#Mental Health Education

[chronicsymptomsyndrome]

Clinical studies be like

1 billion random boys were tested. results show that 0% of girls are autistic* 👍

1 billion autistic males were tested. results show that 0% of autistics are female* 👍

1 billion minors were tested. results show ADHD stops at age 18, often to be replaced by plain laziness* 👍

*certified😎 totally credible source✨ we are pros🤓 with coats🥼

[borderline-corner]

As someone with BPD, I'd just like to try to clear some things up.

People with BPD do/are:

DO have trouble regulating their emotions and their impulses

DO struggle with healthy relationships and attachments to others

DO have an intense fear of abandonment and will do whatever it takes to avoid being abandoned

DO have an unstable sense of self and their identity

DO suffer from chronic self-harming and/or suicidal behaviours

DO experience feelings of emptiness or hollowness

DO have erratic moods and emotions that can change drastically from moment to moment

DO frequently engage in impulsive behaviours

ARE able to feel real love towards other people

ARE able to be treated

ARE able to live happy, well-rounded lives

ARE able to form healthy relationships

DO deserve respect

DO deserve support

DO deserve love

People with BPD do/are not:

DO NOT act the way they do for attention (the self-destructive behaviours people with BPD sometimes engage in stems from a need to cope with our emotions and thoughts, not out of attention-seeking)

ARE NOT intentionally or maliciously manipulative (manipulative behaviour is pre-planned and intentional. People with BPD engage in their behaviours as a reaction to their intense emotions. While we may act in ways that attempt to control how others behave, we are typically doing so to try to ease or prevent our own emotional pain, not to hurt others.)

ARE NOT dangerous or violent (people with BPD are much more likely to hurt themselves than others)

HAVE NOT all experienced childhood trauma (many people with BPD have experienced childhood trauma, but many have not. Childhood trauma is a risk factor, not a cause.)

ARE NOT all AFAB (while a larger percentage of those diagnosed with BPD are assigned female at birth, many of those who are assigned male at birth also suffer from BPD, and some evidence shows that it may be more equally distributed among both sexes)

ARE NOT untreatable (there are lots of treatment options available! DBT is the most common, but there are many other options as well.)

ARE NOT all abusers (abuse is not linked to any one mental illness. People with BPD may struggle to form healthy relationships and this can lead to abusive dynamics, however ANYONE can be abusive regardless of their mental health.)

ARE NOT all the same (BPD is a spectrum and it affects all of us a little bit differently. Not everyone is going to experience it exactly the same as someone else, and it's important to recognize that we're all individuals.)

ARE NOT rare (BPD is actually pretty common. It's estimated that around 1-2% of the population are diagnosed BPD. That's around 156,000,000 people, and that's not even counting those who are undiagnosed.)

ARE NOT horrible, unfeeling monsters (we are literally just people)

ARE NOT unworthy of love (EVERYONE is worthy and deserving of love)

[antisocialsharky]

ASPD: The Desire for and Run from Intimacy

This post will only contain my personal opinion and experience. It may not be applicable to all other people with ASPD and may likewise be relatable to people who do not have it.

I am only going to be talking about emotional intimacy, but this post is definitely also applicable to the other type of intimacy!

I'll make myself pretty vulnerable in this post, by discussing my personal experience, so you better not make me regret that!

Abbreviations:

ASPD = Antisocial Personality Disorder

ASPD is a disability caused by prolonged childhood trauma (with many possible variations), that develops in order to protect the brain from said trauma, or rather to help the brain deal with it in some way!

While the consequences of this in the context of intimacy, look different for every person with ASPD, many do report: a difficulty with developing bonds, having problems trusting people & giving away control, losing feelings for people quickly and abruptly/getting "bored" of people, responding extremely to arguments, having problems dealing with peoples emotions/ problems with being close to people etc.

This may be due to a variety of factors, but does often tie back to having no or few positive experiences with intimacy, having not learned how to exist in relationships properly/a lack of being socialized, not having the necessary prosocial emotions and mechanisms to deal with it and other similar things.

While this causes some people with ASPD to develop a brain, that does not have a need for emotional intimacy at all, others develop a brain, that craves the emotional intimacy it has been denied, but which will also fight said intimacy at every turn.

Thats as much generalized info as I can give you, as the exact representation of this is highly individual, but I will offer my personal experience on the following slides!

What you need to know is that I was accidentally neglected for huge parts of my childhood and teens and did not get my emotional and social needs met most of the time, while also knowing that my parents were theoretically capable of that, as they were giving everything I lacked to my sibling.

This caused me to grow up with a burning desire for intimacy, while being disappointed by people time and time again, failing to actually develop the things needed to experience this intimacy and partially growing to resent it and viewing it as "weak" and "bad".

Ever since then I have been stuck in what I like to call the "ASPD stages of running". Theres different points in getting close to people (in any nature of a relationship), that'll send me running and feeling like I am "weak" for wanting it, or as if being close to people is the worst thing that could happen.

The stages (simply put) are:

1. Desiring/Daydreaming about my dream relationship

2. Looking at peoples relationships/Looking at people with the intent of getting closer to them

3. Talking to people (online or irl)

4. Getting closer / being friends with people

5. Being friends with people for longer

Optionally:

6. Getting so close that a romantic relationship may happen

7. The moment of getting in the relationship / the days after

8. Being in the relationship for a bit

At any of those stages, I'll very likely have one or multiple moments where my ASPD will try to get the better of me and will try to convince me to just run away, drop contact and never talk about it again. Even just admitting to this and talking about it is hard as fuck, because it is so deeply ingrained in my brain to see emotional intimacy as a weak and dangerous thing.

What this will look like exactly really depends on the person and situation, but things that have happened in the past were:

• blocking the person and everyone I am friends with and pretending I am no longer alive

• my brain fixating on their faults in order to give me a good reason to hate them so I don't get closer to them and can hold them at arms length

• responding less often/more dryly or ignoring messages entirely

• not replicating the energy of the conversation/relationship

• staging an incident so I ruin the relationship

• running at the first signs of a disagreement

• avoiding people when they are emotional

• feeling uncomfortable around people as a whole => isolating

• beating myself up about letting it happen again

• impulsively bumping the relationship to another stage, just to immediately regret it (in a "fuck that has consequences" way)

• shutting off all my emotions, dissociate or otherwise make sure to stop the feelings (or just lose them automatically)

To put it in a shorter and more simple way, I'll usually either get the fuck outta there, or make sure to change the relationship/my personal position in the relationship to a more comfortable and less vulnerable and intimate level. This may also just look like me shutting off, becoming distant, or seeming mad, when all I am is overwhelmed by the intimacy and grossed out that I actually need and desire that.

As you can possibly imagine, that is not the most useful thing, as it causes issues in relationships, cuts friendships short and makes dealing with people a lot harder!

The most frustrating thing about this for me though is, that even if the most perfect friend or partner came along and even if the relationship would work at first, I am very very likely to crash it against the wall, simply because my brain cannot handle having the things, that it needs and desires.

It desires a hug and runs from the one who offers it.

It needs help and bites the hand that does.

It needs love and gets grossed out by whoever offers it.

It wants attention and can't handle it when it gets it.

It wants gifts, but doesnt know what to do when it gets them.

Whatever it wants, it can't have, so it keeps wanting, keeps yearning, keeps desiring and has to watch itself be unable to accept any of it.

And if that sounds painful, thats because it is.

Its a vicious kind of pain when you have to watch yourself ruin yet another thing, because your brain can't handle it, while you scream at it in frustration to get its act together, because it also is everything you desperately need.

ASPD sucks when it comes to intimacy and it especially sucks when it comes to talking about it, or being honest about these problems. It developed to protect me from being too "weak" to deal with the trauma and now its practically preventing me from showing any "weakness" or seeking out what previously hurt me. Which wouldn't be this bad, if I didn't still have this kid in me that just wants to be loved and daydreams about all the things, the ASPD hates.

When your shell disagrees with your core and you're not strong enough yet to break your shell, what does that really leave you with, other than curling up into a spiky ball and letting the shell do its job? I know I still need the protection, but I wish it wasn't actively preventing me from learning to live without it.

First posted on my instagram (same @)

[kringlepringle]

i am cluster b but i do not have aspd so same as last time pls tell me if i got anything wrong 👍🏻

[shrinksinsneakers]

(via When Anxiety Turns to Anger: A Hidden Struggle)

This comes from the Heart 

[im-very-sorry]

im all for educating children on disorders and health and shit early in life for multiple reasons but partly because when i was a kid i had what i now know was a tic attack wherein i forcefully laughed (so much so that i was purple in the face and choking) and waved my arms for 4+ hours while at a school orientation thing and when i asked my friends what the fuck just happened one was just like bro didnt you know the fae kill people in the most beautiful ways and i just fucking. accepted that as the answer and told zero people about what happened. and when i was diagnosed with tourettes like 3 or 4 years later i was like oh shit so thats what that was

[torturedpoetsapartmentcomplex]

There’s a post that says “Dear Taylor swift, mental illness is not an aesthetic” but believe it or not people with mental illnesses are actually more than welcome to turn their experiences into a creative outlet if they fucking want to.

With all due respect (which is none) your gate-keeping and fake-claiming vibes are not welcome here. Not in the swiftie tags, not in the mental health tags, not anywhere.

[thescorpionmonarch]

When it comes to parenting the inner child, you will make mistakes. That doesn't mean you are a bad self parent.

Your perfectionism with parenting the inner child to such a high regard and getting upset at yourself for not achieving that goal or not having the right info how to parent yourself is what makes you feel like you are crap at parenting the inner child.

You should feel like your inner child deserves the best self parenting that you may not have gotten. That's great, but I'm not sure it'll be that useful to attack yourself for mistakes in the process of learning how to do that.

You are just highly sensitive towards your inner child's needs. That's not a bad thing. Just don't let mistakes eat at you or make you feel like giving up or self sabotaging. You'll have another chance to improve at. Take breaks as needed. Then come back to it.

[theresistanceneverquits]

There needs to be more common education on mental illnesses, because in middle school my friends and teachers would comment on the fact that my hands were cracked and bleeding because I washed them so much, and I had no words to describe the absolute need I had to wash them constantly.

[armaansays]

If you knew

how to Love...

You would never feel the need to

say an unnurtured word, statement

or, ask questions

based on self- entertaing curiosity

But always because you are concerned.

🪶 Armaan. 🧭

Remember Darling, when you are connecting with another Life.

Tip for this writing 📮♥️

[chronicsymptomsyndrome]

Knowing and admitting you need help is one thing

but knowing what help you need or how to acquire it or where to even start is a whole other thing entirely.

Anyone have any tips or resources for this?

[surinderbhalla]

Early Signs of Schizophrenia and Prevention Strategies!

Schizophrenia, a complex and often misunderstood mental disorder, affects millions of individuals worldwide. It is characterized by a range of symptoms that impact thoughts, emotions, and behavior. While the exact cause of schizophrenia remains elusive, early detection and intervention are crucial for managing the condition effectively. In this article, we delve into the early signs of…

[antisocialsharky]

Can a person with ASPD be sincerely apologetic and be afraid of hurting their loved ones?Did you had any experience similar to this?

I mean yeah of course they can be, because every person with ASPD is different! Lets unpack this:

1. "Sincerely apologetic" could go into two ways:

• Actually feeling sorry and feeling bad for what they have done OR another emotion like a genuine fear of the consequences being behind the apology. This is possible for people with ASPD who do not completely lack remorse OR those who have access to anxiety/fear as an emotion.

• Its also possible to mean the apology sincerely, despite there being no emotion behind it, because they may be capable of logically understanding that they have hurt a person and that such an action (for whatever reason in that particular scenario) is not acceptable. They would then probably go on and change the behaviour, in order to show it was a sincere apology.

2. "Be afraid of hurting a loved one" also has a few different ways of being interpreted/shown:

• Genuinely being emotionally afraid of the "hurting" part only and wanting to avoid causing anyone pain => technically possible if the person doesn't have a complete lack of remorse, has some capability for empathy and doesn't have a complete disregard for others.

• Being afraid of hurting loved ones because of the consequences this might bring (losing friends, being alone, getting cancelled, losing their social standing, losing benefits) => possible for any person with ASPD who is capable of feeling some sort of fear of, or care for, consequences and what people may think of them/what situations might end up causing.

• This fear could also have trauma roots, where the person with ASPD (which is a condition that has trauma as a development factor) has been hurt by someone and is afraid of turning out like their abuser. They might be scared of causing harm, not because they hate harm or care about others, but because doing so, would make them into their abuser in their head.

These are also just examples, for reasons/reactions and symptoms behind it, thats not a full list by any means!

In order to have ASPD (according to the DSM 5) you only need to fit 3 symptoms of 7 in total (+ the usual shit after the symptom list). So someone could have ASPD theoretically if they just fit the irresponsibility, impulsivity and aggression criteria. None of that technically makes them unable to feel prosocial emotions, tho its not uncommon to have difficulties with that. The ASPD spectrum is a pretty interesting thing with a lot of variety, so everything is possible...technically, as long as it fits within the criteria.

3. Personal experience with the topic:

• My apologies solely stem from logically knowing that this is the best course of action and that I will benefit from apologizing and changing my actions in the long run. So if it will benefit my survival and life standards, I will give a "sincere apology". If it wouldn't benefit me and there would be no consequences, I won't.

[kringlepringle]

tell me if theres misinformation in here please, i used several sources but i could still be wrong

[the-able-mind-29]

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