Letters to the Editor
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Let's just say it: Get over yourself already
I have to agree with Olonon and Boreddcgirl and a few other writers whose handles I don't recall. The letter itself is untruthful enough, or if it's not, I want LW's parents' insurance plan.
But I'll say this to all the willful self-deceivers and creators of drama who think that makes them interesting (and LW, as a fine exemplar of this group): you're not interesting. You're boring. Whether or not you were able to kid yourself into believing in Peter Pan as a nine-year old doesn't make you seem fey or charming. It makes you appear to be willfully gullible (and possibly stupid).
The real world is a lot more interesting than fictitious illnesses leaving you in the emergency room, but not admitted, for five days. (What, you couldn't just say you were in a decline or had consumption?)
Sure, get help and stop lying to others, including kind-hearted columnists and their less kind-hearted readers, but most of all, stop lying to yourself. At the end of the day, do you really want to say: "Everything I've ever said was a lie. Everything I ever told myself was a lie."? Try for something real. There's a war on. People are dying. There are homeless people sleeping in the streets. Island nations will wash away in the next century. Women are burned alive for their dowries. And you worry about the fact that you fooled yourself into believing in Peter Pan?
Grow up. Get help, too. With your parents' insurance plan, obviously you can afford five days a week of intensive therapy. But even once a week and some Zyprexa, maybe (I don't know, check with a psychopharmacologist, obviously) you might be able to say "The sky is blue." convincingly. And good luck.
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It's called growing up
If indeed this letter is for real:
Learning the difference between fantasy and reality is called growing up. It happens to every kid on the planet, usually gradually and without a whole lot of trauma.
That you perceive such a normal part of maturing as a cause for your pathological lying demonstrates your propensity to be the victim. If you lie without remorse, and indeed seem to find comfort in that, without question you need professional help.
If, on the other hand, you are trying to write a novel, I appreciate your writing style. However, if so many people find this little preview disingenuous, you might try a different tactic for your book. You're just going to have more nuance to be convincing.
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Come out, come out, whereever you are
The real world is so much more wonderous than the fake world that you made up. Every day we learn so much that is new. People are funny and suprising and strange. Can't you see it?
I don't think you've lost a sense of wonder. I think you were fearfully hiding in a fantasy world and are depressed now that you can't hide. Why are you so afraid of the world?
I doubt that pills are the answer, but talk therapy might help. It's not about being numb. It's about opening up to the wonder that is in the real world.
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My diagnosis:
Pisces.
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Oh God, Yet Another...
pathetic, navel-gazing, self-absorbed nut case that has nothing to do except drag his drama around on his sleeve to make sure the rest of us have to endure him.
Grow the freak up already. Nobody lied to you, Bucko. You made all that stuff up in your head like most children make up stuff. Now you want to punish everyone for some real or imagine slight, and therein lies your problem - not that freakin' fairies don't really exist.
Get some intense help, dude.
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actually....
I have never known anyone who saw a shrink and was told, "No, what you're feeling is perfectly natural; it's called being human, and we all have times where we feel like we're falling apart."
my therapist said almost those exact words to me yesterday. her prescription was to take more naps, and drink more smoothies.
i love my therapist.
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It's okay to grow up Wendy!
First: LW, nobody "lied" to you that fairies or Peter Pan are real so stop whining about that.
Second: totally agree to the person who commented upthread that this reads like a memoir workshop piece.
Third: there are definitely some constructed memories or lies in this letter, especially the emergency room story.
Not that the letter doesn't ring true on some level; it struck some chords with me--I was the kind of kid who was climbing into closets looking for Narnia until I was about 14, and jumping barefoot in puddles well into my teens, looking for alternate universes; I was a little disappointed that these things never panned out but it was also nice to have my own private things to indulge in. And as an adult, I still do. You don't have to give that all up, you know, just modulate it.
The LW may not really be 18 anymore but these kinds of feelings are pretty real. They are also very self-indulgent and narcissistic, but, I don't think that medical intervention is necessarily in order. However old you are, LW, try to use your imagination and open-mindedness for good, look outward instead of inward: write, work with children, teach, whatever. Think about how you can use your quirks for the greater good and be part of society, because you're not going to get to Neverland.
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re: kdollarsign
I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm not recommending therapy, I'm recommending medical intervention. Either the letter is truthful or it isn't; if it's truthful, psychosomatic illnesses bad enough to land a person in the hospital for five days would seem to call for some mental health care.
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Imagination and lies
I wouldn't presume to diagnose the LW, but I think a visit with a pyschiatrist is in order. This goes beyond teenage angst and being sensitive and imaginative. I'm sensitive and imaginative but I don't remember ever believing in Santa Claus and never had trouble distinguishing between enjoying fantasy and believing it.
And this - if someone proclaims themselves a liar and then tells you a story, do you believe the story?
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The filter
You need to channel your artistic energy. I recognize all of what you describe, [with the exception of the Peter Pan stuff], and it seems that you are bored and scared at the same time. You are also intelligent. You do not mention your social circumstances, or pressures you may have endured or are currently experiencing. Consider well what you like to do. You want to be noticed. In fact, I'll venture to say that you NEED to be noticed. In a very deep sense, that is a motivator for anyone in any of the arts. Get used to it, it is your lifeline into all the good stuff you say you miss.
The lying thing--sounds familiar. Go take an acting class, you've got a tremendous head start. Then meditate a lot and you'll realize that nothing is perfect, nothing is permanent and nothing is worth lying about. Find a way to get the attention you need. You just weren't around when the fairies first used the houses you made for them. Don't buy into someone else's view of reality. The stones do talk, all the beautiful things are still there, but you see them through a different filter, as an adult, that's all.