My back hurts.

Lack of focus, motivation, and an inability to stay on one task without getting bored are more traits I would simply generally associate with people our age, rather than a mental condition.

vladykins @ 24/10/2017 9:24

My back hurts.

I've seen relatives completely out of action and drugged up on valium for weeks due to back pain. God I hope to avoid that

I’m gonna give you TMJ Wikey

Wikey @ 24/10/2017 8:26

Lack of focus, motivation, and an inability to stay on one task without getting bored are more traits I would simply generally associate with people our age, rather than a mental condition.

It's mental condition we all share due to regular exposure to the same things. Too much stimuli. Screens in front of our faces all day. Everything in the palm of our hands. Porn our parents never dreamed of. Entertainment coming largely from short 7-30 second clips on YouTube. We're all becoming piles of mush.

It's something we all do but it's incredibly unhealthy and making all of us mentally incompetent.

Oh how could I forget, I’m a redhead

Wikey @ 24/10/2017 9:23

Is it terribly ignorant of me to think that ADHD is actually a crock of shit? Cuz I do. I hate the way we've come to rely on pills to treat mental conditions. What happened to drinking whiskey and smoking crack? But srsly, there has to be a better way to combat mental illness right? I'm no expert of course, just my opinion. Based on my own experience, I believe I may have had social anxiety up until I was around 20. The way I beat it was to throw myself in at the deep end. Which I did by working behind a bar and performing on stage. Both those things forced me to face it. Honestly though, I sometimes wonder how much of it was just standard shyness which I grew out of, and how much could be attributed to an actual condition. I just know I've read the symptoms before, and it describes me 5 years ago to a tee. Is it something you're even supposed to be able to beat if it's a mental condition? I dunno. Whilst working behind the bar, there was an ex social worker who worked with problem children. She once told me that she thought I could be on the autistic spectrum, and that I may also have ADHD (of course, I ended up arguing with her about whether the last one exists (: Cuz I know so much more than someone who is actually qualified) I honestly don't think I'm afflicted with anything mental though, and no physical problems as far as I'm aware! I guess I drink too much and some people would call me a functioning alcoholic, but I just like a fucking drink. The recommended drinking limit is absurd anyway. BTW that TMJ shit sounds horrible and I preferred not knowing that it existed, so thanks for that.

This thread is not for you

Also to clarify, my cousin has serious TMJ, I'm not sure but I think it's like yours. I was saying personally I can't imagine having anything worse than my jaw spasm.

Wikey there's an actual neurologic difference between people who have ADHD and people who just have bad habits. There's a lot of misdiagnosis and definitely an over reliance on pills, but that doesn't mean that people don't have actual problems.

There's kids being kids and millennials being millennials and then there's being unable to complete something easy you've done a thousand times, to the point that it happens even in the face of severe consequences. There's being bored easily and enjoying extra simulation (which are just traits of people being people) and there's fucking up your own life because you literally can't concentrate (which is supposed to be the baseline for what a mental illness is: actually actively interfering with your life)

It's easy to pull out the old "we're all just over medicated" card or the "everyone is just distracted by technology" card but it's silly to dismiss an entire field of science and millions of people's experiences because of something you've encountered. Misdiagnosis is shit, and it happens, and generally it makes things much worse. Prescribing medications without certainty is even more shit! I had a doctor once tell me that everyone should be on an antidepressant! We can all use a pick me up!

That's NUTS!

But it's a problem with bad practitioners and the field of psychology being very new. It doesn't mean that people don't have problems or they don't need medications.

Didn't read the thread ... but have we had discussions about vaccines yet?

Christian @ 23/10/2017 20:19

A bit of the social anxiety as well I suppose. And I'm super awkward socially sometimes, for example when I run into someone I haven't seen in a long time, and I don't know what to say/talk about. I'm not good at making small talk. And the whole time I'm thinking to myself, This is awkward. I'm sure they're thinking that this is awkward. Am I showing the appropriate amount of interest? Is this person bored? Am I looking around too much? I should make some eye contact. I wonder if a sufficient amount of time has passed to end this conversation? How do I end this conversation? Is my face red? I feel like my face is red. Yep, it's likely very red right now. Oh good, I think they're making like they need to get going... "Yes, it was good to see you too!" I also don't know how I made it through kindergarten, because I would never talk to my teacher. I'd talk to one or two classmates, once in a while. My parents would have to have meetings with the teacher and the principal about it. I remember when I was in grade one, my teacher asked me to read a story to her after class, and I did. She bribed me with some gum in her desk drawer. Then she walked me down the hall to my old kindergarten room to read to my old teacher. Starting high school was kind of the same thing, I became known as the 'kid who doesn't say hi'. :P I wouldn't. But I'd at least try to smile at them so they'd hopefully know I didn't hate everyone's guts. But then with some people, it was always easy to talk to them and become friends. I've definitely gotten a lot better about it. I even surprise myself sometimes. I just have to give myself a pep talk --- that it's all in my head, which it usually is, and that I'm an adult, I should be able to do these sorts of things. :P

You definitely had it. Social anxiety causes your brain to analyze literally every single thing you do in a social situation and the perception that others are doing the exact same thing to you and judging you for it. From eye contact, to what to do with your hands, to what you're wearing, to how to greet someone, everything. It was fucking awful in school and I was very much the same way as a kid who didn't greet anyone and rarely greeted anyone back because it took too long to think about how to respond to "what's up?" without thinking I would sound like a goof.

Wikey @ 24/10/2017 6:23

But srsly, there has to be a better way to combat mental illness right? I'm no expert of course, just my opinion. Based on my own experience, I believe I may have had social anxiety up until I was around 20. The way I beat it was to throw myself in at he deep end. Which I did by working behind a bar and performing on stage. Both those things forced me to face it. Honestly though, I sometimes wonder how much of it was just standard shyness which I grew out of, and how much could be attributed to an actual condition. I just know I've read the symptoms before, and it describes me 5 years ago to a tee. Is it something you're even supposed to be able to beat if it's a mental condition? I dunno..

I'm iffy on this man. I had the same belief for many, many years. One of my exes (Yes, Footsies) also suffers from SAD and a handful of other mental illnesses and has a purse full of meds, so she use to urge me all the time to see a doctor. And for years I was always of the belief that I could just fight it and end it one day. Then I had a total mental breakdown after my last breakup a few months ago. I saw a therapist and I got medicated. I have a pill bottle sitting in my room from April that I've barely put a dent in. The fact that they didn't do anything is my fault as I didn't stick to the regime. Would it have? I have no idea. My anxiety has gotten way better over the years, not from a doctor, but from working at a huge retail store for 6 years and the biggest job requirement being interaction with other humans. But I definitely still struggle with it. The thing is, I know what I have. I know what I perceive and I know none of it is really true. I know nobody really gives a shit or pays attention to hardly any of the shit I worry about. But my brain is so conditioned to feel the way I do that I can't help but feel it every day.

I remember in school I literally couldn't walk from one end of the classroom without feeling like all eyes were on me. I hated it when the teacher asked me questions. I was incapable of making phone calls, and talking to strangers was impossible.

In College I studied music, and when the time came for the end of year performance in front of a live crowd, I pulled out all the stops to get myself out of it, even thought it should have resulted in an automatic fail for the course. I had to see the college counselor over that actually (: I ended up getting talked into doing the performance in the end, but it took a lot of convincing, and I may have had a few whiskeys before hand to help me out. (The show wasn't good either, I was shaking horribly throughout and my guitar playing was shit)

One of the reasons I dropped out of Uni was that I couldn't stand a particular lesson I had to attend which involved speaking in a group. Probably a bigger factor than I'd like to admit in fact (still glad I dropped out tho).

Maybe I had a disorder, maybe not. I certainly didn't seem to share these problems with many other kids my age.

But I think of treating social anxieties in the same way I'd think of treating a phobia. You know, keep forcing yourself into situations which confront your fears, until it is gone. Repetition creates new pathways, breaks the old cycles and habits etc. It does appear to have worked with me, so I can vouch for it, at least in my experience.

But I appreciate that just because something worked for me, it doesn't necessarily mean it will work for everyone else. And it is entirely possible that if I had social anxiety, I didn't have it as bad as others.

I'm sure there are many varied causes for mental issues, and there ain't a catch all solution. Which I suppose was my point really. I do think there is a tendency for psychiatrists to rely on medication, and that they don't explore alternative solutions enough. Perhaps that's a massive assumption on my part.

I know a friend who was on meds for years and it didn't seem to do jack shit for him. Granted, I don't know if he kept to his schedule, and he was smoking weed too, despite the doctor telling him not to.

I'm not trying to be dismissive of mental illness in general btw! I'm just a bit skeptical of some conditions. Perhaps it's too many misdiagnoses that create that impression with me.

FUCK YOU WIKEY!

Ayyyy, I'm a cunt I know

Wikey nailed it, stop being a pussy and deal with it.
Real ADHD is very extreme and rare.
It's overdiagnosed and drugs are overperscribed
It's so fucking easy, people just do it to get the speeding/smart pillz