I do the same thing though. I really wish I understood myself half as well as I think I understand other people.

In the workplace it's especial dangerous; you can force someone to question why they don't like a job or feel isolated or bullied by convincing them their perception is really the problem.

It doesn't take much effort to convince someone who is upset by circumstance that they have a problem. "You're too sensitive" "you're depressed" "that person has an anxiety problem" when really the environment at the job might really be the problem or some basic coaching might be the solution.

I worked somewhere in which people openly admitted the company culture drove them to therapy yet were so "grateful" for an "open and inclusive" environment. The cognitive dissonance there was very disturbing.

This occurs in families as well. I grew up in an abusive household and, well damn, your parents will do their best to convince you that you are the crazy one and need help.

If the problems disappear slowly, it could have been the environment, but it also could be your personal growth. But if they disappear overnight...

Case in point, there's a range of responses to trauma. Having bad memories or occasional nightmares as a response to trauma is normal. PTSD is not normal. Less than half of people involved in severe traumas will have problems coping normally and fewer develop diagnosable PTSD.

I'm not psychologically trained, so take this with a grain of salt, but I've met exactly one person that I think was a narcissist. He was a jerk, but mostly because he was utterly baffled by any concept that didn't involve him in the center. It was an attribute completely separate from his confidence. I feel like it is really hard to explain if you haven't met someone like that - I was routinely gobsmacked by his reactions - every human interaction I'd had to date had not prepared me for it.

Meanwhile, I have tons of anxiety and often cover it up with false confidence, and our reactions to similar events were dramatically different.

The part that made me realized I was dealing with mentally diseased people is that they truly believe the crap they throw at you. Their lies become an undeniable truth as soon as they spell it out loud.

Primate dominance games.

If someone has a broken arm it’s observable and it’s pretty clear what the next step is.

With mental health diagnosis it’s not clear what the underlying issue is and at best you’ll be given something to supress symptoms.

We are doing a bit better on this with things like Psychedelics and Open Dialogue, but mental health is more of a context than a condition.

I can think of a few people I know who took one year of highschool psychology or once read a pop-sci book about it who like to tell people what the root cause of their behavior is. It's usually done as a dominance move.

Women who refused to sleep with husbands were routinely committed.

Capitalism is intense and is resulting in mental health issues for many people. The system doesn’t self critique rather it labels the people as “ill” and sells them a pill, at a profit of course.

The practitioners often benefit and reinforce the dynamics that create the symptoms in our culture.

Open Dialogue is an approach which does a great job at healing folks in the context of community.