Anonymous OP 3w

Getting a diagnosis can be rough. On the one hand, you know the answer. On the other, it starts to feel too real, or even surreal

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Anonymous OP 3w

It’s ok to have complicated or conflicting feelings about it

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Anonymous #1 3w

I know it’s wrong but I feel gross when other people eat around me too.

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Anonymous OP 3w

Disorder is disorder unfortunately, you don’t have to feel wrong for it. I’m no expert but I really think our society causes many people to have damaged relationships with food :/ but what matters is that you do the work to care for yourself and move toward right relationship with yourself and others

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Anonymous #1 3w

And by that I mean that (in my opinion) there is no right or wrong when it comes to disordered thoughts, what matters is that you work towards healing yourself to prevent harm toward yourself and others. Our automatic thoughts are not fully under our control nor are they fully our own, because they’re an amalgamation of ourselves and external voices. What is ours, and what matters most, is how we choose to intentionally respond

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Anonymous #1 3w

Thank you, I’ve been struggling with this for years and I’m finally getting help but it’s so hard to not criticize everything about myself

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Anonymous OP 3w

It really is hard to unlearn the self-criticism. But your work will pay off, it’s so worth it to weaken its grip. What helped me personally (and I have a different set of challenges so mileage may vary) is learning about how our culture instills these values and tendencies into us. This might sound corny, but it’s deeply connected to systems like capitalism and our education system, which want us to be this way so we will be good little worker bees

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Anonymous #1 3w

Knowing this helps me be nicer to myself out of sheer spite lol

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Anonymous OP 3w

A related fact that has stuck with me for a long time is that in some African countries, schizophrenic people tend to have positive and friendly voices and hallucinations, whereas in the US they tend to have threatening, demeaning, and scary voices/hallucinations. This makes me wonder if our culture is putting negative self-talk DEEP into our psyches, and if that’s the case, it’s not intrinsic and can be undone with work and support

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Anonymous #1 3w

https://www.bps.org.uk/research-digest/voices-heard-people-schizophrenia-are-friendlier-india-and-africa-us

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