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Old May 05, 2013, 11:15 AM
IceCreamKid IceCreamKid is offline
Grand Magnate
 
Member Since: Jan 2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 3,260
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bedobones View Post
I'd like to ask older folks in particular, say people over 50, if you're embarrassed by your illness. Do you feel as though, at your age, you should have gotten over whatever mental health problems you face? Do you ever feel like it is a sign of your lack of maturity that you're still subject to the whims of your emotions? This is the way I feel. I'm in my 60's now. And I guess I always envisioned older people as having achieved a level of contentedness that would gradually reduce or eliminate any mental health problems that they may have had earlier in life. However, for me, it seems like the older I get, the crazier I get! It's embarrassing!
I have depression. That doesn't embarrass me. I think I have gotten over the majority of my "mental health problems" in that I am able to meet and interact with people; my social anxiety (which I didn't even know was social anxiety) is gone. I like meeting people and I can talk to just about anyone pleasantly although I prefer some people over others, conversation-wise. I don't think my emotions have whims. I view my emotions as gifts that are connected to me intellectually and spiritually and physically. I do think older people generally are more experienced in dealing with situations that might "stir up" emotions or negative reactions, and I have read that some mental illnesses are not as extreme as people age. I would guess individual results (so to speak) vary, though.

I have observed that people who have worked really hard to react a certain way to situations (like you'd work a muscle) are generally effective in obtaining the expected result.

But!

This can be good or bad. Someone I know works very hard at being a helpless little girl. She works very hard at being helpless and when she talks about how helpless she is, she says it with pride. I don't doubt she is getting the result she thinks she wants.

However, she can't see that she could be even happier if she learned (and she could learn) to be an adult.

So I am in partial agreement with you. I do think it is a "lack of maturity" or maybe better said "a purposeful insistence on staying on the same dead-end path" that keeps people setting themselves up for staying in their ruts.

But a diagnosed medical condition can throw a monkey wrench in what I have said, too. I wouldn't look down on someone with diabetes getting sick after eating a sweet meal any more than I would at a person with a broken leg not being able to run.

But someone who has always allowed him or herself to be a door mat rather than learn to say no? I do believe that sort of condition is fixable.

But psychosis or other extreme conditions I wouldn't expect someone to fix on his or her own.

So how is your "crazier" expressing itself?
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