working/living situation. I do wonder about some things, as I've never met a "sane" person, once you got them to open up, in a one on one situation. Most of my exes, friends, and family have had legitimate personality disorders and/or have been/are career criminals; everything ranging from drug offenses to murder. So, if normal people exist, they don't exist around me.

to rare bird

RareBird said:

Jim, I am open to helping others while learning myself. To answer you question I would need more information. There are mental disorders that are real disorders through chemical imbalance, emotional imbalance or a physical defect such as cancer or brain trauma. There are other things that are considered mentally "ill" but are not really an illness but more of an injury. PTSD is one of those areas where it listed as an illness but it is an emotional trauma. I will need to you to guide me in the direct you wish to take this topic.

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thank you for your message. sorry to take so long to reply-i've been hibernating.

i understand and am aware of what you say, and you are right.


hope to hear from you

regards

jimmy

To qualify as properly insane, the mental ailment has to cause a persistant maladaptive syndrome, so basically you can't be really down on monday and fine for the other six days and call yourself depressed. I've been misdiagnosed with things such as mental retardation, down syndrome, schizophrenia, and Bipolar. Needless to say, if you at all doubt your insanity, trust your gut.

Depression, PTSD and Panic Attacks. I'm simply mentally ill, that is all.

I was diagnosed with Anxiety Disorder and they never said it but i was given anti-depressants.
I am also quite frequently at times a very paranoid person.

I've been officially diagnosed with depression and generalized anxiety disorder, but the depression diagnosis was inaccurate. I was medicated anyhow. As soon as I wasn't in school anymore, I felt a lot better and was able to wean myself off the dangerous, addictive medication on my own. I was just miserable because I was being mistreated, not because I was mentally ill.

According to the information I have found online while trying to fix myself, I discovered that I probably have both complex and acute PTSD with borderline features, but I haven't been to a shrink in order to have it officially diagnosed because my mental illness makes it difficult for me to keep a job in order to be able to afford one. Also, I don't trust most shrinks because they like to blame people for having feelings.

I've been diagnosed a sociopath...does that count as mental illness?

What about other forms of mental illness thant aren't in the poll options or people who would like to say "no" or "suspected, undiagnosed" since it can take time ?

I'm diagnosed with bipolar, PTSD, and basically all the anxiety disorders Medication does help me, but not antidepressants (they make me crazy and ill). I was hesitant to go on medication at first, and it took a long time for me to find medications that work, but now they've really improved my life and keep me sane. I don't feel like they change me as a person -- they just make it easier to be a healthier "me."

First of all, lets be careful not to mix up neurological conditions and mental illnesses, they are technically not the same.

But for the purpose of this thread, lets treat them as one group.
I am ADD myself, which officially is a neurological disorder. Its what that second D stands for. I prefer to speak of a difference though, albeit one that seriously impairs functioning in the kind of society I have to live in.

If you provide more information about your symptoms, I'm a psychology student and I can tell you what it sounds like, but you really should see a doctor if you're having problems... feel free to send me a message if you would like.

I took some meds in the past and got into psychoanalysis. At one point I just said "screw all of this, I'll find my own way".

Also:


Treatment may be really, really helpful. But in most cases to be diagnosed or not doesn't make so much difference. You just need to find a way of dealing with your own way of perceiving, feeling and thinking.

Bipolar disorder. I stopped taking the medication a few years ago. I don't consider myself mentally ill because so far it hasn't gotten to the point where it's kept me from accomplishing things or living a normal life. I've also never had a psychotic episode. I worry about the future sometimes because of the effect it's had on my sister, my father and my uncles, who also have it. Ehhh...

Szasz suggested that the concept of mental abnormality was simply a way of excluding nonconformists from society.
(However, brain scans have show different dopamine levels in Schizophrenics, Depressives, and 'average' people, and enlarged spaces in between neurons in the brains of Schizophrenics.)

I was diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder and still take antidepressants. While in college I lost all interest in life and began just sleeping all day on my couch. I suppose most people that saw me, including my roommates, just thought I was lazy. I stopped going to class and didnt want to do anything. Even activities that I usually considered fun or interesting just felt boring and a waste of time. I just really wanted to die, and I eventually just stopped eating. So I went to the hospital expecting to just waste away forever there. I never planned to ever leave the hospital setting because I felt like I had no reason to. It seemed like the perfect way to spend the rest of my meaningless life just wasting away staring at walls. I assumed medication could not help because how could medication bring back interest into your life. But I got better and am happy now.

Id say that I was mentally ill.