How do you respond to people who ask the seemingly repeated questions about if they have a mental illness?

Question

I'm just curious what you say. Do you share information becuase you have been through something similar to what they are describing or do you like to guess what you think they have wrong with them without having any experience with a mental illness?

I personally have been through some stuff and I only answer questions that can actually help people. I'm not much into the whole point thing so I'm here mostly to learn and share experiences. How about you?

Answer 1

I either say 'you're being stupid' (possibly in less blunt terms), or 'you may do, but only a doctor can definitely say'

Answer 2

This is a great question.!

I personally answer these questions because I enjoy helping people and I've spent a lot of time in my career reading, books, articles etc about different mental problems. I think there is the academic side and the experiential side of any problem. A person doesn't have to experience a symptoms first hand to offer assistance, but it helps to have different perspectives to a problem. For instance, one does not have to experience a heart attack to be a good heart doctor, but there is also good information to be learned from both sides of the problem.

I also think that for many people, we understand that there is alot of information on the internet, but when someone is having distress and difficulty there are many things which are helpful about getting an answer from the community "at large."

1. You can have knowledgeable people respond without having to give your identity.

2. You can get responses from people who have first hand experience with a particular problem because they have lived it.

3. You can see a wide range of responses and pick the one that fits your situation best.

The only responses that I really don't like are the ones where people are making fun of someone in pain or are intolerant of other's opinions.

Thanks for the question!

ganldoc

Answer 3

Depends on the question.  If it's a serious situation with good topic, I'll answer from personal experience or from my bogus knowledge.  If it's one of those repetitive 'I think I'm depressed' and they just list the symptoms of depression, I don't bother to answer.  They could just look that sh*t up on Google.

Answer 4

i only help on what ive overcome to tell and show people that they can and will.

Answer 5

I'd do the same, but sometimes I plain suggest.

Answer 6

I have suffered from major depression as a result of physical trauma. If the question appears frivolous, I ignore it. If the questioner appears to have a genuine problem I advise them to seek appropriate assistance. Depression is difficult to combat alone and despite good intentions the advice given here is often ambiguous or misleading.

Answer 7

Sometimes I skip over those questions that ask, "What do I have?"

I don't think I can guess what the person has so I usually don't click on the question if it's worded that way.

Answer 8

i only answer to the questions like that if i know, if i dont then i cant say anything because i could be giving the person the wrong idea which really people should go to a doctor because most of us on here are not doctors.

but its nice to know that you can get some sort of idea before going to the doctors.