I think one of the benefits of mental illness is it makes a person incredibly empathetic and in tune with other people's pain. Being in such a dark place and succeeding in getting into the light makes you want to save everyone from ever having to relate your experiences.
It is still hard to be this honest and open. To put your full name on something like this. I respect the hell out of you and we share a disorder, thank you for your post.
It depends on the illness. Psychopathy, antisocial personality disorder, and similar diagnoses, are marked in large part by the lack of empathy presented.
That is a really good point and something I hadn't really considered. I could also see a lot of my feelings of empathy being instead turned into anger if things had been different so I might have generalized a personal experience.
I'm well out of my pay grade, but with the various anti-social / psychopathic disorders, it's not an empathy/anger axis so much as just not caring about consequences for others. It's a total disregard. More troubling: there's very, very little by way of treatment for many of these disorders, whether you're looking at pharmaceuticals or talk therapy. The DSM can make for interesting late-night reading.
It is still hard to be this honest and open. To put your full name on something like this. I respect the hell out of you and we share a disorder, thank you for your post.