Posted by Racer on April 2, 2006, at 15:01:41
In reply to I do have some advice, Phillipa, posted by txtoolgirl on March 31, 2006, at 22:00:13
I hope you don't mind my asking, but what prompted you to write this? It sounds as though you have a personal stake in this of some sort, although if so that's not quite clear in your post. Do you know the teenage poster in question in real life? If so, are you just upset by what seem to be contradictions between what you've observed IRL versus what he writes here? I just wonder why you felt the need to post this here.
Babble is an online forum where people can come for education and support from our peers. Obviously, since some of us are middle aged, "peers" is a relative term, but let's let that pass, huh? :-) It can't take the place of seeing a real life therapist or psychiatrist, but it can offer additional support, and there's value in that. There will never be any way that most of us can know whether another poster is "real" or not, nor how much objective reality there is to any information posted here.
In the case of the poster to whom I believe you are referring, my middle aged eyes say that his posts reflect his subjective reality. Does that mean I think what he posts issome sort of absolute objective reality? Certainly not. I think it bears the same relation to objective reality that my perspective did when I was 18. But I do think his posts show a young man in pain, who apparently is not receiving adequate real life support, for whatever reason. I can't see that removing what is apparently a helpful support system from him will benefit him in any way. I do think finding real life support would benefit him enormously, but I can't see that removing this would provide that to him.
What's more, Phillipa has posted to this young man out of genuine and sincere desire to be supportive. Writing this to her doesn't seem a way of increasing the peace and goodwill in the world, it seems more likely to result in Phillipa feeling bad, which is neither educational nor supportive.
So, I'm curious. What was your purpose in writing this post?
poster:Racer
thread:627333
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20060331/msgs/627879.html