Valentine
Member
Hello out there to everyone who reads this. I've been trying to help a friend of mine from Russia over the internet for about 1 1/2 years now with certain issues, including frequent thoughts of suicide, but I'm not having much luck lately, because... well, I can't really identify with his current problem that well. I'll explain.
He has an attachment to a particularly popular TV series called My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I wholeheartedly support it because I'm a bit of a 'Brony', myself, but that's not the problem. In the simplest terms possible, his attachment to MLP: FiM is so strong that it might as well be a religious belief -- he's repeatedly said to me that the show, the characters, the world, etc. are all very sacred to him. But the issue isn't specifically with this attachment -- it's with the feelings that come when things 'go wrong'.
MLP: FiM has a very diverse fan community, but there are plenty of authors and artists who tend to create some rather... sketchy work, sometimes. For my friend, seeing almost anything that he classifies as 'disrespect' towards ponies invokes a very sharp negative response in him. This doesn't just stop at fanfictions and/or artwork of dubious nature, however -- even something like a picture of a couple of the pony characters being petted by a human hand made him feel an overwhelming sense that they were being disrespected or made 'lower' than the 'truly sentient' creatures that they're supposed to be, in his eyes.
He was driven to attach himself to MLP this strongly mainly because of his being bullied at a young age (he hadn't found the show back then, though), domestic problems of the worst kind with his father, and the all-around sense of absolute backwardness, uncaring, and anger that he had to deal with in his community over the years -- which has shown little to no signs of getting better.
He is tormented daily by the pain he feels from seeing all the bad things whenever he searches for something MLP-related, and he feels that he can't just stop looking at it or ignore whatever people (or even the actual writers of the show, sometimes) may create. He's even started envisioning scenarios in which these people suffer some kind of horrible pain, so that they know what they put him through.
But the real kicker, here, is that he doesn't believe that anyone else feels this attached to MLP: FiM like he does, or that attached to anything that isn't 'expected' in society (like a job, marriage, etc.), which makes him feel incredibly alone, like he's the only one who knows 'the truth' and no one else really understands. This is what I need help with, because I'm not that attached to MLP or any show or whatever, so I can't identify with his issue as much as he needs.
So, I was hoping that I could find someone on here who has gone through something like this, or knows of someone who did, and is willing to talk about it. He's already begun to turn to thoughts of suicide again, but since he can't do it himself, he's been trying to post around sites and asking people to 'give him a push' (which, so far, has given the exact opposite reaction: he's met a lot of good people in the process and become friends with at least two). I'm afraid I can't help him anymore with this because I don't understand his problem, so please, if there is anyone out there who can identify with my friend and his attachment to MLP: FiM -- or anything else -- to the point where anything going 'wrong' with it feels like blasphemy or something and leads to sharp pain and/or thoughts of helplessness/suicide, please, share your story and thoughts here. If you want to talk to my friend directly, I can give you his contact information (over private message, though; he requested that I not give his name publicly or anything).
Please, and thank you. If you have any more questions, I'll answer them as best as I can.
~ Valentine (aka. Setokaiva)
(P.S: Valentine actually means 'Strong' and is the name of at least 50 saints and 3 Roman emperors. It doesn't just mean 'Love', or whatever.)
He has an attachment to a particularly popular TV series called My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I wholeheartedly support it because I'm a bit of a 'Brony', myself, but that's not the problem. In the simplest terms possible, his attachment to MLP: FiM is so strong that it might as well be a religious belief -- he's repeatedly said to me that the show, the characters, the world, etc. are all very sacred to him. But the issue isn't specifically with this attachment -- it's with the feelings that come when things 'go wrong'.
MLP: FiM has a very diverse fan community, but there are plenty of authors and artists who tend to create some rather... sketchy work, sometimes. For my friend, seeing almost anything that he classifies as 'disrespect' towards ponies invokes a very sharp negative response in him. This doesn't just stop at fanfictions and/or artwork of dubious nature, however -- even something like a picture of a couple of the pony characters being petted by a human hand made him feel an overwhelming sense that they were being disrespected or made 'lower' than the 'truly sentient' creatures that they're supposed to be, in his eyes.
He was driven to attach himself to MLP this strongly mainly because of his being bullied at a young age (he hadn't found the show back then, though), domestic problems of the worst kind with his father, and the all-around sense of absolute backwardness, uncaring, and anger that he had to deal with in his community over the years -- which has shown little to no signs of getting better.
He is tormented daily by the pain he feels from seeing all the bad things whenever he searches for something MLP-related, and he feels that he can't just stop looking at it or ignore whatever people (or even the actual writers of the show, sometimes) may create. He's even started envisioning scenarios in which these people suffer some kind of horrible pain, so that they know what they put him through.
But the real kicker, here, is that he doesn't believe that anyone else feels this attached to MLP: FiM like he does, or that attached to anything that isn't 'expected' in society (like a job, marriage, etc.), which makes him feel incredibly alone, like he's the only one who knows 'the truth' and no one else really understands. This is what I need help with, because I'm not that attached to MLP or any show or whatever, so I can't identify with his issue as much as he needs.
So, I was hoping that I could find someone on here who has gone through something like this, or knows of someone who did, and is willing to talk about it. He's already begun to turn to thoughts of suicide again, but since he can't do it himself, he's been trying to post around sites and asking people to 'give him a push' (which, so far, has given the exact opposite reaction: he's met a lot of good people in the process and become friends with at least two). I'm afraid I can't help him anymore with this because I don't understand his problem, so please, if there is anyone out there who can identify with my friend and his attachment to MLP: FiM -- or anything else -- to the point where anything going 'wrong' with it feels like blasphemy or something and leads to sharp pain and/or thoughts of helplessness/suicide, please, share your story and thoughts here. If you want to talk to my friend directly, I can give you his contact information (over private message, though; he requested that I not give his name publicly or anything).
Please, and thank you. If you have any more questions, I'll answer them as best as I can.
~ Valentine (aka. Setokaiva)
(P.S: Valentine actually means 'Strong' and is the name of at least 50 saints and 3 Roman emperors. It doesn't just mean 'Love', or whatever.)
