Your english is better than the english of a lot of native speakers.
Well... yeah, online discussion is inefficient. But when you're cut off from the efficient options, you probably shouldn't throw up your hands and give up. I'm not sure if that's what you meant, though.
I think you may be disregarding the viewpoints of others, here. You can't do any efficient self-improvement if you refuse to call your problems what they are. It might feel nice to say "You know what? I'm not mentally ill. I just need to improve myself." I WANT to improve myself. Most people here do. I've hit a roadblock here, and I want to talk to other people that have, or have in the past. I'd like to hear the viewpoints of others. What worked, what didn't, etc. Group therapy/discussions with people with the same problem or similar have been extremely helpful to a lot of people.
Also, "keep it simple, stupid" is only helpful when the problem can be simplified further. Simplifying things is really hard when we don't understand them, and mental illness is one of science's big question marks.
I'm not trying to ad hominem you, and I'm sorry if I came off that way.
Your english is better than the english of a lot of native speakers.
I doubt it.
"You know what? I'm not mentally ill. I just need to improve myself."
Who cares about mental illness? There's action and inaction. Action WILL lead to something and if you do it well you'll get GOOD results.. Inaction gets you nothing no matter what you do.
Also, "keep it simple, stupid" is only helpful when the problem can be simplified further.
No, it's always useful and is a good way to think about things in general. Why should things be more comp...
For a site extremely focused on fixing bad thinking patterns, I've noticed a bizarre lack of discussion here. Considering the high correlation between intelligence and mental illness, you'd think it would be a bigger topic.
I personally suffer from Generalized Anxiety Disorder and a very tame panic disorder. Most of this is focused on financial and academic things, but I will also get panicky about social interaction, responsibilities, and things that happened in the past that seriously shouldn't bother me. I have an almost amusing response to anxiety that is basically my brain panicking and telling me to go hide under my desk.
I know lukeprog and Alicorn managed to fight off a good deal of their issues in this area and wrote up how, but I don't think enough has been done. They mostly dealt with depression. What about rational schizophrenics and phobics and bipolar people? It's difficult to find anxiety advice that goes beyond "do yoga while watching the sunrise!" Pop psych isn't very helpful. I think LessWrong could be. What's mental illness but a wrongness in the head?
Mental illness seems to be worse to intelligent people than your typical biases, honestly. Hiding under my desk is even less useful than, say, appealing to authority during an argument. At least the latter has the potential to be useful. I know it's limiting me, and starting cycles of avoidance, and so much more. And my mental illness isn't even that bad! Trying to be rational and successful when schizophrenic sounds like a Sisyphusian nightmare.
I'm not fighting my difficulties nearly well enough to feel qualified to author my own posts. Hearing from people who are managing is more likely to help. If nothing else, maybe a Rational Support Group would be a lot of fun.