KuriGohan&Kamehameha
想死不能 - 想活不能
- Nov 23, 2020
- 1,508
Does anyone else really not like it when someone makes the argument that "the average person is happy, the average person doesn't suffer from xyz, etc" in an attempt to downplay someone else's unrelated disdain for life?
I am well aware the average person's experience is a far cry from mine. CFS only effects an estimated 1.2-1.3% of adults, so 99.7% of people are not suffering from this condition like I am. Another condition I have, chiari malformation which involves a structural defect of the brain, has been postulated to impact only 1 in 1000 individuals. The type of tumor I suffered from is estimated to occur in 1-14 individuals in a population of 100,000 per any given year. Recurrence of tumors in people who have surgery like I did is also super rare, yet guess what, it still happened to me!
It is also very rare for a person my age (24) to have chronic back pain and multiple areas of spinal degeneration, and yet I suffer from that too. So frankly, I don't give a shit what is "normal" or average because I am not living the normal or average life, and I suspect that is the case for many others here as well. Our experiences are not in line with the status quo and that's why they require a certain level of acknowledgement and delicacy, because it's much harder to be taken seriously when you're the odd one out. Of course, a person who has not had a normal, happy life, is going to be far more likely to display unhappiness or make statements that life is cruel, because our perception of life is based on our own personal experiences.
Whenever I speak to someone about my issues, especially my PTSD which I have had since 5/6 years old, they keep telling me PTSD is highly treatable and cite single studies of cohorts who didn't have SA related PTSD or who had one off traumatic events in adulthood rather than childhood. Even though this is not even remotely similar to my situation, and these studies still show significant amounts of patients who aren't helped by that particular talking therapy, people will use this as evidence of you not trying hard enough and not wanting to get better when that therapy doesn't work in your particular situation.
Yes, the average person probably doesn't experience what I do, but why is this relevant? If you keep focusing on the average person, you are still failing to capture a significant amount of people in the population in your assessment. And this focus on what is normal and what is simple rather than the complex cases is precisely why I think so many people are suffering.
I am well aware the average person's experience is a far cry from mine. CFS only effects an estimated 1.2-1.3% of adults, so 99.7% of people are not suffering from this condition like I am. Another condition I have, chiari malformation which involves a structural defect of the brain, has been postulated to impact only 1 in 1000 individuals. The type of tumor I suffered from is estimated to occur in 1-14 individuals in a population of 100,000 per any given year. Recurrence of tumors in people who have surgery like I did is also super rare, yet guess what, it still happened to me!
It is also very rare for a person my age (24) to have chronic back pain and multiple areas of spinal degeneration, and yet I suffer from that too. So frankly, I don't give a shit what is "normal" or average because I am not living the normal or average life, and I suspect that is the case for many others here as well. Our experiences are not in line with the status quo and that's why they require a certain level of acknowledgement and delicacy, because it's much harder to be taken seriously when you're the odd one out. Of course, a person who has not had a normal, happy life, is going to be far more likely to display unhappiness or make statements that life is cruel, because our perception of life is based on our own personal experiences.
Whenever I speak to someone about my issues, especially my PTSD which I have had since 5/6 years old, they keep telling me PTSD is highly treatable and cite single studies of cohorts who didn't have SA related PTSD or who had one off traumatic events in adulthood rather than childhood. Even though this is not even remotely similar to my situation, and these studies still show significant amounts of patients who aren't helped by that particular talking therapy, people will use this as evidence of you not trying hard enough and not wanting to get better when that therapy doesn't work in your particular situation.
Yes, the average person probably doesn't experience what I do, but why is this relevant? If you keep focusing on the average person, you are still failing to capture a significant amount of people in the population in your assessment. And this focus on what is normal and what is simple rather than the complex cases is precisely why I think so many people are suffering.
