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Why isn't there a mental health section?

Started by Felix, November 10, 2011, 11:34:07 PM

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Felix

Are we really going to carry on like none of us have been traumatized or at least feel stressed out by being marginalized and denied all the time? Like dealing with emotional/psychological problems doesn't make being trans so much harder?

I personally feel sad, tired, broken, and alone. That isn't fun. I can't really be the only trans person who feels that way. If I am, then my gosh make a section for me, and maybe someone else will come along eventually.

I think probably as many of us are anxious, depressed, confused, etc, as are addicted or trying to lose weight.

I also think that I'm losing my grip on myself hard enough that it might be nice to sequester some of it, and the only other option is a blog. I don't want a blog. I'm enough of an arrogant narcissist as it is (despite sometimes also having low self-esteem).

I guess I want a section also for the destigmatization value, but maybe it'd be like so many others, and just not get checked or read much.

But then maybe being trans is more important, no matter how hard it is, and we shouldn't call attention to anything that might make us look unstable.
everybody's house is haunted
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Kreuzfidel

Thanks for this, Felix.  I would like to see a mental health category, too, but surely someone would have requested one before us :(  I'm sorry you're struggling, mate.  I wish someone would even feign interest in me as a person right now.  I'm struggling to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  No one has a kind word or even time to acknowledge me.  I'm the person who comments all of my so-called Facebook friends but never gets even a "are you ok?" when I post a major family trauma.  No one knows I'm alive.  32 and ready to lay down.  I'll join you, Felix, and no you're not alone.
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Sibila

Quote from: Felix on November 10, 2011, 11:34:07 PM
Are we really going to carry on like none of us have been traumatized or at least feel stressed out by being marginalized and denied all the time? Like dealing with emotional/psychological problems doesn't make being trans so much harder?

I personally feel sad, tired, broken, and alone. That isn't fun. I can't really be the only trans person who feels that way. If I am, then my gosh make a section for me, and maybe someone else will come along eventually.

I think probably as many of us are anxious, depressed, confused, etc, as are addicted or trying to lose weight.

I also think that I'm losing my grip on myself hard enough that it might be nice to sequester some of it, and the only other option is a blog. I don't want a blog. I'm enough of an arrogant narcissist as it is (despite sometimes also having low self-esteem).

I guess I want a section also for the destigmatization value, but maybe it'd be like so many others, and just not get checked or read much.

But then maybe being trans is more important, no matter how hard it is, and we shouldn't call attention to anything that might make us look unstable.

Hi Felix,

You are not alone in this. I still have panic attacks, many physical problems due to the constant stress of my past.
I also recognise being marginalized and denied. A lot of times by other transpeople as well. Expecially by them.
My daily life stuff is much better now. But I just cant seem to get out of the "fight or flee" survival mode I am always in.
Like always knowing I have to be able to defend myself. Still more busy with what I look like... then what I am like.

Love
Sibila
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Julie Marie

There is a mental health section.  It's titled, "Therapy".  Therapy comes in many forms, not just the sitting on a psychiatrist's couch form.  And therapy is always about addressing one's mental health.
When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself.
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Felix

Quote from: Julie Marie on November 16, 2011, 09:41:54 AM
There is a mental health section.  It's titled, "Therapy".  Therapy comes in many forms, not just the sitting on a psychiatrist's couch form.  And therapy is always about addressing one's mental health.

I guess that's true. Doesn't help with destigmatization, though. The happiest most stable person in the world can still benefit from therapy. I think we're all kinda conditioned not to ever use certain categories and names for what ails us.

But hey I really was just getting way too serious the other day. We actually have Therapy, and some of the stuff in Science and Medicine News discusses mental health, and SO threads and passing threads etc can be used to discuss family and social dynamics.

I think this whole site is the mental health section. ;D

(thanks for your answers people)
everybody's house is haunted
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Julie Marie

Destigmatization is something that has to happen at a social level.  We can only do what we can to educate anyone who will listen.  Dealing with the stigma has to be done in our head.

I've often wondered just how much we'd even care about therapy and mental health if we didn't have to deal with social pressure, stigmas and the like.  I think most of us would just be living our lives.  Places like this wouldn't even exist because there would be no need.  Social phobias are like infectious diseases.
When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself.
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tekla

The happiest most stable person in the world can still benefit from therapy.

Wow, I guess your check from the APA is in the mail even as you read this.  And, I doubt it.  Lots of people have left therapy a lot poorer and no better - if not worse - then they started it.  The only way a happy stable person could benefit from therapy is if the therapist is paying them to find out how to be happy, stable, or both.  If you have a real life, real friends, find joy in what you do and all that, therapy will only hurt you.
FIGHT APATHY!, or don't...
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Devlyn

If I'm having a mental health issue, I head straight to the "AAARRGHHH!" section! Hugs, Tracey
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Felix

Quote from: tekla on November 16, 2011, 07:38:36 PM
The happiest most stable person in the world can still benefit from therapy.

Wow, I guess your check from the APA is in the mail even as you read this.  And, I doubt it.  Lots of people have left therapy a lot poorer and no better - if not worse - then they started it.  The only way a happy stable person could benefit from therapy is if the therapist is paying them to find out how to be happy, stable, or both.  If you have a real life, real friends, find joy in what you do and all that, therapy will only hurt you.

Well no. I never said therapy had to come from a psychologist or psychiatrist. Some people walk around in circles in zen garden labyrinths. Some people drink tea and chant. Anything you do on a regular basis to try to make yourself feel better is I think directed and official enough to fall into the category.
everybody's house is haunted
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Felix

Also I'll admit that I tend to shun diagnoses for myself. I'm probably talking about naming things and stigma because of my daughter. She's got some stuff going on that "real friends" and a "real life" aren't going to help.
everybody's house is haunted
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Anatta

Kia Ora Felix,

::) For some members here the whole of Susan's is a mental health forum, a chance for them to express themselves[something many never get to do in real life] and 'for the most part' without judgment -I stress 'for the most part' because at times some members do tend to attack others-but I guess that's what happens in real life therapy group settings/situations...

Metta Zenda :)
"The most essential method which includes all other methods is beholding the mind. The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included !"   :icon_yes:
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Kristyn74

Sometimes the answers you seek are right in front of you.Possibly mentioning "mental health" in the person reading may be translated incorrect...
Just an idea anyway. My new partner is a psych nurse. she deals with mental health in the community.
So perhaps wording correctly to help those in need ...saying to one person you look sick,or, how can i help today.
suppose its perspective tho.
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Jen61

Quote from: Felix on November 10, 2011, 11:34:07 PM
Are we really going to carry on like none of us have been traumatized or at least feel stressed out by being marginalized and denied all the time? Like dealing with emotional/psychological problems doesn't make being trans so much harder?

I personally feel sad, tired, broken, and alone. That isn't fun. I can't really be the only trans person who feels that way. If I am, then my gosh make a section for me, and maybe someone else will come along eventually.

I think probably as many of us are anxious, depressed, confused, etc, as are addicted or trying to lose weight.

I also think that I'm losing my grip on myself hard enough that it might be nice to sequester some of it, and the only other option is a blog. I don't want a blog. I'm enough of an arrogant narcissist as it is (despite sometimes also having low self-esteem).

I guess I want a section also for the destigmatization value, but maybe it'd be like so many others, and just not get checked or read much.

But then maybe being trans is more important, no matter how hard it is, and we shouldn't call attention to anything that might make us look unstable.

I you stop and consider the nature of most threads: like I want to use canola oil to masturbate, etc, I would say the whole forum is a mental health section.  :laugh:

Jen61
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Kristyn74




 

Just because someone
doesn't love you the way you want them
to, doesn't mean they don't love you
with all they have..  Ralph
and Edna were both patients in a
mental hospital.  One day while
they were walking past the hospital
swimming pool, Ralph suddenly  jumped into
the deep end.

He sank to the bottom of the pool and stayed
there.
Edna promptly jumped in to save him.  She swam to the
bottom and pulled him out.  Edna
then took Ralph back to their room.
 
When the Head Nurse Director
became aware of Edna's heroic act she
immediately ordered her to be discharged from the hospital,
as she now considered Edna to be mentally stable.
When she went to tell Edna the news she said, 'Edna, I have
good news and bad news.  The good news is you're being
discharged, since you were able to rationally
respond to a crisis by jumping in and saving the life of the
person you love...  I have concluded that your act displays sound
mindedness..
The bad news is, Ralph hung himself in the bathroom with
his bathrobe belt right after you saved him.  I am so sorry, but he's dead.'
Edna replied,
'He didn't hang himself, I put him there to dry.. 
How soon can I go home?'



;)Kristyn
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Anatta

Quote from: Kristyn74 on November 18, 2011, 10:43:36 PM


 

Just because someone
doesn't love you the way you want them
to, doesn't mean they don't love you
with all they have..  Ralph
and Edna were both patients in a
mental hospital.  One day while
they were walking past the hospital
swimming pool, Ralph suddenly  jumped into
the deep end.

He sank to the bottom of the pool and stayed
there.
Edna promptly jumped in to save him.  She swam to the
bottom and pulled him out.  Edna
then took Ralph back to their room.
 
When the Head Nurse Director
became aware of Edna's heroic act she
immediately ordered her to be discharged from the hospital,
as she now considered Edna to be mentally stable.
When she went to tell Edna the news she said, 'Edna, I have
good news and bad news.  The good news is you're being
discharged, since you were able to rationally
respond to a crisis by jumping in and saving the life of the
person you love...  I have concluded that your act displays sound
mindedness..
The bad news is, Ralph hung himself in the bathroom with
his bathrobe belt right after you saved him.  I am so sorry, but he's dead.'
Edna replied,
'He didn't hang himself, I put him there to dry.. 
How soon can I go home?'



;)Kristyn

Kia Ora Kristyn,
::) +1 that cracked me up  :eusa_clap:  ;D

::) BTW did Edna finally get to go home ?  ;)

Metta Zenda :)
"The most essential method which includes all other methods is beholding the mind. The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included !"   :icon_yes:
  •  

Felix

everybody's house is haunted
  •  

Mika

Quote from: Julie Marie on November 16, 2011, 03:48:24 PM
Destigmatization is something that has to happen at a social level.  We can only do what we can to educate anyone who will listen.  Dealing with the stigma has to be done in our head.

I've often wondered just how much we'd even care about therapy and mental health if we didn't have to deal with social pressure, stigmas and the like.  I think most of us would just be living our lives.  Places like this wouldn't even exist because there would be no need.  Social phobias are like infectious diseases.

I think this is really invalidating. Mental health issues aren't solely a product of our social environment. I think that we must be a more open and loving society that doesn't invalidate, belittle and pathologize people with mental health issues. But having an accepting social environment doesn't eliminate mental health issues--I think that's a damaging, and inaccurate, commentary.

Sure, I probably wouldn't have struggled as badly with depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive behavior and self-harm in highschool had my environment not been terribly homophobic and transphobic. I also probably wouldn't have kept so isolated and might have sought help earlier if there wasn't a stigma attached to mental illness. But the fact is that no matter what my environment is, I have these issues and I have to work through them.

Also: social phobias and anxiety are not "infectious diseases." I deal with social anxiety, and I don't appreciate this pathological comment.
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tekla

By almost any recognizing current society (and this is in real stuff, not TVLand depictions) is (at least on a social level) much better than it was even in the recent past.  We have more resources, we have more people who are - I hesitate to use the 'educated' word - 'aware' of mental illness, phobias and other mental issues, and there is far more sympathy/empathy (a little of both I think) toward people who suffer with those things than there ever was.  Yet - and this is interesting, most interesting - the more we know, the more we're open to it as a society, the more therapy there is, the more therapists that there are, the more people who have problems that there seems to be.

You'd think at some point the numbers would begin to turn around, but they never do.  Matter of fact, the further we go, the more we turn up.

So the reasons/causes (and I'm not sure at all which it it, and it does makes a huge difference) probably do not reside in how open/accepting a society is.  Matter of fact I'll bet you (though the reasons/causes may not actually relate) that the places that are the most open and accepting have the highest levels of therapies and the highest number of therapists.



Places like this wouldn't even exist because there would be no need.
While you would no doubt get fewer 'I'm going to kill myself' posts, and perhaps fewer of the extremely far-out ones that crop up from time to time I'm reminded that 'like attracts like' and all sorts of strange, odd and peculiar narrow-interest/common purpose/common ground type things have web pages/publications/shows/conventions all the time.

It might be more of a calender/sharing-board/social deal (with an extensive 'how do I get started?' section), but it would be here in some form.  Like attracts like, and certain specific sub-interests have unique questions/problems that only that sub-group is capable of solving.
FIGHT APATHY!, or don't...
  •  

EmmaM

I'm totally nuts because my old company wanted to uproot us, lower our pay, and take away our benefits. So I took their handshake and they laid me off. Devastating. Career gone, bridge burned, government doesn't want me to pursue a liberal arts type of career, so I struggle. I struggle with every fiber of my being every day to motivate myself to do something to improve my situation. I'm not young. I look young, but my body can't do what someone who is 20 years old can do anymore. I sacrificed my physical body for the people who let me go, I am at a disadvantage in many ways when it comes to finding entry level work. I left in a fit of contempt as my mentor of 7 years told me: "I'm sorry we did this, but we can't afford to keep you. There's no room for upward movement anymore." I never did make a friend of him. In fact, I had always wanted his job.

As they kicked me out I told them they were inefficient, living in the past, they held their employees back, they would fail. I told my bosses they were too old and no longer fit to be the leaders they believed they were. A Hell's Angel and a career blue collar. I never got any good recommendation from them, the only people who could prove I was as good as I said I was. I guess I'm not sorry for what I did.

/sigh

End of off topic catharsis
Loved.
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