comment: >
  
  Exactly like you don’t need to be a psychiatrist to figure out that say when your having a panic attack at once a week minimum that you might have an anxiety problem.
context: Nowadays? Lol. It was ever thus. >
  
  Thus it ever was! >
  
  I can't judge whether this is unpopular or not -- mainly because it hasn't been discussed much as far as I've seen. Maybe there is less indulgence of mental illness because more people are recognizing that they might have one, or there is less empathy because social media has made more people unmitigated assholes.
  There's also a lot of people who wear their issues on their sleeve, who crave attention and want some kind of an exception -- and, I think that too much is made of the attention seekers. They aren't really harming anyone, and the people who gripe about the Kardashians all the time are worse than the fans in my book. WHY do you care? Meanwhile, there is a larger group of people who really are having challenges functioning -- perhaps because of more stress from not having a more "human" setting for interaction. We have over a million years of adaptation as a species to a world we can touch and in person communication. There needs to be a lot more study not just of social media -- but in general; what happens to people when they are not interacting physically?
  One basic study of twins where one was sitting and the other standing, showed about a 10 difference in life expectancy for the twin that stood. >
  
  People have very little empathy to begin with >
  
  The downside of culture without core beliefs is crazy town. >
  
  I really, really want to blame tumbler for this. 
  Somewhere in the 2000s people started to wear mental illnesses like accessories. Again and again they’d wave words around like ‘anxiety’ and ‘depression’ as if they had the golden ticket of excuses to be terrible people. Maybe they did have those illnesses but what people need to understand is that poor health, be it mental or physical, is an excuse but it is not always a justification. 
  If someone in a wheel chair turns down public hang outs because they hate trying to navigate new places in their chair, that is a justification. If someone with anxiety says no to a huge social gathering because the thought of so many people in one room makes them want to throw up, that’s a justification. 
  However, if that same person in the wheel chair throws a tantrum every time their partner goes on a walk or does something they can’t participate in - that is an excuse. If that same person with anxiety refuses to host, or let someone else host, a big birthday party of their SO’s dreams because they wouldn’t be able to enjoy it - that’s an excuse. 
  In the later cases, their feelings are valid but their expectation that the world must always cater to their needs even to the regular detriment of loved ones is not okay. It’s okay to feel frustrated, angry, bitter, jealous, or envious but it’s not okay to act on those feelings or make others absolve them. 
  Unfortunately, that’s a delicate balancing act. 
  Living with illness or disability, be it physical or mental, is hard. It is always going to be hard. I don’t live with anxiety and depression, I fight it every god damned day. And yeah, sometimes I slip up and my loved ones know that. But at no point should they revolve their entire lives around it. 
  Honestly, I hate sharing my mental health now because so many people use it as a justification to be jerks. It’s not. It never is and it never will be. >
  
  The issue I have is dealing with the self-diagnosed, it's not a fucking fad! Having depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar, or any other diagnosis can be absolutely crippling. >
  
  As someone who has suffered from crippling depression, and still deals with depressive episodes… I don’t mind people who self diagnose.
  Yes, some of them are idiots who don’t know what they’re talking about. 
  But many of them can’t afford therapy, or they have a good grasp of their mental illness, to the point it’s easy for them to self diagnose… 
  Unless someone isn’t obviously lying, I think it’s best to believe them when they say they have x mental illness.