Everything I say, I say and mean truthfully and earnestly. I only feel the need to put it here because I have no personal confidants and I am curious to see if anybody else has had similar experiences, as I haven't seen this topic broadly discussed in real life or on the internet.
<In short, I believe my younger sister is a victim of social media's glorification of mental illness, and this has, in turn, encouraged her to act as if she is mentally ill. It could be said that I don't know what's going on in her brain, and that may be true, but, judging by her actions, she is not clinically depressed nor meaningfully dysthymic. She has a number of hobbies that she participates in regularly. She willfully goes out with her friends on a near-weekly basis. Almost every night I am made to listen to her inane phone calls with her stupid friends through the thin walls of my home. She has never attempted to kill herself nor been committed to a mental institution. Her appetite is fine, but her eating patterns are unnatural and selective. This rules out anhedonia, consistently depressed mood, active suicidality and significant weight fluctuation. Thus, I can conclude that her depression is likely inauthentic.
<A couple of days ago, while she was wearing pajama shorts, I noticed a couple of scratches on her leg. I am not downplaying the severity of her "injuries" when I say that they could not have penetrated beyond the first layer of her skin. To the extent of my knowledge, these are the only marks of self harm on her body. Her arms, lower legs and face are undamaged. This is what she had gotten my parents so worked up and worried about. This is what she is going to be prescribed anti-depressant medication over. It reminded me of a statement I saw put out by the administrative team of a gore forum I used to lurk on about their decision to forbid any and all photos of user made self-harm photos because it acted as a social contagion that encouraged even more people to engage in it for acceptance and attention, and I realize now how true that is. Some of my sister's acquaintances have engaged in self harm before and they received attention and consolation for it. Owing to the insatiable female desire for attention, she decided to not only engage in it too, but engage in it vocally, with absolutely no regards for the stress, shame and neurosis it would inflict upon my parents.
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