Posted by Survivor on August 10, 2001, at 3:50:14
In reply to Re: let me restate... » Survivor, posted by Mitch on August 9, 2001, at 9:34:01
Mitch,
> > I didnt' suffer any abuse but my parents definitely had their problems. My Mom epilepsy-OCD/GAD and my Dad probably bipolar (explosive temper). I have known others that have suffered from abuse and it DID effect them very deleteriously.< <I grew up with a severely bipolar father with a hair trigger rage and my mother was sunk in her own depressions, too. It may not have been physical, but I think that is a *very* abusive background you're describing. For one thing, you could never be sure of anything around a rage-expressive manic-depressive - my father changed the rules faster than I could learn them, resulting in total insecurity about my perceptions and the safety of life in general which fed my organic depression and anxiety. Another is that you watch those behaviors and learn them from a very tender age, or at least learn to let others direct the effects of their illnesses upon you. Since we are blends of nature and nurture, such an unstable home life is, in my mind, the worst incubator for the organic aspects of our currents disorders. How can you grow healthy flowers in poisoned soil? You deserve credit for having survived that kind of upbringing.
> > I have brought this up before, but what about the impact of accelerating technology on communities and our sense of empathy for others-effects of increased depersonalization?< <
Being new here, I haven't been in on your previous posts on this topic, but I feel that technology gave me a way to communicate with the world when my ability to interact with it on a personal or "real" level didn't even exist yet. Your point is valid for many people, but for me, my first computer was my first contact point with the outside world after 5 agoraphobic years of solitude. Its anonymous nature let me learn to socialize and todesensitize my knee-jerk panic toward everyone and everything until I could eventually risk meeting someone in the flesh. So there can be an upside for some people to the rapid evolution and increasingly dominant role technology has today. Just another perspective.
>
> > Most anxiety disorders are based in irrational fears and catastrophic prejudice about others and situations.< <Again, here I'm going to reference your growing up with a bipolar parent. Maybe your fears were entirely rational at the time, given your circumstances. Maybe they weren't prejudices, but recognition that something was very wrong with the dynamics in your household. There is also an organic basis for anxiety disorders, in my opinion at least. Left unattended to multiply and build on themselves, anxieties and prejudices like you mention look very much to me like vestigal self-defense survival reactions that no longer play a useful role in one's life. Again, just my point of view.
poster:Survivor
thread:71466
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010809/msgs/74437.html