Dreamy01,
I have a friend that talks down about psychologists and often thinks it is a way to brain wash people. This friend studied it years ago and there is so much more known today about it then back when she was studying it. When I told this friend I was joining this site and seeking therapy she told me that I was allowing myself to luxuriate in my mental illness and that what I really needed to do is go out more and change some things in my life and even plan a vacation with my husband. She was insisting that it was a mind over matter thing and by my efforts to learn more about it all I would do is sink further into it and become brain washed.

I find it odd that your friend is so into biology and yet can't see that there is a lot biology in the human brain that is being studied and many efforts are being made to understand the mental illnesses that plague so many human beings.

I have to say that as you get more and more interested in psychology and the human brain his insistance on being ignorant will distance you from him. I respect you for taking such an interest in the human brain and learning about what it means to struggle with some kind of mental illness that really is not all about a simple mind over matter. While there is a lot of promise in the fact that the human brain has more capacity to overcome and there is more being learned about the pasticity of the brain, there will be better therapies to treat some mental illnesses. Oh, I cannot blame you for being interested in learning about that. He is probably being more narrow minded in thinking that psychology is nothing more than some kind of money making scam that isn't really helpful or significant. He no doubt may have experienced therapy that may not have helped him personally and now feels it is useless propoganda, that does happen.

Unfortunately if someone feels they are well balanced and doing ok, they are often not interested in considering the facets of psychology and the mental issues that may people address. Unfortunately to them it is merely a matter of allowing one's self to be weak somehow and he isn't interested in those that are too weak to "Just grow up and deal". He doesn't know nor does he care to know, and that is what your addressing.

But you care to know right? Well, then you have to get to know others that also care to know and CAN talk to you about it willingly. It took me a while to understand that my friend was just going to have her point of view and no she wasn't interested in engaging in a conversation about what I was learning, she was only interested in HER viewpoint on the matter.

Dreamy, I have come to realize the more I learn about mental illness, is that there sure are a lot of ignorant people out there who have no interest in what I am learning. You would think I had joined a terrible cult of some kind.

I am sure this man is a nice guy and I don't want to paint him into a bad picture.
But he is what he is and YOU have to be who YOU are and you MAY just outgrow him. You cannot make others be like you, want to learn what you are learning, that is just the way life is, the way many people are, but it shouldn't stop you from filling your own desires to gain knowledge as you see fit.

((((Hugs)))))
Open Eyes