Why is emotional pain seen as lesser?

[cherry7]

I sent an email to the PPH website asking if they could make an exception for me to buy their book even though I don't qualify according to their minimum age requirement. They said since I have mental illness they cannot help me. They referred me to a suicide hotline. Why oh why is physical pain and suffering considered more legitimate than emotional? Why is one considered not of sound judgment just because they suffer emotionally but not considered so if they suffer physically? Why is the desire to CTB considered a "symptom" of "mental illness", rather than a legitimate response to the suffering mental illness brings. Why is it not considered a symptom of physical illness? It is absurd that it is considered a symptom just like high blood pressure is a symptom. Not reflective of a perfectly sound and logical response to pain, but merely a "symptom". As if the mind just conjures up the desire to die out of nowhere. Due to a "mental illness" that cannot actually be tested for or proven. It is laughable. It is beyond me. The people who have created these rules must not have ever experienced emotional distress is the only conclusion I can come to.

 

[divinemistress36]

Theres still a misconception that mental illness can be treated no matter what its really sad

 

[bFre3]

Broken bones are obvious. Blood pressure can be measured. Cancer can be found.

But mental illnesses are impossible to see. That's the hardest thing about it. Only you know what you're feeling and most other people won't be able to relate to you. It's a lonely fight. That's why I believe that people shouldn't just assume mental illnesses can be 'cured'. Sometimes, it just can't.

Giving up life due to physical illnesses are generally accepted. The same should go for mental illnesses.

 

[cherry7]

Theres still a misconception that mental illness can be treated no matter what its really sad

Yes, or that we have to be strong and it gets better. Or that we're not working or trying hard enough if we're still struggling.

 

[derpyderpins]

Well, I wouldn't be mad at PPH about that necessarily. Their hands are likely tied.

But it is very frustrating how emotional pain is . . . let's say "given less sympathy." I've talked about it on here before, but there are a few things at play. First, people have heard a lot of wrong phrases/rules. (eg as @divinemistress36 said that all mental illness can be treated.)

A lot of it, though, comes down to both the ugly side of human nature and the cruel position this life puts us in. It is one of competition. We want to see ourselves as better, and when we're not better, we want our excuse for failure to be better. Society encourages this because capability and productivity are so highly valued.

If person A and B both get cut: person A gets a small cut that heals quickly and person B gets a huge gash requiring a dozen stitches, person A must yield that person B suffered a worse injury which could account for worse performance. But, if it's mental pain, person A gets a benefit from saying "he's just weak," "it's not that bad," "he's exaggerating," "it's all in his head rather than being a real problem," etc., because then it appears person A is simply better. This will help person A's self-esteem as well as other's opinions of him. It's cruel, but person A is incentivized to take this stance. Yet, the pain is real, and it does hold person B back some amount. Multiply this by a billion and you have a world where the person A's have collectively - unintentionally - made social norms that disadvantage the person B's.

I hope that makes some sense. It sucks.

 

[cherry7]

Broken bones are obvious. Blood pressure can be measured. Cancer can be found.

But mental illnesses are impossible to see. That's the hardest thing about it. Only you know what you're feeling and most other people won't be able to relate to you. It's a lonely fight. That's why I believe that people shouldn't just assume mental illnesses can be 'cured'. Sometimes, it just can't.

Giving up life due to physical illnesses are generally accepted. The same should go for mental illnesses.

Yes exactly.

 

[Ihoujin]

It depends how empathetic an other human being is and even this may not be sufficient.

Be it physical or emotional pain you can't measure it. You could have a scale to measure it and it wouldn't matter. You could have some kind of simulator which would instill in you a certain feeling but it's impossible, isn't it?

Even if someone has high blood pressure you can't know how the other human being is experiencing it and how he or she reacts to it. How he or she 'is experiencing life' (feelings, sensations, vision, patterns of thinking, the inner voice, habits, desires, fears, preferences, physiology, etc. you get it) other than projecting your 'experience of life' onto them.

Either the feeling of pain is very similar in your experience and mine or the same feeling is experienced like a palette and has different 'tastes' to it.

It is like tasting sugar. Can you explain me what is it like? How does sugar taste? Sweet... What does it mean? You have to try.

So majority of people won't emphasize with you on emotional pain - a suffering or being suicidal or mentally ill. They've never experienced it like in the case with sugar - they've never tasted it... It's understandable and I wouldn't be mad at them. We all know the physical pain unless you have some kind of condition you can't.

 

[KuriGohan&Kamehameha]

Theres still a misconception that mental illness can be treated no matter what its really sad

The average person is just very far removed from the extreme/severe cases, especially in modern media as mental illness has become a hot-button topic, the portrayals are very stereotypical and digestible. People fear what they don't understand and anyone with an ailment related to the mind are an easy target because the average person may know some pop psychology tidbits but they aren't really interested in keeping up with cutting edge developments in neuroscience, so a lot of common beliefs about mental illness are rooted in outdated or deliberate misconceptions.

Many people have no idea what it's like to be institutionalised, to be told you're untreatable or viewed as a guinea pig, or feel like a leper of society. It's very common for depressive disorders for example to be portrayed as something people can fix after trialing out one or two different SSRIs, because that's a very hopeful narrative, and is true for a certain number of people. Yet, it is projected onto everyone. No one wants to believe that the treatment resistant case could happen to anyone through no fault of their own.

I was taught in my degree that SSRIs are not very effective but have a strong placebo effect due to the power of belief. And yet they are seen as the gold standard treatment for pretty much anything relating to mood disorders. Progress is very slow. I don't think the average person truly encounters how incompetent the mental health system can be if you have a more complicated case.

 

[locked*n*loaded]

I sent an email to the PPH website asking if they could make an exception for me to buy their book even though I don't qualify according to their minimum age requirement. They said since I have mental illness they cannot help me. They referred me to a suicide hotline. Why oh why is physical pain and suffering considered more legitimate than emotional? Why is one considered not of sound judgment just because they suffer emotionally but not considered so if they suffer physically? Why is the desire to CTB considered a "symptom" of "mental illness", rather than a legitimate response to the suffering mental illness brings. Why is it not considered a symptom of physical illness? It is absurd that it is considered a symptom just like high blood pressure is a symptom. Not reflective of a perfectly sound and logical response to pain, but merely a "symptom". As if the mind just conjures up the desire to die out of nowhere. Due to a "mental illness" that cannot actually be tested for or proven. It is laughable. It is beyond me. The people who have created these rules must not have ever experienced emotional distress is the only conclusion I can come to.

You can find, if you take the time to search for it, free digital copies of the PPH up to the 2023 edition. I didn't come across any 2024 editions, but highly doubt there is much difference.

 

[cherry7]

The average person is just very far removed from the extreme/severe cases, especially in modern media as mental illness has become a hot-button topic, the portrayals are very stereotypical and digestible. People fear what they don't understand and anyone with an ailment related to the mind are an easy target because the average person may know some pop psychology tidbits but they aren't really interested in keeping up with cutting edge developments in neuroscience, so a lot of common beliefs about mental illness are rooted in outdated or deliberate misconceptions.

Many people have no idea what it's like to be institutionalised, to be told you're untreatable or viewed as a guinea pig, or feel like a leper of society. It's very common for depressive disorders for example to be portrayed as something people can fix after trialing out one or two different SSRIs, because that's a very hopeful narrative, and is true for a certain number of people. Yet, it is projected onto everyone. No one wants to believe that the treatment resistant case could happen to anyone through no fault of their own.

I was taught in my degree that SSRIs are not very effective but have a strong placebo effect due to the power of belief. And yet they are seen as the gold standard treatment for pretty much anything relating to mood disorders. Progress is very slow. I don't think the average person truly encounters how incompetent the mental health system can be if you have a more complicated case.

Very well explained. Thank you.

You can find, if you take the time to search for it, free digital copies of the PPH up to the 2023 edition. I didn't come across any 2024 editions, but highly doubt there is much difference.

Thank you.

 

[LaVieEnRose]

Invisible physical pain doesn't garner much sympathy either. Empathy is incredibly predicated on the ability to recognize ourselves in someone else's experience and when that recognition isn't there because of the nature of the other person's problems, empathy begins to break down.

 

[Rosebud0924]

Unfortunately, mental illness is viewed as a weakness or some kind of moral failing by many people instead of an actual illness. I was even called "weak-minded" by my own brother. This coming from someone who smokes and drinks to manage life. People who have never dealt with it first hand are absolutely clueless.