To the bolded: yes, many times, for the bolded question. Not only me but I had seen quite a lot of people. Not so much on this one forum, but on another mental health-related one where I participated a lot before and many people were not any less vulnerable and stranded, myself included in certain periods. People challenging these states directly were often the most helpful for many of us. I also see this pretty often in person, in everyday life. Often it does not seem to be helpful immediately and people can react quite negatively to it in the moment (just like here now) but equally often enough it makes them think and re-evaluate in the longer run, exactly because it had a stronger effect initially so it lingers. This is why I do it - I tends to work for me best and have seen it work for enough others as well. Surely not everyone and maybe it's not a certain mental state one has to be in rather than a certain personality. But we don't really know each-other well on a forum like this to really know what truly works for whom and when. I don't talk in this way all the time, not even too often, I do when I have already tried a bunch of other things, the OP I talk to has been in that state for a long time and clearly suffers from it, and empathy/sympathy alone does not seem to be helping much to change it. Of course getting this kind of response alone would not help either, but on a message board like this, with a variety, I don't mind taking a role to do this as it'll be balanced by many other kinds of posts. I am happy to take criticism for it though and like this kind of direct one.

Ididitmyway, you have been reacting to my comments not targeted to you, for a while I think. I wonder why you do not talk to me directly though if you feel a need to defend others, or even yourself? This is probably most direct so at least I can say something to it. I am not sure where you get the notion that I am not vulnerable and am only "independent and rational". You must have read only a smaller proportion of my posts to assume that, or read them selectively, which is fine, but then the perception may not be accurate. I also posted many times that I do tend to have issues acknowledging vulnerabilities at times, so it is useful for me to be reminded. I also wonder why you make such strong statement(s) though and then finish saying you will not respond to a response - you do this often, not just this time and not only in response to one person or two. Do you think it is an effective way to challenge people or to get your opinions considered seriously and in the longer run, whether it critiques a condition, behavior, attitude, concept, or is meant to protect others? I do appreciate many of your posts about various topics (as I had told you before) but would appreciate more direct communication if you wanted to challenge me as in this way it cannot be true communication and it only/mostly sounds defensive, and not defensive of the OP. As I said the feedback is useful for me anyway and perhaps it is true it's best if I don't use this attitude on Sarah's threads.