this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2025
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me_irl
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How is it "mentally ill" to converse with yourself?
It's not and I've been telling myself that for years.
The idea is not that the conversation is illness, but that one might 'hear' what was said by the objectified self inside their head and recognize it as the sort of thing they'd more easily recognise as a sign of mental illness if said by someone else.
right, that's evident from the OP image. I'm asking why they'd "recognize it as the sort of thing they'd more easily recognise as a sign of mental illness if said by someone else"
Ah. Okay then. Sometimes looking at yourself from the perspective of the other can help you see things that are more visible from outside.
For example: you could 'hear' yourself make a joke in your head about not wanting to go home and, because you have the perspective granted by being both the joker and the listener, you might be able to read that as the sort of joke someone might make when in an abusive relationship. Same goes for a joke about suicide, paranoiac explanations, etc. Finding a way to give yourself enough emotional distance from your own thoughts to judge them objectively is actually a part of certain styles of therapy. OP is essentially describing a certain kind of epiphany that can come from introspection, whether alone or guided by a therapist.
gotcha.. sorry I don't know why I got fighty