Sandman
In article <n3ick1$qrp$1@dont-email.me>, Slimer wrote:

I haven't got the medical/psychiatric expertise to talk about anxiety in any capacity, but I do agree that it's a sign of poor character to let a mental illness affect people around you in a negative manner. If you know you're not feeling well you should take extra care to not let this affect the ones that are around you.

Slimer
I'm fairly sure that I have seasonal affective disorder. As a result, I try hard to be ever more patient during the winter season so as to not berate the people around me with my misery. In his case, he seems to be using his anxiety as an excuse for his otherwise inexcusable behaviour. In other words, he is submitting to anxiety and making the rest of us pay for his mental illness.

Sandman
Well, to be honest here, though.

I don't think that's what is happening at all. Again, I'm no psychology expert by any stretch of the imagination, and those that ARE experts still know very little, so to speak.

I think Michael is an introvert.

I think he feels best when along or left to himself. I think his mental issues leads him to having problems dealing socially with people when it rises above a certain threshold. I also think he's not very good at handling real life conflicts. I don't think he "blames" his supposed anxiety or anything like that, it's just that he's always been one to shy away fro "too much" social stimuli, so to speak.

But when online, there are nothing that intimidates him in that way, he can respond in his own time, on his own terms. He uses USENET as a way to "vent" the built up frustration he may get from real life, from conflicts he dodged, from social interactions that he felt were too big. Here, online, he can "be himself" more or less. He can argue, write for hours about stuff that he may or may not have wanted to say to someone else.

For instance, when his wife is angry with him, or nags about something (as perceived by him), he can shut her out and then come online and drag up an old topic just to vent his frustration. I wouldn't call it therapy because it doesn't really result in anything productive for him, but I think that deep inside, that is what he's after - closure on the frustration, closure on that nagging feeling inside him where everyone is his enemy.

Slimer
He doesn't want to convince anyone; he simply wants to destroy whatever your viewpoint is.

Sandman
Well, he's pretty lousy at that, so I'm not sure...

Slimer
Most people have lost interest in him; I'm one of them.

Sandman
Well, like I said, I find him very interesting in many ways. :)