@IronLemon The way my friend who swears by it describes the book, Highly Sensitive People are sensitive to energies within the room, find it incredibly draining to be around people who are feeling strong emotions, are overwhelmed by crowds, etc. (Basically, they sense and experience the energies of others, whether they know them or not.)
This is not how I feel or what I experience, at all, and sounds more metaphysical or spiritual. (If this isn't accurate to the book, no worries, I'm just quoting my friend's take and experience, since they're a self-described HSP.) I am curious to read the book, either way - it's been on my list for a few years.
What I experience is only with a few people I am very close to, and there's nothing "energetic"/spiritual about it, it's old-fashioned sympathy and empathy, just on a painfully intense level. I only know what they're feeling because they tell me - there's no "sensing" (or, as the book highlight mentions, "just knowing").
~ Sunset Snuggles
🫂 Enthusiast 🌄 Travel Junkie 📸 Shutter Bug
@SunsetSnuggles I learned HSP as something different. I learned that an HSP is more sensitive both physically and emotionally. They're a lot more likely to pick up on other people's emotions, and they feel things a lot more strongly.
This article looks good, and doubtless explains it better (and more accurately) than I could. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/highly-sensitive-person
@CuddleDuncan
“That is a horrible, horrible lie. What a dismissive and appalling thing to say. Please don't say it ever again.”
First of all, you don’t get to dictate what I can and can’t say.
Second of all, what I said is in fact true, and anyone here is lying, it's you.
“You guys are seriously suggesting that people who have been through horrific experiences and can barely survive in life, would be much better if they just ate a few more apples and cut down on the burgers.”
Yikes! What an ignorant strawman. No, simply cleaning up one's diet does not heal trauma from horrific experiences!!! No one ever claimed that. I would know, as one that suffers from CPTSD myself. And neither does medication. Medication only masks the symptoms.
If you want to go on medication, by all means, no one is stopping you. But it shouldn't be the only realistic option for the average person, as it is in our current system.
Moreover, it’s important to understand that we live in a slave system.
The system is designed to actively PREVENT the majority of people from thriving.
The system is designed to keep the vast bulk of the population in constant survival mode, just barely functional enough to be good, useful, obedient slaves for the benefit of the billionaire class, while preventing all but a few from truly thriving, physically and mentally, to where they can live their lives to the fullest and achieve their dreams. The system is very much intentionally designed to oppress the average person.
Most people that require psych meds only need them because the system is not designed to support genuine human health, but instead designed to create a sick, miserable, and depressed population. We have a sick care model, and we lack a proper health care system.
The bottom line is psych meds are AT BEST a necessary evil. They are vastly overprescribed due to massive corruption all around: corruption in the medical establishment, and corruption in the government. When I say government, I don't just mean the state itself, but also the corporations, which are the real government.
Psych meds should rarely, if ever, be a PERMANENT solution. If we had a non-corrupt system, psych meds would at most be a LAST RESORT, or a temporary "band-aid," while striving to address the root problem.
Psych meds do, in some cases, alleviate severe symptoms. It is true that as things currently stand, if all psych meds were to suddenly disappear, chaos would erupt.
But what psych meds DON'T do, and can NEVER do, is address the root cause. They only treat the symptoms.
The whole concept of "mental illness" is reductionist in nature. Depression, anxiety, even more serious mental illnesses such as various forms of psychosis, are always symptoms of deeper issues. They are never the core issue. I believe there is no such thing as strictly "mental" illness. Mental illness is, in fact, a physical illness at its core, because the mind is not separate from the body, but rather, integrated with every other part of the body. Most mental illnesses have their roots in nutritional deficiency, toxic exposure, environmental factors, and yes, trauma. Trauma is always stored in the body, not strictly in the mind. However, psych meds strictly alter brain chemistry, which is not the core issue, therefore, they cannot actually fix the problem! Psych meds are inherently reductionist, and they are NOT a treatment for trauma (or anything else)! They are nothing more than a band-aid that fails to address the underlying issues.
Speaking of trauma, there are numerous modalities of holistic treatment for stored trauma resulting in physical and mental illness. The problem is not that they don't exist; the problem is that they are largely unavailable or unaffordable to the average person, and only toxic medications are widely available.
If we had an honest medical system, the focus would be on getting to the root and not merely addressing the symptoms.
If we're being honest, all pharma meds, including psych meds, are toxic and detrimental to human health. Therefore, the end goal should be to get as many people as possible OFF of meds; to restore FULL HEALTH to as many people as possible so that they are no longer dependent on meds. But then, the reigning corporations wouldn't be making much of a profit, now, would they? A healthy population doesn't line the pockets of the corporate giants, only a sick population will do that.
Unfortunately, due to massive fraud and corruption, most people can't afford genuine health care. There's a reason it's not covered by insurance: it's not in the financial interests of the corporate establishment. Genuine, honest, health care, rather than sick care, is relegated to the status of "alternative medicine," when it should be mainstream medicine, and is therefore largely unavailable or unaffordable to the average person. And the result is a sick, miserable, and depressed society. And this is exactly what the corporate mafia wants.
As a side note, it's far more than just the medical establishment; it's everything. The corporate criminals are actively poisoning people by tainting the food and water supply, and even the air we breathe. Even one-ingredient foods such as apples are tainted by toxic chemicals and other factors. Basically, everything from the grocery store is tainted in one way or another. This includes Whole Foods and other "health food" stores. So, most people don't have access to food that isn't tainted, most people don't have access to clean water, most people don't have access to clean air, most people don't have access to honest medicine. And we wonder why so many people need psych meds (and meds in general) just to survive.
I don't advocate immediately getting rid of the majority of psych meds. I advocate gradually phasing them out as we transition to an honest, non-corrupt system. But alas, that won't happen, because money talks, and the powers that be won't allow it.
Phasing out my medication would be a dangerous game bud, and I would make the world pay and suffer the consequences for taking it away from me! How dare anyone think they know better than someone who actually has one of these diagnoses!!!!!!
@Eliezer
Don’t strawman me. I never said we would take everyone’s medication away.
I said “alternative medicine” should not be relegated to the status of “alternative,” and it should be available to the general population, either for free or at an affordable price. It shouldn’t only be available to the wealthy, as it is in the current system. I believe most people would not require psych meds, at least not on a longterm basis, if we didn’t have a medical system that was dominated by the corporate oligarchs.
@SunriseSnuggles Okay, that's reasonable, as long as nobody's meds are taken off the market, because we will end up buying them whether they are on the black market or not.
@SunriseSnuggles I only skimmed your wall of text. But I agree entirely with @CuddleDuncan and @Eliezer. Your views, in addition to being false, are blatantly harmful to people who need psychiatric medication. Your alternative of fixing the world is a good ideal but highly unrealistic. And it completely fails to take into account that sometimes neurochemistry is just permanently fucked.