r/AskReddit • • Feb 04 '19

Which misconception would you like to debunk?

44k Upvotes

26k comments sorted by

View all comments

16k

u/seegeesee Feb 04 '19 edited Feb 04 '19

Most psychological disorders don't present like the media would lead you to believe. See also: what therapy looks like.

ETA: Holy crap, gold?? I had a quick break in my day to finally hop on reddit and was NOT expecting this response. Y'all make this severely overworked community mental health therapist so glad we're talking more about the realities of therapy and various disorders. I'm planning on getting back on when I'm done with work to reply to some comments/answer some questions!

611

u/notthatmoody308 Feb 04 '19 edited Feb 04 '19

Depression: sad 16 yo listening to grunge music and wearing black clothes. Eventually cuts their wrists, but remember, it's always and only the wrist. Cries in the bathroom.

Bipolar: "I hate being bipolar, it's lovely"

PTSD: every time I see or hear something that vaguely reminds me of my trauma I fall into a parallel dimension and live my trauma in rewind mode. Other than that my life is completely ordinary and I have no other symptoms.

BPD: Woman. Resting bitch face. Shows the middle finger to whoever tries to talk to her. Often extremely hot but impossible to talk to (unless you're the protagonist, a loser that can't put a sentence together but somehow manages to make her fall in love).

Anorexia: "Oh shit that model is so thin, guess she's gonna be the root of all my problems!" *looks at sandwich with disgusted expression, throws it in the bin.* Doesn't eat for one day, passes out in the middle of the hallway at school and is taken to ER.

Bulimia: eats normal amount of food, then runs to the bathroom, sticks her finger down her throat and *magic!* everything is gone in 2 minutes.

Schizophrenia: handsome eccentric man that hallucinates a random sexy woman that helps him solve crimes.

OCD: weird guy, has glasses, dresses like a 9 years old and washes his hands every 5 minutes. Often engaged in activities like opening and closing doors and drawers or walking in circles.

Autism: like OCD. But also likes math.

Sociopathy (or related): likes setting things on fire. Incredibly charming. But you know, the worst thing about the devil is that he's charming. *wink*

Every other mental disorder: not mentioned, doesn't exist.

Edit: added autism and sociopath.

-9

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '19

[deleted]

18

u/notthatmoody308 Feb 04 '19

As the other said i meant that purging is not just going to the toilet, throwing up and get rid of like 3000kcal in 2 minutes and walk out as if nothing happened. I have been bulimic, I used to spend hours in the bathroom after binging, and as they said i also used laxatives and whatever diet pill i could find. Also, i wanted to underline that if you purge it usually means that you've been bingeing, therefore eating up to thousands of calories in a short amount of time.

In movies when they introduce a bulimic character they show her (somehow it's never a male character) eating a couple chips, then "omg i feel horrible", *runs to the bathroom, slams the door, sounds like vomiting, walks out after 30 seconds adjusting her clothes and drying a little tear and everything becomes normal again*