One thing to keep in mind in actual psychiatric institutional situations, is that often there is pressure to act as if you have whatever the diagnosis-of-the-week is. (And if you have something that most shrinks are unfamiliar with, you will be asked to conform to any of dozens of different labels or face being regarded as 'noncompliant' or 'resisting treatment' or 'in denial'.) I was in many situations where if I said something wasn't me, then I was a bad patient or in denial or somesuch, but if I complied with everything they said, they'd treat me better and let me out sooner. Eventually I just said "screw it" and gave them whatever they wanted, it wasn't worth the abuse, to be true to myself. It's similar to the pressure to pass for neurotypical, except it's pressure to pass for whatever they've diagnosed you with, and it can easily escalate to life and death levels. I actually had to sort of "detox" myself from those situations by quitting all my shrinks and spending enough time alone to figure out which way was up and down again, and which traits were really mine and which ones they'd tacked onto me. I wouldn't blame anyone who is in the psychiatric system for saying anything about themselves, true or untrue. There's often duress involved, and I knew lots of people who, like me, gave up and agreed to portray ourselves as whatever we were told to do.
_________________
"In my world it's a place of patterns and feel. In my world it's a haven for what is real. It's my world, nobody can steal it, but people like me, we live in the shadows." -Donna Williams
14 Jul 2010, 6:58 pm
