I came upon this article in the Los Angeles Times (via Slashdot) describing how Psychiatrists are proposing declaring deep bitterness a mental illness.
Bitterness as mental illness? - Los Angeles Times
This is fascinating. We all know someone who has become deeply bitter about a wrong that was done to them and I am often puzzled at the vehemence of this belief. Particularly when as you get to know the circumstances you realize that the person made choices that played a role in where they ended up too. The bad thing that happened to them was something that they were partially complicit in.
So part of the bitterness is often self-directed anger (how did I get myself into this?) and part of it is from a sense of entitlement (the world/this person/this institution owes me, dammit!)
Well - it looks like a line of drugs and some therapy is going to fix all of that - which really bums me out. Bitter people have ruined my life and I want them to pay for it!
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Hi Tim, were you serious with the last sentence or was it said tongue in cheek? Being bitter is like drinking poison and hoping the other person will die. Bitterness only harms yourself and can even kill over long periods if it gets out of hand. I do not think that bitterness should be classified a mental illness although I do believe that it could lead to mental illness.
ReplyDeleteCompletely tongue in cheek.... The essence of bitterness is the temptation to blame things outside of your control for ruining your life when sometimes you have to look inwards...
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