Go through it just to seek attention from others

[merlin123]

I've been thinking about how many times someone has been told that what they're doing is just to seek attention. For example, someone acting depressed and cutting, and being told: you're not real, you just want people to look at you

And I think, is it really bad to seek attention? If a person isn't suffering inside, why would they even have the need to? Why is it that if a person is trying to get people to look at them to see that they're struggling is considered a bad thing?

I myself admit that I seeked attention when I was a teenager. I wanted to feel special, more mature, I didn't really know how to get people to notice me and love me, so I admit I started acting depressed. It didn't work, at school they treated me like a weirdo, and my personality didn't really help, as I was unbearable

But I did all that because I wanted to feel I was different and special so they liked me, I wanted, needed, to feel loved. In the end I endep up being really depressed and that phase of wanting to be different changed and I felt so out of place I decided to be part of the mass, maybe that way they would love me

Anyway, I am rambling again, what I was trying to say is that even if a person is doing something to seek attention that doesn't mean we have to ignore it and treat it as if it was nothing and that person was a monster. Maybe observing their behaviour, trying to emphathize and understand why they're doing it in the first place helps more than treating the person as "fake" and annoying

 

[Human Ex Machinae]

Anyway, I am rambling again, what I was trying to say is that even if a person is doing something to seek attention that doesn't mean we have to ignore it and treat it as if it was nothing and that person was a monster. Maybe observing their behaviour, trying to emphathize and understand why they're doing it in the first place helps more than treating the person as "fake" and annoying

Very true, Merlin. Often it's a cry for help, a signal flare in the dark. Even among people who have been so successful at seeking attention that the entire world knows their name and their face, and idolizes them.

 

[Claus]

I agree, but if I recall some people who do it for attention actually are ill by that behavior alone. What I mean is they may have Histrionic personality disorder, or there's also Munchausen syndrome by proxy which is bringing harm to another for attention to yourself. I think there's a few more diagnoses as well, but every time I try to search for the illnesses that have to do with injuring yourself for attention...I only get lead to articles about Muchausen for some reason. Don't be mistaken though, that's harming someone else. Usually it's a mother harming her baby. I think that's the most common from what I learned anyways.
Regardless of that, I see what you're saying. I think a lot of people could benefit from people NOT saying people who hurt themselves are attention-seekers, because attention is what that behavior needs. The people who have these disorders like HPD, or even the people who do not, deserve to be noticed and they deserve treatment. Obviously, it's not healthy for anyone to behave in these ways. Although, it's counterproductive for people to say, "it's for attention" because that's just diminishing and dismissing the problem instead of doing something practical about it.