[KittyBeary]

Originally Posted by Ava

:(

I dunno if this is weird or just me..
Have you ever felt like, when you have struggles (specifically mental health ones) and you talk to someone who has experience and you feel like... like they try to "one up" you?

Someone I know mentioned this in a chat I was in. It makes it hard to talk about mental health struggles sometimes with people like that. Although, I know it's rarely ever without good intentions. I think some people (I know I'm this way!) try to relate or be empathetic when someone is struggling and they talk about their own stories/experience..

I know this happens often in MH chats, I've been in several mental health forums and chats for years now and this has never failed to happen at least once in all of them.

Like, you might say, "Yeah, I had a panic attack today and it ruined my day." and the response would be, "Oh? Yeah, I have panic attacks every day."

I know it's not with ill-intentions, I do believe that everyone struggles and we are all just trying to relate with each other, especially those of us with mental health problems since the stigma is so bad, we need to support each other more than ever. But it feels invalidating sometimes when that happens... And it happens all the time.

I'm not angry about it, I am not bitter because I know I am guilty also of trying to relate/empathize and having it come out as invalidating.
I just wanted to point it out... since it's the shout anyway. :P



FHSFHDKGFDJG RAAAAAAAAAH

If someone is sharing experiences/mental health stuff I will also share mine but out of sympathy and letting them know they aren't alone.

I'm not like my dad who used to be all "I had it worse than you you don't have a right to be upset!" and thanks to that I hardly ever talk about my struggles cause I feel no one will wanna hear/will say I'm not "truly suffering". .-. Unless they say otherwise.