Man, I had just about the worst conversation about my emotional problems that I probably ever could have hoped to have. It pretty much boiled down to a combination of "it's all in your head so you have 100% control over the way you feel", "you're selfish/starving children in Africa so your problems are invalid", and "this is a test from God and you need to trust him more". I know that I have some character flaws, but I'm getting pretty demoralized by the fact that I can only seem to get criticism in the guise of advice. I sure as hell don't want to be coddled, but I'd at least like a little recognition from the people in my life that I have a real problem, that I am actively trying to combat it, and that I'm not just faking "real" illness for pity and to avoid responsibility.
Really, how do you explain being cognizant that you have behavioral issues while simultaneously feeling that you're at the mercy of these thoughts and impulses? To someone without these issues I can imagine that it seems to be a very simple issue of "state of mind" or "mind over matter" or whatnot, so now I honestly don't know whether or not I'm just bad at articulating why simply being "conscious" that I have a problem isn't enough for me to be able to solve it or if everyone is right and I'm just making excuses. I'm not saying the following to bait people into responding with "no, that's not true!", but I honestly wonder sometimes now if I really am just a terrible person who enjoys wallowing in my own sadness more than living like a normal person. Surely what everyone in my life thinks of me can't be wrong.
The bolded statement I feel is something I go through in depression as well.
I'm scared some day that I will realize; I'm just a crummy person that just wants to stay in her own sadness and my boyfriend, friends and family will realize this and abandon me.
But again, it's your issues talking, not you who you really are.
I think the people saying that to you just don't get how a person that has behavioral issues have to deal with problems.
You are under behavioral issues + reality issues and a combination of the two just makes things much worse.
For instance, a recent example, I had an issue with something I said to someone.
Not going to detail what I said, however, what I said to them there could have been real consequences.
Me having some anxiety issues, I blew this up in my head much worse and made me panic the whole day.
A person who doesn't understand will just tell me to get over it when that's just deeply insulting since it was a genuine issue to me.
If they did understand, probably question why it made me nervous and get to the root cause of it.
There's a big difference if a person understands or not; it greatly can affect how feedback can be.
Is the person who's telling you all those statements your sister again?
I hope I'm not trying to coddle you as you said, but I think one of the toughest thing with family and friends is trying to get the other party to realize you have issues.
It's not as easy sometimes, even if you tell them face front.
They just won't accept it sometimes.
For instance, I know with my family and friends it takes a ton of effort to get them to realize that I have issues and to this day, my mother does not believe I'm depressed even *after* she talked to my previous therapist.
Always they think I'm not depressed and I'm just being a brat.
What's been helping from me with experience, is slowly telling my mother the truth of my issues and letting her see the reality of my emotions on the issue. So far I've been starting off small and telling her issues about my depression, but nothing as severe (may not apply to you, but for example telling her I'm uncomfortable/nervous about a test or a person; but nothing life altering). It's been working for now and I'm hoping she's starting to realize this stuff is out of my control for the most part. Point is I think it's just exposure but in small amounts at a time to make someone else realize the reality.
I'm sorry I'm not giving good advice. However I do hope something helps.