The Wonderful World Of Self Diagnosing

While siiting in the middle of the night in front of a screen, trying to muster the strength to face a road trip with my ill father, in order to help him through getting a probe through his rectum (yeah, i know, i'm a bad person, but you try and deal with a foul mouthed, neurotic, mean old man who's about to do that), ive been looking up the internet to find material for my writings. And ive been noticing what seems to be the ultimate sign of the modern age.

With the spreading of cheap psychology books and the narcissistic appeal of exposing your own life on the web, seems that everyone has now some sort of psychological disorder and they love to talk about it. Not that speaking about what perturbs you is wrong (it's kinda what i do here too, although i consider myself a rambler, who uses his life to build long winded writinbg exercises), but i'm always impressed at how lately EVERYTHING, thanks to psychiatry especially, has been turned into an illness, worthy of endless discussion.

I honestly think that modern internet isnt really about the "anonymity" (which i will never say enough, its a myth and a cliché), but about being self absorbed, narcissistic and in desperate need for attention. Which can go in the direction of trying to be a celebrity or, at least, a "character" or when any hint of somethign interesting to say or write is absent, in the direction of scouring for sympathy or "awareness".

When you're talking abouta actual illness, "awareness" means a lot. There's always the need for more discussionbs and attention on some subjects that costs people their lives or ability to live them with dignity. Still, when the illness is one of the million and a dozen that each year are spoonfed into the feeble brain of a generation of socially and emotionally broken people by psychiatric corporation in order to sell meds, the whole thing becomes mostly a tool to be seen, and paid attention to.

An example: autism is a tangible thing. It's a serious issue that families have to deal with and can be really ugly at times. Thats why, socially crippled people that label themselves as "mildly autistic" or "aspies" are offensive to me. Being awkward or focused on non-social things, or a bit anal about details can be simply a personality trait. "Social Anxiety Disorder" is made up nine times out of ten. Your inability to deal with others or to "make friends" might just mean that you are made that way and not necessarily something that needs therapy, a support group or a dozen books on the argument. Stop making those scumbags in suits rich.

Having been abused is a bad thing and can scar someone forever and its perfectly ok to deal with it in any way you choose. But turning it in a long winded daily letter on "post traumatic disorder" or "dealing with sociopathy" or making it a syndrome, filling your tales with medical terms youve read somehwere and turning into a cartoon that no one can empathize or connect with, damages your cause. You're one of the reasons for which people dismiss real issues as bogus and ignore them. for each person that ovetalks those problems theres many that get ignored or laughed at, told to "get their shit together".

Ignorance hurts and kills. But it comes also because of excessive misinformation.

Real mental illness is devastating. Being manic is a serious issue. Being depressed is a serious issue. Obsessive compulsion, paranoia, schizophrenia, suicidal tendencies are REAL and big. Your moodswings, momenttary sadness or morbid unrealistic plans about killing yourself do not make you ill. You're looking for attention but what you're doing is enforcing the idea that being depressed means lack of character.

Being manic means not being able to eat for days then suddenly go on a balst of unpredictable fury that makes you crash your car on a pole cause you think you're invulnerable. Obsessiveness can bring you to believe that unless you have turned off all lights in your hous three times each, you cannot breathe. Paranoia is a seed in your head that pushes you to listen to people on the streets at night because something in your head tells you that they might be there to hurt you, so better safe than sorry. Those things arev real and are powerful and hard to beat.

If you pick up your own weakness and make it into a disease thats not there, youre indirectly killing people that are in real trouble. And indifference spreads from you too.

So shut the fuck up.