[moodycow]

Having an in depth disscussion with my h ,trying to make him understand what its like having bpd got me thinking , I wish he could have it for just one week !!! I asked if he could choose to would he , he did not know..... So if you could experience the condition of someone else for one week in order to truly understand would you do it ?? thankyou for reading i look forward to hearing what you all think

[Terabithia]

If it would not lead to harming myself or others, then yes. I think it would be good to fully understand what another person goes through, so as to know how best to help that person.

[ifst5]

I'm not sure it would make a difference - everyone experiences mental illness differently depending on who they are. So they wouldn't have the same extremes in difficulty. Besides if someone has compassion do they necessarily need to know what it's like to have a, b or c?

[Alone & confused]

Well, maybe. As long as I knew I could come back out of it after a week.
But your question got me thinking. So many people tell me "oh, you just like being ( irritable, mean, depressed , & whatever). I think the next time someone says that, a if I have a CHOICE, I'm going to say, "Oh yeah? Well why don't you "choose" to be that way WITH me & see what it's like to be me!" I bet they can't do it! Point proven!

[lilypup]

No, will keep my own problems.

[~Christina]

No way ..I would not wish my BP and Fibro pain on anyone even for just a minute.

[SnakeCharmer]

Would you be willing to trade places all the way? He spends a week as you and you spend a week as him. That might be instructive in a marriage.

But I'm with Christina. I would not wish my traumatic history and various afflictions on anyone else, ever, even for a single day not even in the hope they might start understanding and treating me with more sympathy. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

When I was young, I often thought I'd like to be able to experience life through somebody else's perception and mental/physical feelings for just a few days. I thought that would be really cool. But not so much any more. Instead I try to practice empathy and compassion and acceptance.

Maybe their experience would leave me shattered and I wouldn't be able to pick myself back up again or -- and this is a dark thing to admit -- it might lead me to feel less compassion and acceptance. I mean, what if my response was something like, "You call THIS pain. HAHAHAHAHAHA!" It wouldn't help much, would it?

I'd much rather take a person's word for it that they're suffering or tortured or in pain without having anything to compare it to. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want people inside my reality because for some my experiences might be piddling little misadventures and for others it might completely put them under. Each person is different. If someone says they're suffering, I figure it's my job to accept it because it's their true experience. I've had some truly terrible, ghastly things happen to me by any objective measure, but I know other people have had much worse things happen to them. Much worse.

I also know there are people who over-dramatize and catastrophize for the attention. I wouldn't really want to know for sure that's what they were doing because it would probably leave me feeling sour and unaccepting toward them forever.

No, I don't think I could take trading places. I might not like the outcome.

[SnakeCharmer]

Accidental double post.

[waiting4]

It would depend on the illness, I agree, and all the attendants that caused it.

But if I could step into my ex's shoes...completely...even with the memories...all of them, I would do it. It would be invaluable to understanding exactly what he feels, sees, experiences...both current and in the past....I would be a 'fly on the wall' but would prefer to be, and would accept the horror (if needs be) to walk his life for a week.

I would not ask he do same of me, because frankly.....I think he would prefer mine over his. And to go from nothing, into too much of a thing, back to nothing...would hurt him more than me...going from too much, to nothing, back to too much.

I would do it. Give me the magic ball, lamp, mirror.....I would do it.

[moodycow]

some really good food for thought here thanks everyone