This is what I want to say to a friend on Facebook who is constantly complaining about having a mental illness. I have dealt with depression myself. I am not putting down the mental illness(es). But she makes A LOT of noise on Facebook that seems like unhealthy attention seeking and it doesn’t seem like she’s doing anything in real life to help herself with whatever the real issues are, instead she seems to work on distractions.
She posts a lot of “how you can help a person with a mental illness” checklists. They almost all involve doing the dishes. I find these lists helpful. I have saved a few. I just don’t think she needs the kind of help listed so much as she WANTS the kind of help listed.
I am extra frustrated because she recently made a post about how all she does is post “cries for help” and all she gets is ignored or laughed at. I think she gets “ignored” because most people think of these posts as “the boy crying wolf”. Still, I and others have responded with kind and compassionate comments many a time, and I’ve never seen anyone laugh at her.
The was only one incident several years ago where she wanted a certain breed of pet. At the time she was making dire comments about her finances and also about her inability to care for herself. Someone must have PMed her saying something about her seeming inability to afford to purchase this breed, and her inability to afford and execute ongoing care for the animal. Her response was an angry public rant against the comments and another rant about how people should be “helpful”.
So, yeah.
Part of me wants to respond to her current comment that sometimes earnestness is often far greater than expertise, and people might want to help but not know how, that people are not laughing at her, but probably WITH her in commiseration, and if someone is indeed laughing AT her then she should take them off her friends list, but I somehow do not think she would take it well.
Ugh!