Thank you both.
I'll get back to this after work. [Yes, I'm going to work. I'm tired, stressed, and likely to cry or panic if something or someone upsets me, but work is kind of therapeutic for me. Rather like a therapeutic community type experience, I would think, at least in my attitude.]
One thing I've been pondering. A lot of hospitalisations seem to be from severe self harm or severe eating disordered behaviour. This is naturally something which would be highlighted on a self harm support site.
However severity of self harming isn't really a reliable indicator of severity of mental illness. It's one indicator.
But then what about feeling unsafe in the world, extreme despair that doesn't lead to suicidal behaviour, but more insidious dangerous acts? What about feeling persecuted, severe paranoia which isn't flagrantly psychotic, but is more borne of trauma and extreme hyper-vigilance? What about being so vulnerable and sensitive that every sound, every vibration, grates on the very core of your skin? What about when you feel that you have no skin? What about not being able to bear the close proximity of strangers, without fight-flight-or freezing? What about feeling so alone and feeling so out of control it feels unbearable?
It seems that maybe one 'flavour' of illness leads to hospitalisation, and other 'flavours' don't. Not because they're less severe, but because the attacks on the person and other people are less, well, obvious.
I'll add more later, and reply properly to people's responses.
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