Hope and Healing in The Forum

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Thank you all, it is a strange feeling to not be alone.

We love to hear from you, Inventor.

Yes, surreal isn't it? Prof_Pretorius is correct.

PM (Everyone avert your eyes ): Letter to you should arrive...now! Or any day this week.

See? I employed an emoticon. Impressed?

On the philosophy and politics forum I always get bashed for not having suffered enough. Apparently you can't hold your own in a debate unless you were molested more than once, fought in a war, survived a genocide, lived on the street, and are currently destitute. When I told people I was an economic liberal because I lack good health insurance and have connections to people who are being vampirized by corporations, I was accosted with this: "It's so difficult to be young these days; cell phone might die . . . [try growing up during] the Carter Great Depression!"

In the Haven, suffering is not a rigid, hotly contested hierarchy, but rather an equalizer, something everyone has in common. Politics, Philosophy, and Religion has a feudalistic conception of suffering (in which an omnipotent council of Holocaust survivors endlessly tells everybody else to quit whining and get back to work*). Over here, we have constructed a forum along the lines of Buddha's Four Noble Truths. I posted here once about how depressed watching too much TV can make one, and I got no toxic responses. Autistics lack empathy my ass.

*This is a metaphor; PP&R is not actually run by an oppressive, slave-driving cartel of Holocaust survivors. It would be a much more interesting forum if it were, though. I like to picture Elie Wiesel and AwesomelyGlorious, both in superhero costumes, battling it out for supremacy of the world (I have a weird fantasy life, okay?).

Last edited by MissPickwickian on 02 May 2008, 6:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

What you talk about MissPickwickian, is fairly universal. In boot camp we were always told how those who went before had it rougher. Get used too it, you'll hear it a lot more in your life. You have a good username, I never read much Dickens but A Tale of Two Cities is ine of the greatest books ever!

I was suicidal because I was so guilty about feeling bad, once. I had no right to feel bad because I lived in a first-world country. This thought, with all its cheesy western guilt, made me feel worse, not better. Telling a depressed person how lucky they are never works. Plus, it's totally cliche.

Feeling like crap oftentimes has nothing to do with a persons material well being or their achievements. Iris Chang was at the top of her chosen profession and not lacking in finances when she killed herself. The world lost a great writer and her family misses her. Suicide is a destructive act that hurts other people. Please keep that in mind. I'm glad that you did no permanent injury to your hands, it be easier to get yourself together with all your limbs and appendages intact.

Depression often stems from a chemical imbalance in the brain. Or with us ASpies, the continual struggle to accomplish things that NT's take for granted, like a love relationship.

I would say its a feeling of loss, including something you never had.

How are you Prof?

Sometimes I don't think this place does any good for me in regards to healing, sometimes it feels better just not trying to reach out and talk without all this confrontational behavior on WP, I am not equipped to deal with rude people who seem to thrive on conflict, I have so many things happen to me this past year, losing my dad and most of my family, all I ever wanted was to make some friends who may have something in common with me. I just don't know what to think or do, I feel like I am fooling myself, I actually feel worse about myself.

This place can be very negative.

I broke the WP addiction and left (but I came back - lol). About a year ago there were much fewer members. I used to liken it to a large room full of people. I would ignore and "walk" past the ones I didn't recognise and go to those I knew and liked. Now WP is much bigger, its more like a mall

It's possible to connect with people here. Some of the members I liked here have stopped posting. A couple I still regularly email. I'm glad I met them. Try to ignore the negatives and keep out of any forums that upset you. I do.

PS - it takes a while to get to know other posters. You have only been here 3 months. Including my prior username (Blackduck) I am nearing my 2 year anniversary. I think at that milestone I should quit.

I do like this forum alot, but sometimes its kind of hard with the negative stuff, I try to talk with people but I never really know what to say. or if I offended them, I sort of feel like retreating into my shell again, whenever I have to deal with confrontational people, especially if I have to be also, its like a shock to my system, since its not part of my nature to get into peoples face. I am thinking of taking a break for a while but the problem is I don't really have a life outside of my home, and no friends or family here where I live

^^ How old are you?

I have a theory that posters impression of you is in part derived from the avatar you pick. My avatar is Barry McKenzie (cartoon and then film character). Previously I used a pic from the movie "Cool Hand Luke"

"the man with no eyes" - I liked the reflected horizon. Anyway, a girl said it made me seem evil so I stopped using it. I mention this as I wonder whether your avatar may not help people "connect" to you. IMHO a picture of a person is best for an avatar, but that's just my opnion. Anyway, I would also suggest you don't change avatars very often. I quickly scroll through posters, skipping by ones I don't know or don't like. If you change the avatar too often, it makes it harder to recognise you.

Just a thought, for what its worth.

I'm probably not the best person to discuss this since I have engaged in a few pissing contests on this Forum, but Spudnik I think you are a good influence here since you come across as a very nice guy. I have only seen you get noticeably pissed once, when someone made a joke in poor taste that you didn't like and you came back swinging. I laughed at that joke but felt bad for doing so when it became apparent that it did piss you off. So I apologize for my part in that situation. Not everyone notices everyone else since there are so many people on this Forum but of the people who do respond to your posts, I believe that it's much more positive to you than negative. I have been posting a lot less lately, partly to get out more and because I have picked up another job, but also because I have a bad habit of not ignoring contentius posts. I also came here, in good part, to make friends and overall I am not doing it very well.

So am I rarely noticed due to lack of an avatar according to this theory?

^^ sorry, who are you - lol

No, but when I scroll though a topic with a lot of posts, I could easily pass you by without noticing you.