Oh Mental Mental.
This morning, after grocery shopping at the supermarket, I bumped into a friend at the cross junction. He was going on and on about a few of his problems, but at the same time happily smiling away.
Inside my head, I was going "this friend really needs a doctor. He is smiling like a nut, when he has tonnes of problems weighing on him!"
I couldn't really match this behavior with the more common disorders that I've seen, then somehow stumbled across this website that listed more. Indeed, one of the disorders matched:
Dependent Personality Disorder
SYMPTOMS
This personality disorder is characterized by a long-standing need for the person to be taken care of and a fear of being abandoned or separated from important individuals in his or her life. This pervasive fear leads to "clinging behavior" and usually manifests itself by early adulthood. It includes a majority of the following symptoms:
- has difficulty making everyday decisions without an excessive amount of advice and reassurance from others
- needs others to assume responsibility for most major areas of his or her life
- has difficulty expressing disagreement with others because of fear of loss of support or approval.
- has difficulty initiating projects or doing things on his or her own (because of a lack of self-confidence in judgment or abilities rather than a lack of motivation or energy)
- goes to excessive lengths to obtain nurturance and support from others, to the point of volunteering to do things that are unpleasant
- feels uncomfortable or helpless when alone because of exaggerated fears of being unable to care for himself or herself
- urgently seeks another relationship as a source of care and support when a close relationship ends
- is unrealistically preoccupied with fears of being left to take care of himself or herself
Now the next step is how to get this across to him, since with this, he will be living in denial half the time.
There is absolutely nothing wrong living with a mental thing, just make sure people around you do not get hurt unnecessarily due to your flaws.
This fellow needs his friend to even do his homework. I pray to God he don't get any worse than this.