Disorders

[rozanya.livejournal.com]

Do any systems here have multiples with mental health disorders? I was just curious, because over here we have Shania (who has Bipolar Disorder) and Ailsa (who has OCD).

Also, if someone like that is fronting, do they carry on their traits? For example, do they get the mood swings if they're bipolar?

Sita

Comments

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

Kind of depends what you qualify here as a mental disorder, I think.

There are a few people in here who would be considered by doctors to have had, or have even been told by doctors that they had, experiences that were symptoms of bipolar or psychosis or whatever, yet for them, those things were perceived as spiritual experiences, or as their mind trying to find a way to work out problems that just couldn't come out any other way. Or cycles of extreme energy bursts might be part of how someone's creative process naturally works. Also, as we've mentioned before, we're a gateway system with a variety of different cultures, and some things which are considered mental disorders in this culture are seen as religious, holy or desirable states in theirs.

As for stuff like depression, OCD, anxiety, etc... yeah, we've had that in the past, we've sure had that. We don't like to detail our psychiatric history much, because it sometimes seems like unless we talk about it with disclaimers after practically every sentence, assumptions start flying left and right, and we've even gotten to the point where we can predict exactly what assumptions are going to be made and when. Or we get accused of lying about our past because the way in which we recovered from certain problems didn't follow the way in which some doctors were saying was the *only* way. I'm not necessarily saying anyone here would do that, but damn, it really hurts if you did suffer something for years, and get hit with being told that you never actually suffered it, or 'don't understand what xyz disorder is really like', because your experiences don't fit into some pre-defined model; so we're a bit paranoid. Well, more than a bit, even.

But, if you want us to detail it, maybe we could go into detail in a private letter or something.

[exegetic.livejournal.com]

We tend not to talk about such things as well, for the reasons you have stated. It is difficult to talk openly about times when someone in your group may have had a difficult time coping when people are willing to use that to label your entire group as disordered.