mariana99

This was my post reply to a Yahoo! Ask question..

Question:
Do you think the mass-publication of conditions such as depression, ADHD, Anorexia, etc especially to kids is making more kids/people depressed, more kids hyperactive, and more people anorexic and making more people cut?
I mean, seriously, think about it. If no one ever heard of anorexia or cutting, no one would starve themselves or ritually cut and then use it as a weapon against their family and society.
One or two people did this decades ago, then the stupid pinheads in academia made their career out of it, then there were mass-broadcast made-for-TV movies about it, and now it's plastered all over billboards and written into childrens books. I think now, it's a rite of passage to cut and starve yourself and be ADHD, and if you are neither of these things, you're considered a freak
 

My Answer:
I am the package psycho... tied with a bow
From early early school years teachers and school counselors have been telling my parents I may have problems with attentions deficit disorders, I stiiillll feel like I stuggle with these problems related to this illness. Obviously I never ever previously heard of it.

As long as I can remember I have been a self-harmer, I never ever understood this, I never even realized it to be an issue or the frequency or nature of my self harm.  when I was in sixth grade, my best friends sister told me she was a cutter and I dumbly looked in to her face and didnt understand a thing she was saying, after she explained it, I couldnt understand what was wrong with that, after all it was an every day part of my life.

one summer in early middle school, I developed very disordered eating (along with depression, as its often a symptom of the malnutrition caused by an ED), again, I didnt realize there was a problem, I didnt realize how it was actually taking over me.  That fall when I went back to class we talked about eating disorders in health class.  I was cluless and stunned, followed by a whirl wind of feeling betrayed by the people who knew me who didnt see the sign and didnt teach me about my behaviors and didnt try to find something deeper within my apparent loss of appetiet, you know why they couldnt help me, because they DIDNT know either.

So if you ask me, No I dont think its harming people, today I can honestly say my friends call me out on my behaviors, they call me out and they can support my recovery.  I have never been better, and I feel comfortable saying that with out the mass publications, and tv specials, I would be lost and hopeless.  Not only does it educate people on existing problems, its educates cluless sufferers on recovery.

I feel like I understand my self and I believe in my heart one day I will be recovered also, that the poeple close to me understand me more than ever, I could have never reached that level of understanding with out the mass education of these disorders.