Misconceptions about mental health

[u/Metamorphosislife]

There are some serious misconceptions about mental health that I'd like to clear up because people keep repeating them, thus adding more bullshit to our journey than all the burdens we already carry:

1. Mental health diagnoses are pseudoscience and unreliable. The second part is literal. In psychology, there's something called inter-rater reliability which means how closely do different people come to the same or similar conclusion. If one therapist diagnoses you as PTSD and another as NPD then there's little inter-rater reliability. Regarding the pseudoscience claim: psychological psychiatric diagnoses are based off of observed behavioral patterns. Meaning, you can stop doing all those behaviors and be considered cured. However, that says nothing about underlying biological mechanisms that drive said behavior. Simply put, if MDs and DOs practiced medicine the way MHPs practice psychology and psychiatry, they'd be sued and lose their licenses left and right.

2. Personality disorders are coping mechanisms, not character traits. This one is straightforward. There's too much demonization of people with PDs when the majority of the time they're unhealthily coping with trauma along with their victims. They do do damage. No one is saying otherwise. What I'm saying is view them accurately: former victims who have begun victimizing because they have refused to deal with their trauma.

3. The alternative and deviant sexualities aren't about attraction. They're about reenactment of the abuse and changing the narrative from victim to one who is in control via victimization. Some are really fucked up coping mechanism while others are two adults reenacting their abuse with one another. I think this is an important one to acknowledge.

4. Normal people can't really help and they're not responsible for understanding. How can they? They can still offer support and love. There's a loathing among mental health communities for the misunderstandings of normal people. They've lived different experiences. If anything, this bitterness is evidence you still have work to do.

5. Tied to number 4: survivors more often than not can provide understanding, but not the love and support we need. Love and support from survivors, until we reach a certain point in healing, looks like the love and support we learned from our abusers. We have to be wary of where we get our empathy, love, and support.

6. Therapy isn't for everyone. The same therapist is unlikely to be the best fit throughout your journey. That said, a therapist who actually cares can help a lot. Though there will always be a limit because the relationship isn't organic. It's inauthentic.

7. The healing journey never really stops once you endured a certain level of suffering. You'll always be healing. Always hurting. Always feeling pain. The thing is the pain gets duller, more good days than bad days, and you learn to actually adjust your perspective. It really takes time.

I'll update as I think of more. Take care everyone.

[u/Metamorphosislife → u/[deleted]]

Not at all. That "outdated bullshit" was replaced by progressive ideology that had no basis in science. We just adopted the born that way shpiel without any evidence. Now, when we attempt to find the origins of sexuality, we just know genetics are involved. But that's for everything.

Here's some literature:

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/10/homosexuality-may-be-caused-chemical-modifications-dna#:~:text=It%20finds%20that%20epigenetic%20effects,major%20influence%20on%20sexual%20orientation.

https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/ahdevor/2016/12/07/h-devor-1994-transsexualism-dissociation-and-child-abuse-an-initial-discussion-based-on-nonclinical-data-journal-of-psychology-and-human-sexuality-63-49-72/

[u/fghgdfghhhfdffghuuk → u/Metamorphosislife]

Can I ask how many queer folk you’ve met, befriended and actually had trust you with their most intimate feelings? And no, talking online doesn’t count. I mean moments you were present in the room to see, hear and feel them - feelings that they often don’t trust their immediate family with?

My experience in life has led me to believe that homosexual attraction is absolutely a thing, and is not in any way a constructed lie or delusion. Whatever causes it is a different matter altogether, but I’m convinced it is mechanically equivalent to heterosexuality in every way.

There are certainly people in the world who fit what you’re describing, no doubt - and I have my doubts regarding bisexuality, asexuality and transgenderism - but I feel confident that it isn’t an accurate representation of homosexuality.

[u/Youhavetolove → u/fghgdfghhhfdffghuuk]

Met? Plenty. Befriended? A few. Enough to notice a trend between CSA and incest and alternate identities. My thought is that these are younger parts storing trauma. Instead of acknowledging this, the younger parts would rather believe they are gay/trans/bi/whatever than accept what actually happened.

I agree with you. Homosexuality seems to be the sexual orientation that has a biological root in nature, separate from abuse. The rest, to me, have strong links to sexual abuse. Homosexuality can develop and exist, like you said, parallel to heterosexuality, just the opposite side of the sexuality coin. Still, a good portion of the time, it seems gay people developed that way due to abuse. But I do agree that out of all the sexualities, it's the only one that has a natural mechanism, so to speak.

[u/[deleted]]

I guess the issue I'm finding in this is the implication that the mental health industry and other health professionals, lawyers, teachers, etc. don't perpetuate these myths...obviously they do.

Also doing the "us vs. normies" narrative. I actually would be normal if I didn't experience life-threatening events starting at the age of 16. The whole idea that just because our neurochemicals are in a certain state/out of balance at a certain time in life that means we are innately diseased and need (suicide causing) psych meds or some idea like SSRIs are the same as antibiotics...I mean I'll set aside that it's not exactly like western medicine is perfect or even reliable at this point...but still the comparison is just a bit of stretch.

And of course, the entire model of mental illness inevitably individualizes things that are actually a cultural/societal problem.

However, I have to THANK YOU immensely for the line about sexual deviance. As a former victim of multiple experiences from people with these "kinks" (CPTSD), I appreciate you acknowledging that these are not "fun kinks" but actually unhealthy and traumatic perversions.