My Support Forums - View Single Post - Attention seeking or actual mental illness?

Misssy2 · Dec 27, 2016, 07:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NotDeadYet

How do I know if my problems are actually from mental illness or if I'm just making them up to get attention? I do want my friends to care about me but whenever I brought up some of my problems I would do it jokeingly as to not scare them.
I have told 3 people seriously about my problems, 2 people I know now well and a councerler. But what if how I act is the attention seeking behaviour? My loud personality around friends to keep the spotlight on me and the jealousy/anger I get when they don't pay attention to me enough when I want it, is it manipulative? Should I just end all my relationships to save them the trouble of dealing with me?
Sorry for the incoherent ramble

I have Borderline Personality Disorder and if you read about it...I can see that the behaviors you mention can be attributed to this disorder.

Fear of abandonment...so we crave that attention and exhibit attention seeking behaviors...no description says that exactly but I have had conversations with therapists about this and this is one of the reasons I am diagnosed with BPD. So, take a look..STOP being hard on yourself...

No, you shouldn't end your relationships....that would definetly make an attention seeker more miserable...with no one around to get attention fixes from. Just accept who you are..and reel it in when you are feeling out of control.