Are there a lot of conservatives on mental health boards?

[Locut0s]

I've frequented several mental health boards and chat rooms over the last year or two and while there is generally a very supportive, loving atmosphere I'm continually surprised at what happens if the discussion is allowed to get too off-topic. Particularly if politics is brought up I'm stunned at how many conservatives, racists etc there are on these boards. Somehow I guess I thought that those suffering with depression and anxiety would tend to be more liberal. Guess it's a stupid thing to assume

[libodem]

1. Wonder if they are plants

It seems counter intuitive that conservatives would admit to any deficit in their personality and even less realistic they would seek advice. My guess would be gun nuts building a case to blame mental illness for domestic massacres and not assault weapons. Just a guess.

[get the red out]

2. Don't know about mental health boards

But from my experience, there are large numbers of extreme right wingers on alcohol/drug recovery forums. There was one network a friend told me about, but when I joined it everyone was so tea-bagger-esque I didn't post but a few times. It was nauseating.

I have a theory, though it is hardly scientific; when a person has a problem that makes them feel less than others, due to society's judgement or the media, I think they sometimes go the angry conservative route because then they can point to "others" that are causing all the world's problems and it allows them to feel better about themselves. Of course they would do better to work on their own inner being and self-esteem along with working toward getting well, but I think this might be a short-cut some people take. They also get to feel part of a group that believes it is superior to many if not most people in this country.

[Locut0s]

3. Actually I think there ARE studies that back up that theory of yours...

At least there certainly are studies that show that conservatism often arises from a knee jerk fear / hate reaction to something.

[hunter]

4. Paranoia seeks a target. I've got personal experience with that.

It could be space aliens, it could be anything. Racism and homophobia are socially sanctioned in some families and communities and that's what the paranoia latches onto. Look at Bobby Fischer. World champion chess player, but anti-semitic lunatic.

I grew up in an environment where people of other races, religions, homosexuals, sexually indeterminate people, even extremely eccentric people who smelled funny were all unconditionally accepted. My grandma could top anyone on crazy and my parents let her live with us. They didn't even require she bathe more than a couple of times a year.

So there's a stranger in the kitchen frying bacon in the middle of the night, he looks sort of like Elton John, especially the outlandish glasses and shoes, and he's not wearing pants. Well, okay. The half-dozen family dogs seem all right with him so he's probably not dangerous. Go back to bed.

The targets of paranoia in my own untreated state are a little less common. Doctors and needles are one, and getting my hair cut is another. In my screaming worst paranoid OCD state I have to keep the invisible umbilical cord that attaches me to this world untangled. For every clockwise rotation there has to be a counter-clockwise rotation. If the count gets too unbalanced I get extremely anxious. It's an OCD counting disorder, I count the twists. If I'm too long on the merry-go-round it becomes really obvious that I'm untwisting myself afterwards, and Hunter's reputation as a very weird kid increases.

[olddots]

5. most wingers have some form of persicution complex

Going on a mental health board where there was no way to know who might be there scares me .