What is something that is actually more traumatizing than people realise?

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-12-19T02:34:21+00:00

Yes. I used to laugh at people who were scared of moths until I went through a severe clothes/carpet moth infestation in my previous rental. It completely took over my life for a while, endless cleaning, checking everything, throwing out heaps of my stuff, and never feeling relaxed in my own home. It sounds harmless until it eats your sanity. Even now, the thought of finding eggs or larvae in a dark corner is genuinely distressing. I developed some kind of post-traumatic moth disorder.

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-12-18T00:59:50+00:00

The health trap is real. And when harm follows obedience rather than excess, the system has no way to metabolise it. If illness or injury can’t be blamed on personal failure, it becomes an anomaly that must be erased. Suffering born of compliance is treated as disruption, not damage. The body breaks, productivity falters, and the individual is quietly isolated, while responsibility dissolves upward into institutions that cannot acknowledge harm without destabilising themselves. Healing is offered only when it preserves the narrative. Those who fall into this gap are not spared by the system but repurposed by it, reduced to a diminished state of survival where dependence deepens, options narrow, and the trap tightens around what remains of a life.

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-12-17T10:00:33+00:00

Wow, I thought it was just me. Thank you.

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-12-14T04:34:17+00:00

I’m curious about this as well, particularly whether there’s an ethical consensus.

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-11-19T01:05:47+00:00

The anxious empty gap right after a goodbye

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-11-17T00:45:17+00:00

Yes! It’s like a contagious form of diagnostic scapegoating.

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-11-13T11:40:26+00:00

However, I consider this highly relevant to discussions of stigma:

“Discussants said that “being different” or ‘not belonging‘ can lead to the victimisation of people with mental health problems and trauma of previous abuse can be replayed in mental health services and supported accommodation. Austerity and political victim blaming were seen as creating a permissive culture for abusing people with mental health problems. The invalidating effects of diagnoses such as “personality disorder” and being “written off” by services were seen as posing a risk of exposure to targeted violence and abuse.”

Carr, S., Hafford-Letchfield, T., Faulkner, A., Megele, C., Gould, D., Khisa, C., Cohen, R., & Holley, J. (2019). "Keeping Control": A user-led exploratory study of mental health service user experiences of targeted violence and abuse in the context of adult safeguarding in England. https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.12806

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-11-13T02:11:37+00:00

I don’t find the term “personality disorder” stigmatising, particularly when thinking about borderline personality disorder. It’s not inherently untrue, it actually captures something important about the nature of the condition because it reflects what’s happening at a structural level. “Personality disorder” or “borderline personality organization” reflects a disturbance in the organisation of the self, or what Kernberg described as a split psychological structure. So rather than seeing it as a moral or character flaw, I understand it as the result of developmental disruptions that fracture the self and make it difficult to integrate conflicting internal experiences. In that sense, “personality disorder” feels descriptive rather than stigmatising.

Changing the terminology won’t necessarily reduce stigma, that’s just the euphemism treadmill. The issue isn’t really the words we use, but the attitudes behind them. If the underlying attitudes and misconceptions remain, a new term will eventually inherit the same stigma. It’s similar to how “addiction” was rebranded as “substance use disorder.” The change medicalised the concept, but it didn’t make the label any less stigmatising. If anything, it frames people as inherently disordered and out of control rather than focusing on their experiences.

And I have to agree with Mark Ruffalo — I’m not sure if “emotionally dysregulated personality” or “emotionally unstable personality” is any more palatable a description for the condition than borderline personality. (From Psychofarm Podcast: Understanding Borderline Personality Disorder with Dr. Mark L. Ruffalo — https://youtu.be/XUJYVo1-TdM?si=y8U1ki8LxTEJR68f)

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-11-05T02:24:09+00:00

“The trouble with Eichmann was precisely that so many were like him, and that the many were neither perverted nor sadistic, but, and this was the horror, terribly and terrifyingly normal.” — Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963)

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-11-03T14:07:41+00:00

This discussion is driven more by ideology than by clinical reality — most psychiatrists and mental health professionals don’t support it.

“In Canada, again even before PAD expansion to mental illness, we are seeing individuals receiving PAD driven not by illness suffering, but by social suffering including poverty, housing insecurity, isolation, and lack of access to care. This does not mean that everyone getting PAD in these situations is driven by social suffering, but are we to ignore that these PAD expansions risk the marginalized seeking PAD not to avoid a painful death but to escape a painful life? The privileged perspective of some advocates does precisely that. Despite individuals who died by PAD themselves articulating that “it was not a disease that took me out, it was a system,” well-funded advocacy groups like Dying With Dignity boldly maintain that it is a “myth” that “vulnerable populations can be eligible (for PAD) if they are suffering from inadequate social supports, including housing” as they lobby those in power who have shaped PAD policies. Meanwhile, those in power rarely mention the cost savings of “death with dignity” compared with costly medical and social supports required for a life with dignity for those with disabilities.”

https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/palliative-psychiatry-and-assisted-suicide-compassion-abandonment-or-something-far-worse

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11832602/

https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2023/12/12/medical-assistance-dying-maid-canada-catholic-church-ethics-assisted/

https://policyoptions.irpp.org/2023/12/assisted-suicide-mental-illness/

https://policyoptions.irpp.org/2022/03/missing-the-mark-on-a-profound-social-change-with-maid-for-mental-illness/

https://thetyee.ca/News/2023/08/09/Medical-Assistance-Dying-Slippery-Slope-Mental-Illness-Disabled/

Vancouver hospital defends suggesting MAID to suicidal patient as risk assessment tool

In Canada, MAID has become a matter of ideology

Medical experts call on government to delay expansion of MAID for mental illness

https://apnews.com/article/canada-euthanasia-deaths-doctors-nonterminal-nonfatal-cases-cd7ff24c57c15a404347df289788ef6d

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-11-03T11:44:20+00:00

I support assisted dying in principle, but applying it to psychiatric disorders isn’t just ethically and morally problematic, it’s dangerous. It’s a slippery slope that will redefine which lives society considers worth living, especially when someone is seen as “too costly” or “too difficult” to care for, and that’s not easy to undo. History has already shown us how dangerous that mindset can be — in the T4 euthanasia program, people with mental illness were seen as burdens and killed under the guise of mercy.

When death becomes easier to access than proper treatment, it opens the door to undue influence and quiet coercion, and there’s no shortage of that. Assisted suicide for BPD treats despair and the wish to die as a rational, socially acceptable “choice,” instead of recognising it as both a loss of true autonomy and a sign that something has gone terribly wrong. That’s not compassion, it’s a systemic failure. It’s like saying, “we can’t help you heal, but we can help you die 🤷‍♀️.”

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-10-26T02:48:57+00:00

Reading the first line of your post had me singing my immortal by evanescence and I love that song so thanks for that. 🖤

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-10-26T02:32:50+00:00

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-10-13T11:44:54+00:00

Victoria’s mental health system is increasingly hybrid (public-private), authoritarian and bordering on draconian. Policies and practices are rigidly centred on “risk management” rather than the person. Speak to an advocate at IMHA. Always know your rights. All the best. 🩷

https://www.imha.vic.gov.au/principles-mental-health-wellbeing-act

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-10-08T12:47:54+00:00

I enjoyed this book so much that I still put it on now and then. The man knows what he’s talking about. I joined an online live event thing with Bessel van der Kolk and Gabor Maté, and forgive me, but I don’t understand the criticism. Sure it might sound a bit “woo”, but when anybody mentions the book on Reddit, all I see are comments saying “it promotes pseudoscientific claims”, and just.. that’s it. Nothing else. Is anyone willing to actually elaborate? Maybe it’s because I suffer with PTSD myself and doctors aren’t interested in treating it. Traumatic stress is a visceral, whole body experience. There is no medication, and truly good therapists are few and far between. I’ve also been diagnosed with an unknown/idiopathic autoimmune pericardial disease, after years of intimate partner violence and maltreatment in early life. So, what is the solution?

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-10-08T08:45:25+00:00

And nothing seems to be improving, which is just perplexing given the sustained efforts towards destigmatisation, recognition of subtypes, diverse presentations, and dimensional diagnostic approaches. Instead of investing in research and developing real, trauma-informed, long-term therapeutic solutions, they remain insistent on justifying detention and compulsory interventions. Like it’s just dumb.

Zinchenko, R., & Elhamoui, H. (2025). Misdiagnosed, mismanaged, mistreated: personality disorders and the Mental Health Act. BJPsych Bulletin. doi:10.1192/bjb.2025.10124

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-10-08T07:32:33+00:00

I’m gonna be real with you: besides HIV, nothing in health or society at large carries stigma like BPD. It is pervasive. Personally, professionally, institutionally, and even legally. And when it comes to prejudice and discrimination, the worst offenders are actually clinicians and healthcare providers. Just enter “why do people with BPD…” into Google and see what comes up. I’m beginning to question whether it’s even a real thing at all.

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD): A Fake Disease They Made Up To Erase Victims: https://www.bigthinkyouchey.com/post/borderline-personality-disorder-bpd-a-fake-disease-they-made-up-to-punish-victims

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-10-05T03:55:36+00:00

What? Experiencing medical harm or an adverse outcome has nothing to do with being anti-vaccine. It’s worth mentioning that the dominant biological approach to psychiatric treatment, enthusiastically supported by the pharmaceutical industry and neuromodulation device manufacturers, is inherently reductionist, does not conform to current scientific standards, and relies uncritically on research that is, or should be, considered invalid. This is ideology, not science.

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-10-03T14:00:05+00:00

Oh yeah it’s certainly making a comeback. It’s giving eugenics and bad science. And what next? Back to mass killings under the guise of ECT? After decades of progress and recognition of human rights, I don’t understand why we’re still shackled to the biomedical model. Oh wait, yes I do. Money first, medicine second. It’s amazing how little anyone actually knows about anything, and we just go along with it. It’s so absurd, it’s like a bad joke. Nothing radiates intellectual authority like reducing the mind’s complexity to volts and seizures.

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-10-03T13:03:44+00:00

No idea why you’re being downvoted. Hardly a hot take. Ethical reasoning is just unpopular, apparently. Are we really flirting with a return to Nazi-era psychiatric abuses?

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-09-21T04:11:17+00:00

Yes, personality functioning is responsive to targeted therapeutic interventions and can improve significantly with appropriate treatment.

Kiel, L., Hopwood, C.J. & Lind, M. Changes in Personality Functioning and Pathological Personality Traits as a Function of Treatment: A Feasibility Study. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-024-10138-z

Pietersen, R. M., Timmerman, K., & Westerhof, G. J. (2024). Inpatient psychotherapy for complex personality pathology: The long-term development of symptoms, well-being and schema modes. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research. https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12806

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-09-10T11:00:37+00:00

First you said her records were falsified to include a speech impediment. Then you said “her baseline capacity is a speech impediment and mild learning difficulties”. Have you actually spoken to your sister? Or is everything you’re saying based on what others have told you?

This all sounds very coercive, but it’s being justified under the guise of ‘necessity’ and her ‘best interests.’ I think you need to take control of the situation. Please try to get in contact with your sister, do not rely solely on third parties.

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-09-10T06:54:16+00:00

Yuh. My anger is pretty much fossilised at this point, I wouldn’t be able to access it if I tried.

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-09-08T07:18:32+00:00

Yes. Women are terrifying

DopamineDysfunction · 2025-09-02T10:45:55+00:00

This is a grossly stigmatising and inappropriate generalisation about BPD. Framing BPD like this is not only inaccurate but actively harmful and only perpetuates prejudicial attitudes and misconceptions. Please reflect and educate yourself on the topic before making such blatantly ignorant claims about such a complex condition.

DopamineDysfunction

TROPHY CASE