Helping someone who is dealing with issues such as depression, PTSD, bi-polar disorder, etc. can be quite rewarding. But you have to know your limits. For example, when you're trying to help those with mental health issues, you have to be educated enough to know that you're not educated enough to play therapist (unless you happen to be a therapist, that is). I'm not saying that you should never give advice to someone with mental illness. However, you must know your limits. Shrinks are trained to know what to say to a person struggling with serious issues. But you're not.
But what if you've been through that exact thing? For example, I give very honest advice to depressed people because I, too, have been a very depressed person. Where do you draw the line in that kind of situation? I've been cursed at and talked badly to because of my type of advice. But, I feel that I have the right to give this advice and say what I feel because I've been through the same exact thing. Now, it wouldn't make sense to give advice about something you don't know a thing about and have never been through. Hell, sometimes therapists don't know their limits. What I don't understand is why people ask for advice and become offended by what that person has to say to them. Has something sparked your idea for this thread? or is it just random?
Typically the OP posts in our forum are worded as questions, or, as is often the case here in the Lounge, interesting articles or tidbits found on the net. I'm beginning to become uncomfortable with your "words of wisdom" as the overall accumulation begins to build a reservoir of condescension.
I know this. But that doesn't explain why the advice receiver has a closed mind. If they don't want to hear certain things, why waste their times asking?
But you are? So if I suffered from PTSD, I'm not allowed to talk to anyone who went through the same thing? I can only talk to a psychiatrist (who likely never had PTSD) who will likely want to pump me full of meds when all I want is to just talk to someone? Sometimes people just need to have a shoulder to cry on. Sometimes they don't need a psychiatrist, they just need someone who has an idea of what they're going through.
Ditto that! Or in my own case several. I have Bi Polar disorder and I manage it, for the most part, without the need for medication or psychiatric intervention, but recently I've been feeling a little lost and out of kilter. Do I rush to the shrink and have myself put back on meds? No I don't; I find solace in speaking with folks that are experiencing similar hiccups and we figure out a way through them together using shared experiences as a road map. Like Wrey and Chickenfreak, I'm vaguely concerned at where all this cookie-cutter wisdom is headed. Personally, I don't think this is the place for it. If the OP wants to start a debate on the merit of what he is saying, fair enough; we have a dedicated forum for hot-button issues he should avail of. Or perhaps that's the whole point... maybe he's not interested in debate but only in proffering his subjective opinion on these various topics, in which case, why not blog?
The only issue I have with people doing this is when they end up worrying too much about other people's problems that it affects their own mental health, as happened with one of my friends.
I noticed his other threads are in relation to this one. I don't understand why they were all published separately. However, I believe his intentions are to just get a conversation started. I don't know?
