Poll: Mental disorders and you: Would you get rid of it if you could?

[Valksy]

Yes. It has made, and is making, my life fucking shit. I am stigmatised and judged for it. My memory has been damaged by associated meds. My body has been damaged by associated meds. It isn't "part of me" it is something that stops me from being who I truly am.

I genuinely hate being this way. If you have a broken leg, people can see it and understand. When you have a mental health problem they just don't and it is fucking horrible.

I saw my new shrink on Monday and I realised at once that he expected me to be a drooling, imbecilic, filthy bag lady. Being this way and educated and able to express yourself is even worse because people talk down to you and assume that you have some degree of developmental difficulty, and when you meet them at their level, they are hostile and suspicious.

Fuck it. If I could get rid of it tomorrow, I would. Right now am in discussions to get an MRI in case there is an organic cause. And if that shows nothing, then ECT. At this stage I will try anything but life if pretty universally horrible.

 

[Leg End]

Someone wanting to keep their mental disorder is a sign of that mental disorder. It is not rational to want to be anything other than the best you can be so if limitations can be removed with no real harm to you, that's a good thing.

Well, I have never been known to be rational.

Actually, I have, but that is not the point.

Wait, it is. <.<

What was I saying? XD

 

[Rogue 9]

If I'd been asked this question a year ago, my answer would be much more emphatic, but I'll still say yes.

I've suffered from depression and anxiety attacks for several years, and to be honest, the roots of both conditions probably stretch back all the way to my childhood. The depression hasn't been fun, but it's been caused to a large extent by my actions as a result of my anxiety.

My crippling fear of other people's judgement over ultimately inconsequential things (if, in some cases, they'd been dealt with at the time) lead me to lie to my girlfriend, my family, and just about everyone else I know for 2 years. 2 years in which my life was appearing to outsiders to be moving forward but in reality entirely stuck in limbo.

I have now actually managed to start moving my life forward again and I've come clean to the people close to me about, well, everything, but it's been bloody hard. I have anxiety about my anxiety sometimes - that I'm going to make some trivial mistake and get so freaked out that I blow yet another opportunity. I'm scared of that recurring, even now when I'm in a position with great potential for the future.

So yes. If I could make my anxiety go away, if I didn't have to live in near-constant trepidation and with a high degree of self awareness and self control to ignore the thoughts that tell me to stay in bed rather than go to work, or that I can't make a single mistake or everyone will despise me, I would. There is NO upside to anxiety, unless you want to count that I've proven myself a most convincing liar, which I wouldn't really count as a mark in my favour. But I can't. All I can do is keep looking straight ahead at the future I want for myself and not just hope, but make damn sure that this time I don't screw it up.

 

[Alon Shechter]

That's quite a question.
See, on one side I hate my Dysthymia and my Bi-Polar disorder,
But on the other I can't really imagine what the heck would happen without it since my entire life is about it and how it is pestering me, so making a change like that is a scary thought.
Basically I completely agree with point #1 and #2, now that I re-read the OP and understand I added nothing new to the table.

Asthma is a part of my life and I'm trying to get rid of it. Same with allergies. I DONT WANT IT.

Asthma is a mental disorder?
I was unaware of such a miraculous fact!

 

[Siege_TF]

Mild Skitzoid. Turn on a radio, now leave it on. No, leave it on. Taking a shower? Leave it on. Having a conversation? Leave it on. Trying to focus on a report at work? Leave it on. Listening to an actual radio? Leave the first one on. Going to bed? Turn it up. Would I get rid of my radio?
Probably not, the silence would be deafening.

 

[Ethan_Fisher]

Honestly, Yes and No.

I suffer from Paranoid Personality Disorder and it affects me every day. I find it extremely hard to trust anyone, flinch or cower away when anyone comes up to me, always feel the world is out to get me. Whenever I hear a person laugh I thin kthey are laughing at me or teasing me even if it is something totally different. When someone says something horrible I automatically think they are talking about me.

I would want to get rid of it because it's not made me any better, all the things I do I could have done without it. I wouldn't be afraid to go out anywher for longer than around 10 minutes, I wouldn't be afraid to talk to someone new, I wouldn't constantly thing everything is out to get me.

But on another hand I wouldn't want to.. because I find it so hard to come to trust people, the 4 friends I have I know I can trust with anything... with this disorder I either trust them with my life, or don't trust them at all. And I guess, without it, I wouldn't have the girlfriend I do now, sure I have small spouts of paranoia, but she helps me through all of them and never leaves me, always sits there and talks it out with me and isn't... scared by it.

 

[Abedeus]

Yes.

The biggest BS is the "it's part of me" part.

Asthma is a part of my life and I'm trying to get rid of it. Same with allergies. I DONT WANT IT.

Since when is asthma and allergies considered mental disorders?

Never said they are.

I said that "it's part of me" is pure bullshit. Anything that hurts your life in some way, even if you were born with it, should be eliminated if possible. There's no nostalgia to it, no sense of attachment. It's not your leg, it's not normal, so getting rid of it should be promoted.

That's quite a question.
See, on one side I hate my Dysthymia and my Bi-Polar disorder,
But on the other I can't really imagine what the heck would happen without it since my entire life is about it and how it is pestering me, so making a change like that is a scary thought.
Basically I completely agree with point #1 and #2, now that I re-read the OP and understand I added nothing new to the table.

Asthma is a part of my life and I'm trying to get rid of it. Same with allergies. I DONT WANT IT.

Asthma is a mental disorder?
I was unaware of such a miraculous fact!

Oh look someone too lazy to read a 2-page thread before responding.

 

[DanielBrown]

I'd press it in a heart beat.
Got social phobia, and along with that anxiety and depression. It has completely ruined my life.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Yes! If only so that I wouldn't have to keep taking all these goddamned pills.

 

[Alon Shechter]

Oh look someone too lazy to read a 2-page thread before responding.

Yes, yes, let the rage flow through you.
So eager to attack.
The "It's part of me" part is NOT bullshit. Please, do get your facts straight.
I should know, see, I'm in a psychiatric hospital and I personally know people who, without their mental disease, would not be the people they are today, and they do not want that.
Imagine having the ability to eliminate what shaped your life the way it is.
Starting all over is tough, especially if you are depressed and do not have the will.
Well it's hard to imagine depression actually, "shrugging it off" is not really possible unlike what many people think.
That's my take on the matter, feel free to disagree. I'm kinda used to it.

 

[Wintermoot]

yes, for some reason people still view autism as a disorder and I don,t want to be looked down upon and I want to go to a normal school

 

[DrStupid87]

Yes. After working with disabled kids and seeing how bad he was (cerebral palsy) at times was 1, very embarrasing for him 2, made it very hard to understand him when he spoke 3, made it hard for him to maintain balance whilst walking. No-one should have to suffer these debilitations.

 

[Flying Dagger]

Had this discussion with my girlfriend... she likes my hyperactivity as part of me... probably, without her, I'd opt to change.

 

[Someone Depressing]

I've only had 1 ever encounter with a Mental Disorter when I was younger, I got rid of it within month though, so I don't really know.

Does "Melancholia" count as a mental disorder? Then if it does then I've had 2 encounters with Mental Disorders. Still got rid of it within a couple of weeks, so I'm not sure on that one.

 

[Verp]

For my current depression, yes. I just want to get things done, but it's like there's a part of my brain missing so all the intentions leak out and don't become actions. That, and I'm tired all the time.

For the other things... I have never been diagnosed, but I seem to have some psychopathic tendencies. I wouldn't ever want to give up the part of myself where those stem from -- doing so would be practically suicide since then the person I am now would cease to exist. I'm aware that simple aging changes you as well, but aging an organic process -- it doesn't backtrack and change things like a designer would.

 

[CactiComplex]

No, never. As hard as my disorders and illnesses have made my life at times, they've become a part of me, and through having them my life has come out at an amazing place I don't believe I'd be at had I never had them. I don't believe I'd continue as I intend to if I didn't have them either, which would, in all likeliness, have a negative impact on my life.

The only way I'm getting rid of them is if, in time, they fade away.

 

[Abedeus]

Oh look someone too lazy to read a 2-page thread before responding.

Yes, yes, let the rage flow through you.
So eager to attack.
The "It's part of me" part is NOT bullshit. Please, do get your facts straight.
I should know, see, I'm in a psychiatric hospital and I personally know people who, without their mental disease, would not be the people they are today, and they do not want that.
Imagine having the ability to eliminate what shaped your life the way it is.
Starting all over is tough, especially if you are depressed and do not have the will.
Well it's hard to imagine depression actually, "shrugging it off" is not really possible unlike what many people think.
That's my take on the matter, feel free to disagree. I'm kinda used to it.

I'd be more depressed that a disability defined my character or my life. Seriously.

One aspect of life COMPLETELY overshadowing the others so much, you'd get depressed when it went away? Geez.

 

[Alon Shechter]

snip

Thus further proving my claim,
you probably won't fully understand it without experiencing it.
Hell, not even those who suffer from depression fully understand it.
Or maybe that's just me.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

To be quite honest...I really don't know.

On one hand, being rid of my ADD would be helpful when I want to get some freakin work done.

On the other hand, losing my ADD means losing my hyperactive imagination, which I like. Plus, I might lose my aspergers too, which I'm totally OK with.

So I really don't know.

 

[harvz]

i have long term depression, constant anxiety around new places/people and am suspected of having aspergers (too old to diagnose apparently and every symptom growing up was put under "naughty")...now thats out of the way.

i wouldn't change a thing, the depression was a bummer in the beginning and the anxiety has kept me at home for half of my school years, and that is why im a nerd who is satisfied with his life, being a self taught programmer in many languages, gamer (hate that term, though it kinda fits for me, kinda like audiophile) and am great at math.

i wouldn't mind one of those things like me, you know, except curvier (sort of), what are they called...a girlfriend...