Does anybody else have this hesitation?

[HereSince1628]

7. There's also no prohibition on advocacy, either...

Within MHSG, there is some expectation that participants practice, according to their individual abilities, empathy.

Out in the forums few of those using stigmatizing language or advocating policies like national registries of Wayne La Pierres' 'lunatics' are practicing empathy and damned few have any depth of knowledge of psychology or mental illness.

I suppose that's part of why those forums can be so arousing...few show concern for our/my sensitivities. But, I suspect another part of why those forums can be so arousing is not actually out there in the forums, but rather it is within me/us.

Having a disorder is problematic all by itself. Additionally, there are the issues of adjusting and accepting having such a diagnosis applied to my/our behaviors and emotions--things I/we see as intimate expressions of self.

Maybe those of us who have a need to be out in the forums fighting stigma are doing it as a vicarious fight against our own fearful beliefs?

Maybe all those usernames posting uninformed, stigmatizing bullshit are just surrogates for 'me'.

Who can say?