How representative do you think we are of people with mental illness as a whole? Earlier this afternoon, I replied to a Thread posted by a new member who joined to support a friend who has received a mental health diagnosis. In the post, this member asked several questions regarding the likely course & outcome of the friend's illness.

As I wrote my reply, one thing I thought about suggesting (but didn't) was for this new member to read lots of the Threads here on PC to get a sense of how other members are doing. But then I thought... maybe this isn't such a good idea. Maybe doing this would give a person a skewed perspective... perhaps a less than favorable one. After all, most of us are here because we are, or have in the past, struggled with aspects of our mental illnesses. Perhaps most people who have successfully overcome the challenges of their mental illnesses have either moved on from PC, or may never have been here to begin with.

So what do you think? Would someone who was new to mental health, & who came here to PC, get a balanced perspective regarding the likelihood for success in dealing with a mental health diagnosis? Or might they come away feeling like the road ahead would likely be a rough one?

Thanks for reading my post!