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RE: Mental Illness is More Than What We Think it is

I don't think passive aggression deserves to be listed right before narcissism and sociopathy. It's not a psychological disorder, it's a behavior pattern.

By their very natures, narcissistic and antisocial personality disorders don't create a lot of pain, shame or desire to in the people who have them to change the conditions. Since treatment is an elective choice, you need to have a reason to do it.

People don't really seek "treatment" for either condition. Both groups don't think it is necessary to change so no one is going to make a teary video about how their narcissism caused them pain and receiving treatment helped them get back to normal functioning.

Most people are familiar with feeling anxious and depressed and find empathizing easier, but you don't have an "episode" of sociopathy for example.

So it's easier and more relatable to have a public outreach campaign about reducing the shame around treating these conditions-- while doing that with narcissism seems bizarre because of the complete lack of shame inherent in being narcissistic, right?

Depression and anxiety are treatable with therapy and medication. Some of the other clusters of symptoms in the DSM aren't necessarily causing the people who have them to suffer-- so they're not going to get treated nor diagnosed.

But saying that depression and anxiety are "caused" by narcissists and sociopaths is a real slippery and incorrect slope-- since when depression and anxiety are clinically diagnosed medical conditions, they become biological (when they may or not have begun that way) and continue, unrelated to the behavior of the people around.

For example, some people who experience trauma will develop PTSD.

Some will not.

Some people who have experienced narcissistic abuse will become depressed.

Some will not.

Your post brings up a good point about how these are less visible conditions, which is definitely true. Unfortunately, changing the people who have them isn't as easy as drawing more attention to the problem.

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Well written. I have worked with people with Mental illness for a number of years and agree entirely with what you said. Thanks.

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