The fact that you have to mask something in a situation like that is the point, not the severity. You may mean well, but you’re gatekeeping mental health issues by saying “if you are still able to control yourself, you are not sick enough”. That is something that still prevents a lot of people from getting the help they need.
People with entirely normal urges think they are somehow divergent, because they see others act on urges and people make it clear that was “weird” for the urge to be acted out and mistake having the urge for being the “weird” thing rather than the expression.
I want to get up and walk around and listening to this person talking is a waste of my time. That’s a perfectly normal urge. The inability to either supress the urge, or the inability to recognize it as a problematic social interaction when it would be, that’s where problems come in.
The fact that you have to mask something in a situation like that is the point, not the severity. You may mean well, but you’re gatekeeping mental health issues by saying “if you are still able to control yourself, you are not sick enough”. That is something that still prevents a lot of people from getting the help they need.
There’s a balance to be struck.
People with entirely normal urges think they are somehow divergent, because they see others act on urges and people make it clear that was “weird” for the urge to be acted out and mistake having the urge for being the “weird” thing rather than the expression.
I want to get up and walk around and listening to this person talking is a waste of my time. That’s a perfectly normal urge. The inability to either supress the urge, or the inability to recognize it as a problematic social interaction when it would be, that’s where problems come in.