They were wrong - high school psychology class and suicide

[Deleted member 18655]

I was in high school in the 80s. I've been thinking lately about my teen years. I remember sitting in my "Man in Society" class, mortified almost every class because I was such a head case; I was afraid all eyes were on the Suicidal Anorexic with the Attention-seeking clothes and hair. They were wrong about two things that stick out these days:

• Eating disorders are not only for young ballerinas (they can last decades and decades)
• Suicidal females are not more apt to only want attention and stick to pills and slitting wrists.

According to what was taught back then, my eating disorder should have faded away in my 20s and the methods I've researched are drastic enough for men only. And no one could know that my blue hair and weird clothes masked many talents. Research does change things but common sense was never an option. It has nothing to do with how I ended up and I guess there really is no point to this post other than nostalgia.

Or pride in myself for being crazier longer and harder than was statistically expected.

 

[Lost in a Dream]

When I read the title and decided to read the post, I was thinking, "No surprise there!" Most psychology classes are taught by people with a pro-life bias, who probably think that suicide is irrational and only people with something severely wrong with them would ever think about it. They also tried to put people with eating disorders into convenient little boxes so they could pat themselves on the back for being educated (at least it seems that was the case).

I've never taken a psychology class since my school never had one, but it would have been interesting to see how well I fit into their convenient boxes if I could have taken one. It was no secret that I had issues since I didn't hide it very well, but it's still nice to remember the old days when I was "that crazy kid". Isn't nostalgia great?