I don't know, maybe triggered is too dramatic a word. Preface: I have clinically diagnosed depression and anxiety that I've been on meds for for about 6 or 7 years. I've had suicidal ideation a lot in my life and have been so low I thought I'd never feel anything again. Medication helped me get back to a more capable plateau and get out of the numb fog and crippling sorrow that tainted my thoughts. SO ANYWAY, I'm on Plurk, which is another social media thing, and someone on there has been using the anon feature to anonymously talk about how depressed and miserable they are. The first time it happened, I was flippant about my advice, because being glib about shitty things is how I deal with them. It was...not appreciated. By the time I came back to the plurk, it was deleted, and another one popped up full of self righteous indignation that anyone would DARE suggest medication. So...alright. Whatever, dude. Time passes and more plurks pop up now and again, the same anon, bemoaning their sad fate because they refuse to go on medication or go to therapy, and for a long time, no one replies to these plurks, like, at all. They go ignored. I feel bad, because I have been there. Today another one popped up and me and some other anon (the whole chat/thread is turned anonymous when the anon feature is picked) try to talk to them and I just...I had to know. Why can't they do either option of medication or therapy? The answer, as it turns out: medication is brainwashing and therapists don't have the right to know anon's secret, special thoughts. And I'm trying to talk to them without being frustrated, because at the whiff of someone being just a bit harsh, they will delete and go off into the ether again. I try to engage. Why do you think medication is brainwashing? "They alter perception and change brain chemistry." Sometimes brain chemistry is broken and needs to be changed. "I like who I am." But you're unhappy and miserable. "I know, I just don't want that option." Fair enough. So what's wrong with therapy? "I don't even talk to my family or friends, I'm not going to talk to some stranger that's paid to care." A therapist isn't paid to care, they're paid to help you. But they just kept dodging or refusing outright and I'm sitting here, shaking from adrenaline for some bizarre reason, and finally I told them point blank that the way things were right now was not helping them in any way, shape or form, and they couldn't get out of this by themselves. That they needed to take the help apparently two doctors have tried to suggest. ...annnnd the plurk was deleted and I'm left with this shaky, queasy feeling and this flight-or-fight adrenaline and it's weird, because I've never reacted to a stranger's problems this intensely before. I am clearly way too invested or taking this too personally or something. So basically the point of this ramble is sometimes trying to help other people based on your own personal experience with mental illness gets you worked up and wow, that is a lesson I just learned.
Right on cue, there's another anon plurk hours later, talking about how they want to cut ties from everyone online after what happened this morning, and maybe "disappear completely" offline as well. I'm not going to engage since I have nothing to say that they want to hear or would listen to. Whoever they are, I hope they find a way to get help. I really, really do.
You can't help people who dont want to be helped. Its as simple and infuriating as that. Can you block them/block anons? / knows nothing about plurk
Alas, no. You can only see someone's anon plurk if you have them friended, though. So it's someone I have on my friend's list, which kind of sucks considering they think I'm being brainwashed by my own medication. Ah, well. I'll just try and ignore it unless I can come up with something new to offer.
It's...tempting, I admit. But it also only happens like once a month, I don't presently feel like boundaries are being violated when I'm the one choosing to engage and drama fallout sounds exhausting since we apparently have mutual friends. I'm not upset enough at this point in time to make a request to unfriend me, but it's something I'll consider if I keep feeling this worked up about it. Thank you, though. I appreciate where you're coming from, I really do.
