Posted by Atticus on August 23, 2004, at 20:41:20
In reply to Hate being mentally /emotionally ill I hate this, posted by fallingstar on August 22, 2004, at 18:48:21
I gave up asking why this spring after my suicide attempt, when the pdocs finally found an AD that works for me (after 8 really difficult years!) At this point, I figure it's like someone having diabetes and I was dealt kind of a bad hand but I've got to play the cards I have as best I can. One thing that might be helpful is something that was always stressed to me in group: no one in the whole world can truly be considered mentally and emotionally "normal." There just isn't this baseline perfect person somewhere whose brain chemistry is the model against which all others are compared. It's more like a continuum, or a bell curve, and we fall toward one extreme of the line. Please don't get down on yourself for not being "normal" -- those people don't exist, and the ones who believe they are "normal" are fooling themselves. Giving up striving to be "normal" has helped me accept and cope with my mental illness a lot better. The illness is just one part of us, albeit a pretty damned unpleasant one. It really does help not to compare yourself to other people who seem so happy and well-adjusted. I just measure my progress, such as it is, against where I've been, which includes a lock-up psych ward; I try to be my own baseline. I don't know if this approach is at all helpful in your case, but I hope it makes you just a little more comfortable in your own skin. Atticus
poster:Atticus
thread:380970
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040820/msgs/381530.html