Vomit Comet Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 MatG, with all due respect, you're out of your element. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Marty Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 I apologize for coming off rudely, I find it hard to deal with others being depressed as I have a different viewpoint/scope in my relation to life... And depressed people have a hard time dealing with people who say "just get over it and live". I really envy you for not having problems with depression, but don't you think if we could "get over it and live" we would? I hate myself enough this morning, now I need to just get over it and live, I guess... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MatG Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Yeah-- I figured this was all due to christianity, not from any previous diagnosis... Sorry, my viewpoint was off Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane of the Jungle Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Hi all :-) I dont Totally disagree with MatG. Now, I do understand there is situations which have a negative influence on our lifes, where it is extremely difficult to overcome it in a short period, like finances, relationships or OCD. I also know Im not a expert in this and only my opinion. Most humans are now programmed to believe in a deity of some kind and most or all of them lost or just dont know how to believe in their OWN human strenghts and abilities. If you were in a religion most of your life, after de-convertion, believing in your own abilities could be your first or maybe biggest hurdle to overcome. Ya I see a lot of us have lotz of issues, but if I think realistic about it, I know this is not issues which Atheists have, this is a Universal problem, a problem which lotz of xtians and other religious people struggles with (in silence maybe). I am a parent and one of the most important things Im trying to teach my kids, is to believe in themselves, simply because I know how much harm religion has done to that part of my self esteem. Being dependant on someone for approval, success or comfort in such a way is not healthy for anyone. Fighting with eachother on this site, also not good, cause we might be a persons "only" real friends in life, whom he/she can trust in to tell the story of their life. I havent been here for a long time, but really do enjoy being amongst people whom I understand and share the same point of view, whom I can share my opinions with which I cant even share with my own family. Always great to be here and wish all of you good luck and all the best, you will see things will go better :-) I always say, one person cant have only sh!t in their lifes, things MUST change one day or another ;-) All the best :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deva Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Fighting with eachother on this site, also not good, cause we might be a persons "only" real friends in life, whom he/she can trust in to tell the story of their life. Who's fighting? This is a discussion. Most humans are now programmed to believe in a deity of some kind and most or all of them lost or just dont know how to believe in their OWN human strenghts and abilities. If you were in a religion most of your life, after de-convertion, believing in your own abilities could be your first or maybe biggest hurdle to overcome. Ya I see a lot of us have lotz of issues, but if I think realistic about it, I know this is not issues which Atheists have, this is a Universal problem... Thank you for your analysis. We are not all atheists here, and I am just saying maybe things aren't so simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ephymeris Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 I know I have serious anxiety issues and always have. As a child and adolescent, I was depressed and a terrible insomniac and had coping behaviors like chewing my hair, pulling out my hair, anorexia, and hurting myself. In my most fervent of years in christianity, I began having night time panic attacks, terrible nightmares, and hypnogogic hallucinations that I thought were demons. It's embarrassing for me to admit any of this in any forum because i've never told anyone about the severity of these problems. You'd never guess any of this by looking at me or talking to me. I'm good at hiding. Thankfully I think I'm doing better now. I manage my anxiety quite a bit better. I really think the religion plus my issues are a very toxic combination. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mriana Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 Bouts of depression, supposedly PTSD, and a recovering anorexic. I use to have what is called "hyper-vigilance", AKA insomnia, too and sometimes still have periods where I stay awake 24 plus hours. I got to bed, but I don't sleep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mriana Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 But -- Dont you notice quite a strong correlation between the 'ex-christian' and these mental problems? Mind you they are not all self-induced, they can be prevented. A lot of people with these mental problems tend to sit there and let things happen 'to' them, without going 'to' them. Um, yeah. You are out of your element. I never once "let things happen to me" and even when they were happening, I did everything I could, as a child, to get help. IF and that is a big IF, my parents had been parents, some things might have been prevented. What happened to me was not my fault. It was, without a doubt, out of my control. That is not playing the victim roll, that is just the fact of my childhood. As an adult though, I have worked hard to take back my life and stand on my own two feet, still working on that and probably will for the rest of my life. I'm sure many here are working on similar goals and some maybe at the beginning and others maybe farther along than others. While some of these things might make us a perfect target, it does not mean we have to let it be that way. We all have our own survival methods to get through such things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ephymeris Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 But -- Dont you notice quite a strong correlation between the 'ex-christian' and these mental problems? Mind you they are not all self-induced, they can be prevented. A lot of people with these mental problems tend to sit there and let things happen 'to' them, without going 'to' them. Um, yeah. You are out of your element. I never once "let things happen to me" and even when they were happening, I did everything I could, as a child, to get help. IF and that is a big IF, my parents had been parents, some things might have been prevented. What happened to me was not my fault. It was, without a doubt, out of my control. That is not playing the victim roll, that is just the fact of my childhood. As an adult though, I have worked hard to take back my life and stand on my own two feet, still working on that and probably will for the rest of my life. I'm sure many here are working on similar goals and some maybe at the beginning and others maybe farther along than others. While some of these things might make us a perfect target, it does not mean we have to let it be that way. We all have our own survival methods to get through such things. I couldn't have said this better. Mental health issues aren't something people "let" happen to them. It's ignorant and offensive to insinuate people have control over their brain chemistry and traumatic life events. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMathGuy Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 ADD and anxiety, and some isolated episodes of depression (losing my faith caused me to fall into a serious depression!) Much of my family suffers from various Autism Spectrum disorders. Pentecostalism + mental illness = bad combination! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mriana Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 I couldn't have said this better. Mental health issues aren't something people "let" happen to them. It's ignorant and offensive to insinuate people have control over their brain chemistry and traumatic life events. Thanks. That is why I said something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. S. Martin Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 depression, anxiety, insomnia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WCrystal Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 I have schizoaffective disorder (bipolar type), PTSD, and my doc keeps wanting to ask me questions about Aspergers (I think he might test me on that one). I have quite a cocktail! Anyways, when I was attending churches, any hallucinations were attributed to "demons" or "demonic entities", and that really didn't help much -- until I realized from experience that funky levels of medication and brain chem.s can do much more damage than any "demonic entity" (woooh!!) any day. Also, I had a seizure once from a medication screw up and had really weird auditory hallucinations during the seizure... next thing I know, pastor is coming over with anointing oil and holy water to rid my house of demons! Those experiences really fucked me up for a while until I decided to LEARN about what I had (psychologically and biologically speaking)... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane of the Jungle Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 Fighting with eachother on this site, also not good, cause we might be a persons "only" real friends in life, whom he/she can trust in to tell the story of their life. Who's fighting? This is a discussion. Most humans are now programmed to believe in a deity of some kind and most or all of them lost or just dont know how to believe in their OWN human strenghts and abilities. If you were in a religion most of your life, after de-convertion, believing in your own abilities could be your first or maybe biggest hurdle to overcome. Ya I see a lot of us have lotz of issues, but if I think realistic about it, I know this is not issues which Atheists have, this is a Universal problem... Thank you for your analysis. We are not all atheists here, and I am just saying maybe things aren't so simple. Ok Deva, by atheist's I meant - x christians, x budhishst, x Judaist, x Hindu etc etc etc, left out agnostics, sceptics etc, feeling better? After all, isnt that why us all are here on this site, because we are x's? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deva Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 Fighting with eachother on this site, also not good, cause we might be a persons "only" real friends in life, whom he/she can trust in to tell the story of their life. Who's fighting? This is a discussion. Most humans are now programmed to believe in a deity of some kind and most or all of them lost or just dont know how to believe in their OWN human strenghts and abilities. If you were in a religion most of your life, after de-convertion, believing in your own abilities could be your first or maybe biggest hurdle to overcome. Ya I see a lot of us have lotz of issues, but if I think realistic about it, I know this is not issues which Atheists have, this is a Universal problem... Thank you for your analysis. We are not all atheists here, and I am just saying maybe things aren't so simple. Ok Deva, by atheist's I meant - x christians, x budhishst, x Judaist, x Hindu etc etc etc, left out agnostics, sceptics etc, feeling better? After all, isnt that why us all are here on this site, because we are x's? Not really. There are some Christians here. I don't know why you are trying to pick a fight with me, but if you want to go there, I'm game. I don't honestly know why all of us are here on this site. Why don't you just clue me in? Why are you here? Yeah the site says "Ex-Christian" which means formerly Christian and now not Christian. That is all it means. We are presently atheists, theists, Christians and everything in between. It isn't a matter of my "feeling better." You said "If you were in a religion most of your life, after de-convertion, believing in your own abilities could be your first or maybe biggest hurdle to overcome. Ya I see a lot of us have lotz of issues, but if I think realistic about it, I know this is not issues which Atheists have, this is a Universal problem, a problem which lotz of xtians and other religious people struggles with (in silence maybe)." I don't know why you used "Atheists" to single them out in your sentence. Not only that, but I still quite frankly can't figure out what you mean because I can't make sense of this sentence at all. If you want to clarify it so I can understand it, fine, if not, we can just drop it. Is English your second language? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mriana Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 May I interrupt and say one thing- I'm glad to see this discussion. The more people talk about mental illness, the less (hopefully that is) it will have a stigma attached to it. I had a professor call depression "the common cold of mental health". I worked in the field as a psych tech and Community Support worker (neither is the glamour of counseling people) for a few years and I found out, maybe 1/2 of those working in the psychology field also have depression, bipolar, ED, or what have you. It's not a surprise to me when I hear someone working in the field says they struggle with depression or what have you. I got that so called "teacher never goes to the store" myth removed a long time ago. I do find it a pleasant surprise when other people talk about it because I think it is helpful- not just to the individual by everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mriana Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 I have schizoaffective disorder (bipolar type), PTSD, and my doc keeps wanting to ask me questions about Aspergers (I think he might test me on that one). I have quite a cocktail! Test you on Aspergers? I'd like to know how he's going to figure out if you talked at 2 y.o. or not. That was one of the criteria my younger son didn't meet when he was 2 1/2 and dx with PDD-NOS. He did not talk and at times it seemed he did not hear too, which I was concerned because hearing problems run in our family, but they R/O that. Eye contact was a difficult thing to get out of him. He's better now with the eye contact bit. One of the criteria for Aspergers, last I knew, was talking at 2 years. I remember this because it was a BIG debate among the psychologists involved in evaluating him at this dev center when he was little. Some said Aspergers and others said no because "he doesn't talk". They were certain it was a form of ASD though. That much they agreed on, so in the end, he got the Dx of PDD-NOS and no psychologist has changed that, even though there is still some debate. He'll be 18 in a few days too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane of the Jungle Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 Not really. There are some Christians here. I don't know why you are trying to pick a fight with me, but if you want to go there, I'm game. I don't honestly know why all of us are here on this site. Why don't you just clue me in? Why are you here? Yeah the site says "Ex-Christian" which means formerly Christian and now not Christian. That is all it means. We are presently atheists, theists, Christians and everything in between. It isn't a matter of my "feeling better." You said "If you were in a religion most of your life, after de-convertion, believing in your own abilities could be your first or maybe biggest hurdle to overcome. Ya I see a lot of us have lotz of issues, but if I think realistic about it, I know this is not issues which Atheists have, this is a Universal problem, a problem which lotz of xtians and other religious people struggles with (in silence maybe)." I don't know why you used "Atheists" to single them out in your sentence. Not only that, but I still quite frankly can't figure out what you mean because I can't make sense of this sentence at all. If you want to clarify it so I can understand it, fine, if not, we can just drop it. Is English your second language? Not picking on you, like you said, its only a discussion! "I don't honestly know why all of us are here on this site. Why don't you just clue me in?" - Deva sarcasm is the first sign of a wrotten brain, carefull !!! "Why are you here" - Read my post and you would see the answer to that !!! "Ya I see a lot of us have lotz of issues, but if I think realistic about it, I know this is not issues which ONLY Atheists have, this is a Universal problem, a problem which lotz of xtians and other religious people struggles with (in silence maybe). (My mistake, I accidently left out the word "ONLY" and has placed it in the sentence now) I AM also an Atheist. ........and yes English is my second language! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deva Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 Not picking on you, like you said, its only a discussion! "I don't honestly know why all of us are here on this site. Why don't you just clue me in?" - Deva sarcasm is the first sign of a wrotten brain, carefull !!! "wrotten"- let's see - that is spelled R O T T E N - unless you have some other word in mind-- I just have to guess with you. It may be rotten but at least I know my limitations and don't try to communicate in another language I am not proficient in to the extent of trying to analyze mental problems. As far as sarcasm goes, believe me, you haven't seen anything yet. I said it was only a discussion, but you are now trying to make it something else with personal attacks. ""Ya I see a lot of us have lotz of issues, but if I think realistic about it, I know this is not issues which ONLY Atheists have, this is a Universal problem, a problem which lotz of xtians and other religious people struggles with (in silence maybe). (My mistake, I accidently left out the word "ONLY" and has placed it in the sentence now) I AM also an Atheist. Proper English Spelling: "Yes I see a lot of us have a lot of issues, but if I think realistically about it, I know this is not issues which ONLY Atheists have, this is a Universal problem, a problem which lots of xtians and other religious people struggle with (in silence maybe). Just trying to rewrite it with some proper spelling. STILL doesn't make good sense. Of course its not only Atheists which have the problem, but why single them out? That was my question. What the heck, I really don't care, its not worth it. I am checking out of this particular conversation since we don't speak the same language. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueGiant Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 I have no diagnosed mental issues. Anger management, though, that is something I've had to work hard as hell to learn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WCrystal Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 Test you on Aspergers? I'd like to know how he's going to figure out if you talked at 2 y.o. or not. That was one of the criteria my younger son didn't meet when he was 2 1/2 and dx with PDD-NOS. He did not talk and at times it seemed he did not hear too, which I was concerned because hearing problems run in our family, but they R/O that. Eye contact was a difficult thing to get out of him. He's better now with the eye contact bit. One of the criteria for Aspergers, last I knew, was talking at 2 years. I remember this because it was a BIG debate among the psychologists involved in evaluating him at this dev center when he was little. Some said Aspergers and others said no because "he doesn't talk". They were certain it was a form of ASD though. That much they agreed on, so in the end, he got the Dx of PDD-NOS and no psychologist has changed that, even though there is still some debate. He'll be 18 in a few days too. The criteria now for the current DSM (IV, I believe) doesn't include that specification for diagnosing in adults if I'm correct. Doc wants to test me for it due to the social/communication problems I have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouroboros Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 ADD. Just the slightest sound can catch my attention. I hate it when I do exams school. Someone move their chair and I lose concentration. Other than that I'm pretty okay nowadays. I used to have depression when I was Christian, and anger problems, but I dealt with it after de-conversion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mriana Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 Test you on Aspergers? I'd like to know how he's going to figure out if you talked at 2 y.o. or not. That was one of the criteria my younger son didn't meet when he was 2 1/2 and dx with PDD-NOS. He did not talk and at times it seemed he did not hear too, which I was concerned because hearing problems run in our family, but they R/O that. Eye contact was a difficult thing to get out of him. He's better now with the eye contact bit. One of the criteria for Aspergers, last I knew, was talking at 2 years. I remember this because it was a BIG debate among the psychologists involved in evaluating him at this dev center when he was little. Some said Aspergers and others said no because "he doesn't talk". They were certain it was a form of ASD though. That much they agreed on, so in the end, he got the Dx of PDD-NOS and no psychologist has changed that, even though there is still some debate. He'll be 18 in a few days too. The criteria now for the current DSM (IV, I believe) doesn't include that specification for diagnosing in adults if I'm correct. Doc wants to test me for it due to the social/communication problems I have. Ah, I see. I didn't think it was specific for adults. It's up to V now, I believe, but that's OK. I'm not sure it is that much different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharkindeepwater Posted April 26, 2009 Share Posted April 26, 2009 Directly triggered and nurtured by my religious school, yep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mriana Posted April 26, 2009 Share Posted April 26, 2009 You seem happy about that, sharkindeepwater. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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