I wrote this all up in the bio of one of my dragons yesterday, then when I was finished I felt better and realized I definitely should NOT publish it in a dragon bio, so I cut and pasted it into a .txt file instead. Here goes:
"A sucker is born every minute and we'll never change that; some people are rhubes who will believe anything, that's just the way the world works. Don't taint your mental health because someone is lying on the internet for attention. Obviously they're a sad, desperate loser whose life isn't great, you don't need to join their ilk. Take care of yourself.
[rule]
Ugh I have a lot of feelings about faking mental disorders and it's probably not a good idea to vent them out in a dragon bio but whatever. It's too hard for me to interact with this community and never speak up about this, because it greatly affects my blocking habits! I'll try to keep it civil.
First, I like nuance. I'm learning more and more in the adult world that nothing is ever black or white, all good or all evil, and you can't ever align yourself to an extreme in a healthy manner. (Except maybe those monks who meditate alone on the tops of mountains for years straight to achieve enlightenment? Supposedly they do pretty well for themselves. Good for them!) Second, the corporate internet has rotted the brains of millions of people, young and old, such that it makes it difficult for them to use critical thinking skills, nuance, and scepticism. I'm recovering from that brain rot myself! I believe, perhaps naively, that people are not naturally stubborn, reactive, aggressive, defensive, and hypervigilant. Therefore, when people act in this way, I do not think it is a moral failing on them as a person, but rather that their behaviour is a product of their environment.
So. Faking mental disorders. It's a topic that's immediately threatening to many, many people. See my second point. It is difficult now to discuss these things without feeling like you have to defend yourself from attacks on all fronts, like you have to shout your stance the loudest because you can't ever let yourself falter or doubt yourself because your stance is your everything, it is your shield and your lifeline, and if it's ever endangered you feel like YOU'RE in danger. That's how debates turn into arguments. (I think that, in recent decades, this phenomenon has become very prevalent all over the world: opinions aren't just opinions, they're badges, they're passports, they're sacred things that you swear allegiance to- but I won't go any further on that topic)
In general, I dislike people who fake them. However, it does not mean I believe that all people who fake them are evil, or that anyone faking them is doing it deliberately for malicious reasons. I believe that they do a lot of harm, but I also believe that most people faking them do not have bad intentions. Most probably don't think they're faking it at all. Look how much stigma there is about mental health! Look how hard it is to get mental health care, in any country! Consider how complicated the human brain is! Of [i]course[/i] people are going to be misinformed. Of course they're going to try to figure things out on their own and build their life around information they don't know isn't true. Or maybe they get misdiagnosed by a well-meaning but under-prepared professional, and they build their life around that. [i]Good[/i] information is not easily accessible.
I'm running out of steam. I'll make some bullet points of why I think faking disorders is a thing people do. - They were experiencing mental health issues and were misdiagnosed by a professional with X when they actually had Y. - They were experiencing mental health issues and weren't able to see a professional so they did as much of their own research as they could. Unfortunately.... ---...they experienced an anchoring bias that caused them to focus on X, the first thing they learned about, so they neglected to consider Y, which they actually had. ---...they experienced a confirmation bias towards X, which they had previously considered prior to this, so they neglected to consider Y, which they actually had. ---...they trusted the wrong sources, who fed them misinformation about X and Y, so they believed they had X and it couldn't possibly be Y. (This one is really, REALLY bad!!) -They developed in a social environment where many of their peers had X (or faked/performed/mistakenly thought they had X), so they were more likely to think that they had X too. Often followed by confirmation bias. -They knew they had Y, but felt like their mental health issues were too severe to "just be Y" / felt like they weren't receiving the proper care for their mental health issues when they "only have Y," so they searched for some other condition they could possibly have that would validate their feelings / make professionals take them more seriously. Often followed by confirmation bias. Really, confirmation bias is a big player in all of these.
From personal experience, I once faked a mental disorder for the last two reasons. I didn't know any better! My research wasn't thorough enough. I stretched definitions out of desperation. I was in a bad place and I didn't know why.
Okay now I'm really all out of steam. This is why I block people willy-nilly if I suspect they're claiming to be X when they're actually not. Be nice to people. Take mental health seriously."
yeah this is all very reasonable. i don't think fakers are bad people either, i think it most often indicates some kind of unmet emotional or mental health need.
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ok you wanted my rant about it
(Anonymous) 2023-08-09 04:02 pm (UTC)(link)"A sucker is born every minute and we'll never change that; some people are rhubes who will believe anything, that's just the way the world works. Don't taint your mental health because someone is lying on the internet for attention. Obviously they're a sad, desperate loser whose life isn't great, you don't need to join their ilk. Take care of yourself.
[rule]
Ugh I have a lot of feelings about faking mental disorders and it's probably not a good idea to vent them out in a dragon bio but whatever. It's too hard for me to interact with this community and never speak up about this, because it greatly affects my blocking habits! I'll try to keep it civil.
First, I like nuance. I'm learning more and more in the adult world that nothing is ever black or white, all good or all evil, and you can't ever align yourself to an extreme in a healthy manner. (Except maybe those monks who meditate alone on the tops of mountains for years straight to achieve enlightenment? Supposedly they do pretty well for themselves. Good for them!) Second, the corporate internet has rotted the brains of millions of people, young and old, such that it makes it difficult for them to use critical thinking skills, nuance, and scepticism. I'm recovering from that brain rot myself! I believe, perhaps naively, that people are not naturally stubborn, reactive, aggressive, defensive, and hypervigilant. Therefore, when people act in this way, I do not think it is a moral failing on them as a person, but rather that their behaviour is a product of their environment.
So. Faking mental disorders. It's a topic that's immediately threatening to many, many people. See my second point. It is difficult now to discuss these things without feeling like you have to defend yourself from attacks on all fronts, like you have to shout your stance the loudest because you can't ever let yourself falter or doubt yourself because your stance is your everything, it is your shield and your lifeline, and if it's ever endangered you feel like YOU'RE in danger. That's how debates turn into arguments. (I think that, in recent decades, this phenomenon has become very prevalent all over the world: opinions aren't just opinions, they're badges, they're passports, they're sacred things that you swear allegiance to- but I won't go any further on that topic)
In general, I dislike people who fake them. However, it does not mean I believe that all people who fake them are evil, or that anyone faking them is doing it deliberately for malicious reasons. I believe that they do a lot of harm, but I also believe that most people faking them do not have bad intentions. Most probably don't think they're faking it at all. Look how much stigma there is about mental health! Look how hard it is to get mental health care, in any country! Consider how complicated the human brain is! Of [i]course[/i] people are going to be misinformed. Of course they're going to try to figure things out on their own and build their life around information they don't know isn't true. Or maybe they get misdiagnosed by a well-meaning but under-prepared professional, and they build their life around that. [i]Good[/i] information is not easily accessible.
I'm running out of steam. I'll make some bullet points of why I think faking disorders is a thing people do.
- They were experiencing mental health issues and were misdiagnosed by a professional with X when they actually had Y.
- They were experiencing mental health issues and weren't able to see a professional so they did as much of their own research as they could. Unfortunately....
---...they experienced an anchoring bias that caused them to focus on X, the first thing they learned about, so they neglected to consider Y, which they actually had.
---...they experienced a confirmation bias towards X, which they had previously considered prior to this, so they neglected to consider Y, which they actually had.
---...they trusted the wrong sources, who fed them misinformation about X and Y, so they believed they had X and it couldn't possibly be Y. (This one is really, REALLY bad!!)
-They developed in a social environment where many of their peers had X (or faked/performed/mistakenly thought they had X), so they were more likely to think that they had X too. Often followed by confirmation bias.
-They knew they had Y, but felt like their mental health issues were too severe to "just be Y" / felt like they weren't receiving the proper care for their mental health issues when they "only have Y," so they searched for some other condition they could possibly have that would validate their feelings / make professionals take them more seriously. Often followed by confirmation bias. Really, confirmation bias is a big player in all of these.
From personal experience, I once faked a mental disorder for the last two reasons. I didn't know any better! My research wasn't thorough enough. I stretched definitions out of desperation. I was in a bad place and I didn't know why.
Okay now I'm really all out of steam. This is why I block people willy-nilly if I suspect they're claiming to be X when they're actually not. Be nice to people. Take mental health seriously."
Re: ok you wanted my rant about it
(Anonymous) 2023-08-09 06:06 pm (UTC)(link)Re: ok you wanted my rant about it
(Anonymous) 2023-08-09 06:20 pm (UTC)(link)