Hello, I suffer from strong depression. Every time someone online says something mean to me it extremely hurts my feelings and it triggers this extremely strong depression in me.
It just happened again and the depression is so strong that I have barely any energy and it’s very hard to write this. First it always feels like a strong overwhelming shock that’s paralyzing me and then it goes over into this state of feeling very down, having no energy and being hopeless and sad.
Every time something like this happens it blocks me for many days/weeks or even months. It increases the feeling of paranoia that I can’t trust anyone and anyone potentially dislikes me. Maybe no one likes me. It’s like people are so evil/cruel online and don’t care how the other person is feeling. I have the strong urge of being liked and if someone is showing the opposite and is mean to me it truly hurts me.
I think my depression comes from people hating on me.
It’s not as severe for me, but I agree with the sentiment. People who probably don’t even see themselves as mean are undeniably being that way toward complete strangers online - and it honestly baffles me. You say something, and because you phrased it a certain way or didn’t caveat every single point, people start doing mental gymnastics and arrive at this caricature of “the other,” then come at you as if all their assumptions are spot on.
Maybe I shouldn’t even say this so as not to encourage them, but yeah - it hurts. To them, I might just be a screen name, but they seem to forget there’s a real person with real feelings behind it. I know these people wouldn’t talk like that to strangers in real life - not just because they’d get punched in the face, but because seeing the other person’s reaction would make them feel mean too. Online, you can just drop a bomb and walk away, ignoring whatever damage you caused.
Saying mean things to people hurts their feelings. Shocker, right?