Posted by Racer on April 29, 2005, at 20:14:08
In reply to SANITY ?, posted by crazychickuk on April 29, 2005, at 18:59:31
From what I hear, sanity is way overrated...
Actually, "sanity" is really a legal term, anyway. It means something slightly different from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but the M'Naughton Rule is pretty common: you're sane if you know the difference between right and wrong, and know the consequences of your actions.
For the most part, Donna, anxiety and depression will make all sorts of fears seem "real" -- now, they're always real fears, but the anxiety can make them seem as though they might actually come true. If you lose your mind, you can come and kick my @$$ into next week, because I promise you that you're not losing your mind.
Here's part of what I'm looking at for myself lately: Until I started treatment at That Place, I considered myself as having all sorts of characteristics and qualities -- and having recurrent episodes of major depression which could be controlled with medications. Now, though, I find that I have internalized the identity of having a mental illness. I'm not comfortable with that, and I'm trying to get back to thinking of myself as a mentally healthy person who has to be careful to manage my depression, just as I try to be careful about physical activities that aggravate my arthritis. I'm telling you this because I think it applies to you, too. It means that you do have to think about things that might cause problems, but it also means learning to think about yourself as a healthy person who has to manage stress to keep the anxiety down -- does that make sense to you?
And I do hope that therapy is helping you, let us know, eh?
poster:Racer
thread:491645
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050428/msgs/491675.html