I'll probably take flack for this but...

[annabellelaw.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of two people sharing the same body. A division of mind, two personalities with some shared memories.
I read some posts in this community & go "Yes... that sounds familiar. I'm glad I'm not alone."
I read some posts and go "Riiight... nutter, nut-ter. Notjob"
This place occasionally makes me feel sane because I read things from literate inteligent people who just happen to be sharing a body with others. Occasionally it makes me feel sane because I read posts and realise that I'm a healty sane multiple, not insane like the poster.

I'll not single out any individuals (forgive the pun) but the nut-job posts I read usually ... heck. I'm not going to give examples. I think you know which ones I'm refering to.

Comments

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

What constitutes distress (or what is an acceptable level of distress) is an excellent question, and one I'm not sure I can do full justice to. I'm certainly not a psychologist.

The dictionary definition of distress is severe suffering, phyiscal or mental; but that doesn't answer much, because what's 'severe'? By "an unacceptable level of distress", I don't mean feeling sad because something bad has happened - that's normal. Mood swings are something everyone has, but at some point (and I'm not sure anyone can define exactly when) we may think it's gone beyond normal unhappiness and has become serious enough to be damaging. Clinical depression, for example, isn't something you either have or you don't - you can have a serious neurochemical imbalance, a less serious one, or be somewhere in the normal range.

The way I think about it, the 'distress' and 'functioning' bits both depend on each other. Being unable to function normally, say if you have a physical or mental impairment - not being able to talk, for example - can be distressing. If it is upsetting you severely then you need to find new methods to cope.

Similarly, being distressed can prevent you from functioning - feeling too depressed to get out of bed, for example, or being overwhelmed by a social situation and having a panic attack. It may be that it's not completely preventing you from functioning. You may decide that an occasional staying-in-bed day is okay. If it doesn't happen often enough to put your job or schooling in danger, and it doesn't prevent you from looking after yourself, then you're still functioning, more or less.

But you may be functioning below the level you'd like to. If that's the case, it's a good idea to look for help and coping strategies early on, while you're still hanging in there. Stepping in early can avert a crisis point, and besides, waiting for counselling referrals and things can take time.

(Again, I have absolutely no psych qualifications, -ology or -iatry, and I really wouldn't rely on my advice!)

I like my personal "being able to function" definition of sanity because it bypasses making any prescription about how a 'normal' person 'ought to' think. This definition implies something a lot of people would find difficult:

It doesn't matter if I think I'm a reincarnated alien death insect, or believe that humans should be my pets and I should cuddle them and dress them all up in pink gingham - as long as I don't attempt to act on any of these beliefs (in an antisocial or illegal way), and the beliefs don't make me unhappy!