YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

Oh my goodness, fifthsonata, that is an amazing story. I'm so sorry you're going through this. People are so amazingly stupid. When someone like this friend from high school encounters someone he could team up with, to then turn on that person... that is just so needlessly destructive to him and to ...

I figure it is better than complete isolation, which is my default condition. Well... I fear that if I smother people, then they'll abandon me, and then I'll feel that invalidation, and wind up with the complete isolation I'm trying to avoid, so I'm trying to modify my approach. I guess I'm looking...

But, cosmically, it seems like I would get good karma from "paying it forward" and giving people the attention that I would desire for myself. Me too dude!! I did this all my life! But, someone who's insights who I do trust told me not too terribly long ago that this comes across as "...

I feel extra lonely that I am not connecting with someone sitting right next to me, and usually they couldn't seem more disinterested. I think I'm now starting to get it, Cyanide. Can I ask you, do you have a time you can remember when you feel you really did truly connect with another person? Or, ...

I like the idea of volunteering, but the only thing that worries me is the use of the word "force." That word just makes me uncomfortable. Just for me, forcing something upon myself creates anxiety. And when I'm anxious, I don't think straight, and I don't do things well, and people can se...

MissingHiker wrote: That friend who my prosecuting attorney wants to put on the stand and try may really be my friend, who's also just a fallible human being, who made a mistake, and just forgot What if people really hate you? Are you going to go along with that? They shouldn't have a mandate at al...

I might be able to help with this, Cyanide. I don't have the skills to talk to people, either, and that is, and always will be painful because talking to people is the gateway for good healthy relationships, and if you can't talk to people, you won't get that closeness and that intimacy. Believe me,...

I love the hotel idea! FWIW, my vote is actually to live alone, though... IF you can manage it economically. I believe having a Fortress of Solitude is important. What about maybe living alone and, during times when you want people around, picking up a book or an e-reader and going to a coffee shop?...

Very true. Present reality does not have to be the way things are forever. It is possible as you evolve inward you will project new energy outward and people will become more receptive and open to you. Possibly. However it turns out, remember to remain forgiving and kind to yourself knowing you did ...

Stigglitz and Kayleigh, you are not alone. Stigglitz your story is exactly the same as mine, except for the partner part. I have anxiety and I think that repels people but everything else about being beat up and having peer problems growing up, I can absolutely relate to and identify with. M y life ...