Mental health memes and discussion (Part 2)

Controversial perspective? I don’t know, it makes sense to me. I included the subtext/comment from the OP on Instagram and I like the statement, “your feelings just are.” We are emotional creatures and we benefit from looking at our emotions, how we experience them and how we react to them. Saying that all feelings are “valid” can imply that they are always “good” or “helpful” or that they can’t be changed. I know my feelings are sometimes shite and not helpful in the moment! That’s why it’s worth being curious about them, learning to regulate them, and figuring out where their rooted in us and our experiences. IMO :blush:

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There are some interesting premises here. I do wonder if they are using emotions and feelings interchangeably though.

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They seem to be, and I was, too - good point. When I first read the headline it felt shocking and I had to read it through a few times. I’m still curious about the ideas and it made me think. Which I always like! Sometimes the posts and memes I see or gravitate to start to fall into the platitudes region of messaging (which is helpful and uplifting, for sure) or reinforce my thoughts and feelings, are validating in some way. I liked having my thinking challenged. I’m curious what folks think.

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I definitely agree that horrible behavior is not always a trauma response, nor valid. And I wasn’t aware that prevailing thought suggests it is? :thinking:

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I think that there is a trend (maybe not new…) where people throw around words/diagnoses like PTSD, OCD and trauma to describe themselves when in fact they do not have that experience. And it can be used to excuse damaging behavior. It is a pet peeve of mine when people say things like “I am feeling so OCD right now,” or “That xyz gave me such PTSD,” when they are being hyperbolic. It feels demeaning of folks who struggle with these experiences in a real way. This might not be what this person is pointing to, but it’s what I was reminded of.

Trauma is a tricky one, because it is subjective and one’s traumatic past is for them to define, no one else, but there are some parameters to help define what that looks like.

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Ah, I see where you are going there. A much more nuanced interpretation of the statement. I do tend toward the simplistic. Thanks for fleshing it out.

I can see that in how some people talk about situations.

On the other hand, sometimes I feel like collectively we are all traumatised from the past couple of years. But certainly that doesn’t excuse horrible behavior…or what I would consider ‘horrible behavior.’

I think a lot of my horrible behavior over the years was because I was thoughtless, unaware, immature or just being an aggressive asshole. Leaning heavily on immature as the overarching reason…again, simplistic.

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I often hear people jokingly say “haha (insert person) has multiple personalities, they are being so nice to (insert person) but they really hate them and can’t wait for them to go away” :weary::pleading_face::pensive::unamused: that isn’t what the disorder is. And it hurts me.

For example a person at my job jokingly told me the person taking orders has multiple personalities because they had good customer service, but is really an ass… Their phrasing.

Edit to add: it hasn’t been called multiple personality disorder for something like 20 years…it’s called Dissociative Identity Disorder. And people still throw around the old name because they don’t actually know anything about it, and what it entails. Or the fact that it is caused by extreme trauma in early life. They think it’s just a funny phrase :pensive:

Second edit:

Dissociative identity disorder (DID).

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I’m sorry that happened to you/around you. Every time I hear someone say, “I’m soooooo depressed,” when that’s not what they’re describing (my interpretation, of course) it feels like a jab. Lots of times it’s on a tv show/movie, it’s become part of our vernacular like a lot of other words or ways of talking about mental health conditions. I try to educate whenever I can, even with strangers if it feels like good time/space to do so.

@SassyRocks I have to agree - we have some serious collective trauma happening in the zeitgeist for lots of reasons. Locally, nationally and globally. It’s heavy.

My brain is mushy, time for bed, but I’ll sleep on this and think some more tomorrow. Thanks for the responses!

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Sweet dreams :two_hearts::sleeping:

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This all makes me want to get back to watching the Brene Brown HBOmax doc. I have only watched the first episode so far.

Hope you had a good rest!

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So I saw a post that further clarifies the “feelings aren’t valid” concept and it’s much clearer to me. I can dig it. This is why oversimplified bullet points aren’t always a great way to get a message across :grimacing: I’ll include the IG link if anyone is interested but here are the screen shots. I appreciate that this individual generally is cautioning folks from relying too much on catchphrases and buzzwords, and I agree that sometimes words feel empty when they’re overused and don’t have a lot of depth, or have anything specific to a person to really indicate they’re being heard and empathized with. I think that’s the main message here.



IG: Seerut K. Chawla on Instagram: "Robotic catchphrases are not empathy. Feelings are neither valid nor invalid. They just ARE. The word ‘valid’ makes precisely 0 sense in reference to feelings. #inthetrencheswithyou"

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That… is beautiful. Not gonna lie, almost shed a tear reading that.

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That is much clearer to me as well, thank you for sharing it!!

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