Posted by Elizabeth on April 4, 2002, at 5:30:36
In reply to How did any of this happen???????, posted by andyboy on March 28, 2002, at 11:59:41
That's funny; I was wondering something similar. I posted a one-line response: I don't think it's appropriate to stereotype people. This is hardly a controversial position for me to take; I think most people would agree that stereotyping isn't appropriate. Yet you became very angry or upset.
People with mood and anxiety disorders are not especially "suggestible" or prone to believe whatever they are told. For that matter, there are plenty of "suggestible" people out there who aren't considered mentally ill. Nowhere in the definition of any mood or anxiety disorder is there anything that relates to suggestibility.
You were making a valid point, overall, in your post. But it was a point that hardly needs to be made here: as you will discover if you continue reading this board (and I hope you will; it's a valuable source of information and support), people here are liable to demand evidence for just about any claim made, and if someone posts something questionable, they can expect one or more counterarguments. You see, there's nothing about mood or anxiety disorders that causes us to be "suggestible" or prone to believe whatever we read. This thread provides a fine example of members of this group -- persons with mood and anxiety disorders, for the most part -- objecting to an unsupported (and false) statement that was posted (your claim about the supposed "suggestibility" of the mentally ill).
And no, adding "may be" wouldn't have made your remark any less of a stereotype: the implication would remain that people with mental illnesses are *more* likely to be "suggestible" than others are. This is both untrue and insulting. Please try to be more considerate in the future.
-elizabeth
poster:Elizabeth
thread:100080
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020402/msgs/101766.html