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

Christina L (a pseudonym) shares about learning to stand up for herself after an abusive rehab therapist preyed on her as she was getting sober and the confusion of not knowing what he was doing was wrong. She shares about her dysfunctional family, being bullied by boys in middle school, binge eating, and always being the "good child" by never making waves (unlike her sister who got most of the attention through speaking up or getting in trouble) but also never learning how to talk to her parents about her struggles for fear of bringing more chaos into an already unstable home. She also talks about the difficulties in getting mental health treatment in her country, England.

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I'm really enjoying this episode. Nice to hear others have had the same experience of the NHS. It is making me a little wary of private therapy, I have always seen that as the 'holy grail' if I could afford private therapy. Just goes to show that can be as bad.

There was one thing that struck me tho. Paul seemed really shocked when she talked about bullying. Do you not have bullying in the states? What she described was the baseline for anybody growing up in the UK. I don't think I know a single person who didn't have minor bullying like that and most people had it much worse and for much longer periods of time. It's just a normal part fo school life here.