Post by JC on Aug 24, 2013 9:24:01 GMT
I've joined Minds Like Ours because I was talking to one of your staff members, Kim, and she recommended I join this forum.
Having said that, I'm probably only going to be visiting ocassionally and then perhaps only to read a few posts, as I don't believe I have anything to contribute. That kind of begs the question why I joined then, I suppose I'll have to wait and see what happens.
Anyway, I suppose I should say something about my illness.
I've suffered from Social Anxiety Disorder for nearly 15 years, which means I've been mentally ill for longer than I was ever mentally healthy, and it has completely destroyed my life.
I struggled through Secondary School, my illness getting worse as the years went by until I was having to bunk off because it had brought me to my knees.
I battled through Years 7 to half way through 10, at which point, it broke me and I stopped going to school all together. That was my reward, to fight my increasingly severe mental illness for nearly three and a half years only for me to fall at the last hurdle and leave school with next to no qualifications.
After that, I bumped along the bottom for three years or so, until it was all over and I confined myself to my home. I was put on benefits and medication and I've languished there now for nearly eight years.
So why wouldn't I want to get more involved with somewhere like this more than a casual passing by every now and then?
Well, as Kim can attest to, I am an extremely negative person and that can only rub off on other people and when you're suffering with your own problems, someone being so unendingly pessimistic is the last thing you need.
Secondly, despite how much I suffer, I have no desire or motivation to seek help and I live without any kind of hope. This is for many complex reasons, but that's also both a big frustration and a seriously negative influence on those people with a belief that their lives can be better, a strength to try and change their lives.
So it really is, genuinely, best I keep quiet. Even if I didn't have such an abrasively negative demeanour, I wouldn't have any incite into mental illness or anything helpful to say, especially to people with the same illness as me.
I know what it is to live with mental illness and I don't want to add to other people's by subjecting them to my irritatingly immovable stance on ............ well, everything.
Amazingly enough, I don't think I'm a bad person at heart, despite how I probably sound. My life and my outlook on it are all linked to the hell my illness has and continues to put me through. Mental illness and the suffering associated with it is all life means to me and that informs my every opinion and outlook.
I will say I think people who live their lives despite their mental illness are incredible. My illness has taken everything away from me and yet there are people, probably with worse illnesses than mine, that are out there living their lives as best they can and ensuring their lives are defined by more than the condition they're afflicted with.
So yeah, I may pop by every now and then, which is why I wanted to write this post, but I doubt I'll be too much involved apart from reading a post here or there.
Having said that, I'm probably only going to be visiting ocassionally and then perhaps only to read a few posts, as I don't believe I have anything to contribute. That kind of begs the question why I joined then, I suppose I'll have to wait and see what happens.
Anyway, I suppose I should say something about my illness.
I've suffered from Social Anxiety Disorder for nearly 15 years, which means I've been mentally ill for longer than I was ever mentally healthy, and it has completely destroyed my life.
I struggled through Secondary School, my illness getting worse as the years went by until I was having to bunk off because it had brought me to my knees.
I battled through Years 7 to half way through 10, at which point, it broke me and I stopped going to school all together. That was my reward, to fight my increasingly severe mental illness for nearly three and a half years only for me to fall at the last hurdle and leave school with next to no qualifications.
After that, I bumped along the bottom for three years or so, until it was all over and I confined myself to my home. I was put on benefits and medication and I've languished there now for nearly eight years.
So why wouldn't I want to get more involved with somewhere like this more than a casual passing by every now and then?
Well, as Kim can attest to, I am an extremely negative person and that can only rub off on other people and when you're suffering with your own problems, someone being so unendingly pessimistic is the last thing you need.
Secondly, despite how much I suffer, I have no desire or motivation to seek help and I live without any kind of hope. This is for many complex reasons, but that's also both a big frustration and a seriously negative influence on those people with a belief that their lives can be better, a strength to try and change their lives.
So it really is, genuinely, best I keep quiet. Even if I didn't have such an abrasively negative demeanour, I wouldn't have any incite into mental illness or anything helpful to say, especially to people with the same illness as me.
I know what it is to live with mental illness and I don't want to add to other people's by subjecting them to my irritatingly immovable stance on ............ well, everything.
Amazingly enough, I don't think I'm a bad person at heart, despite how I probably sound. My life and my outlook on it are all linked to the hell my illness has and continues to put me through. Mental illness and the suffering associated with it is all life means to me and that informs my every opinion and outlook.
I will say I think people who live their lives despite their mental illness are incredible. My illness has taken everything away from me and yet there are people, probably with worse illnesses than mine, that are out there living their lives as best they can and ensuring their lives are defined by more than the condition they're afflicted with.
So yeah, I may pop by every now and then, which is why I wanted to write this post, but I doubt I'll be too much involved apart from reading a post here or there.