My Belief

[JohnSmith]

I secretly believe that I don't have a mental illness, and that mental illnesses don't exist in the way we think they do, and that it is mostly made up in the way things are made up when things aren't properly understood. Furthermore, I believe that the stress from being told that I have a sever brain dysfunction sent me over the edge and rewired my brain in such a way so that it "created" this disease. So, basically, I was told by the mental health profession that there is "something" which wasn't really there, and so, I went looking for that something - And my brain ended up creating it when it couldn't find the problem.

I know this sounds really farfetched and complicated, but it makes sense to me. However, it is only one possibility or a part of a bigger picture. It would be hard to explain due to there being so many unknowns, and quite frankly, my lack of skill in trying to eloquently explain it.

[admin]

Mental illnesses including depression, dementia, schizophrenia do exist and there are millions of people suffering from them.

I could understand what you mean in your example. Sometimes what people were told could psychologically influence them and may even produce what we call somatic symptoms which are mainly due to psychological reasons.

[minerva]

Hi John, I very much understand what you are saying. I don't think it sounds far-fetched. I contemplate the same issues. Seems like the more help I try to get "help" and the more I try to educate myself on so called mental illness, the less it helps.

[Breaking_Point]

I can be sitting in a living room watching TV and a family member will walk in and all of a sudden I'll feel mentally pressed. That means I'll feel negative vibes coming from that family member. No one in particular. Well, yes, there are a few to name, but I can't help but feel self conscious when people are around me. I can't just unconsciously ignore the person in the room with me while watching TV like everyone else can. I have to sit there, by myself, feeling in my head a pressing negative vibe which actually leaves whenever the person who is giving me the vibe leaves. I can't explain what's going on, but now I'm convinced that I have a mental illness, otherwise I would just go about my own business without caring about what the other person is thinking even if he or she was thinking negatively about me. I also have a terrible attention span. When someone walks into the room (I'm using "the room" to express my examples) I completely lose all concentration on what I "was" doing and am forced to wait until the person leaves so that I can regain my concentration again. I actually became convinced at one point that I had psychic powers and that I was gifted with ESP (Extra Sensory Perception), but for the sake of whatever is left of my sanity, I try not to believe I do have any paranormal abilities. Today I'm having a really bad day with all of this and thought I would make this my first post on the forums.

[minerva]

I think a lot of us who are labeled mentally ill are extra sensitive. Maybe we pick up on cues that others have learned to ignore (or didn't develop?) so they seem "unreal". It's like our senses are extra acute.

[faepacific]

The pressing of negative emotions you are experiencing are not necessarily extra sensory or mental illness.

People give off chemical "vibes" in the form of scents (like pheromones) increased body heat, and body language that not every one is capable of picking up, but those of us that do, also react to it physically.

It is a survival mechanism we are all born with, and apparently this high tension world hasn't deadened your senses yet! It's nothing to be alarmed about, and can even put you at an advantage within close relationships.

I believe that the environment we live in ..in current times.. is very unnatural and as I said before, high tension. I think this is where most of our "mood disorders" come from.

How can we possibly be stable people in such an unstable world? I sort of agree with the one who posted the thread about believing that mental illness doesn't exist... why?

We get up every morning and face this bizarre world we live in , with news flashing everywhere about just how unstable things and people around us are, and we are bombarded by images of people getting hurt and or ridiculed everywhere we look ..."Sane people" call it entertainment, and are excited to jump on the band wagon whenever "Britney" or "Bradjolina" or the latest disaster hits the news stands.

But those of us who have empathy , and have trouble coping with the day to day chaos are labeled has having a "disorder" and given medication so that we too can function in "normal society"

I didn't really mean this to be negative...all I am saying is that maybe we should not be so quick to see ourselves as defective because we are still capable of having "feelings" I think it is wonderful that there are so many people out there that struggle in this defective world....maybe someday we'll be medicating those without feelings!

[fuzzy]

Hi, reading your post made me wonder if I could help! I realise you feel pressure and lose concentration as if other people can effect you by their presence but it is possible that this is an extension of what you are feeling and thinking. It is natural to feel someones presence to a certain extent... that you might notice someone looking glum and by extension feel a negative vibe. Perhaps test this. Try to notice what you are thinking and feeling first as it probably won't happen with people you are able to feel fully at ease with. :)

[dick123]

Hello
To deal with all the information that bombards your senses every day, your brain chooses to filter the information for you. If you had to pay attention to all of it, you'd be constantly overwhelmed. One of the filtering systems your mind uses is deletion. This cuts down on the amount of data to process. If data comes in that contradicts one of your beliefs, it will most likely be deleted. For example, look around the room and count how many red things you see. Then, without looking, recall how many blue things you saw. Your mind wasn't looking for blue, so it disregards information about blue things.

Another type of filter is distortion. This occurs when received information is altered to fit in with an existing belief or expectation. For example, if you've ever counted calories, you might distort the memory of how much you ate so that you don't have to count the true number of calories.

An Example Of Filtering

Let's say I go on a diet and it doesn't work as I'd hoped. I feel disappointed and fed up. Feeling disappointed and fed up makes me blame the fact that I'm fat for my failure. I still want to lose weight. I try again and again. I still don't get the result I want. In an attempt to make myself feel better, I blame the world or my body and generalize my experience