Anonymous-EmpathyAI/Distortion-Analysis-PACLIC39 huggingface dataset:
Patient question: In the last year or so my psychological development has been very unusual (though it always was). I’ve started developing a massive distaste for sun. My eyes have become incredibly sensitive to light, so much so that even with sunglasses on I can barely keep my eyes open at times if the sun is too bright. My head starts hurting and I feel lightheaded and weak. I start feeling as if I’m losing my breath. But the psychological effects are even worse. I feel so vulnerable and exposed whenever I’m in the sun. It’s like I’m underneath this huge spotlight that I can’t run away from, so I get panicked when there’s no shade near by. The air becomes thick and I feel like I’m trapped and suffocating.

Distorted part: It’s like I’m underneath this huge spotlight that I can’t run away from, so I get panicked when there’s no shade near by. The air becomes thick and I feel like I’m trapped and suffocating.
Dominant distortion: Magnification
Patient question: I have Bipolar Disorder and some anxiety issues that cause panic attacks when I get overwhelmed by people, noises, stress, worrying, etc. For some reason, I always think I am going to be harmed. When I was little I couldn’t watch the news because I would become upset and always think about the people who died.

Distorted part: I have Bipolar Disorder and some anxiety issues that cause panic attacks when I get overwhelmed by people, noises, stress, worrying, etc.
Dominant distortion: Magnification
Patient question: I have been dating my boyfriend for about a year and a half now and we have lived together for about 6 months. He does have a bad temper and sometimes throws things during fights and other things of that nature, but I just always thought he had a temper and that was just that. But, come to find out the more I talked to his brother and mostly his sister in law they have told me many things about his childhood (they are 10 years older than him). His father was never around, he does drugs and is an alcoholic and verbally/emotionally abused his mother and my boyfriend when he was very small, up until about age 7 and still to this day plays guilt trips on him about anything he can. But I have noticed my boyfriend is ALWAYS very angry and VERY short fused with his mother. When she calls he will get very agitated and annoyed just by talking to her for a minute and she stops by randomly without notice almost daily and he gets very angry at her for this but she won’t stop.

Distorted part: But I have noticed my boyfriend is ALWAYS very angry and VERY short fused with his mother.
Dominant distortion: Overgeneralization
Patient question: I haven’t gone to any psychiatrists or mental check-ups my entire life. Maybe I’m just imagining that I have a problem with my mental condition but to be sure, I want to check online if I do have one, before going to a psychiatrist to have an official check-up. I haven’t told my parents about this because I don’t think that they would appreciate having a child who has mental issues and I don’t want to deal with the drama that will undoubtedly ensue.

Distorted part: I haven’t told my parents about this because I don’t think that they would appreciate having a child who has mental issues and I don’t want to deal with the drama that will undoubtedly ensue.
Dominant distortion: Mind Reading
Patient question: From the Arabian Gulf: My boss, also a “friend”, has – multiple times over the last couple years – insisted that first hand experiences of mine never happened. She will literally dig in her heels, turn pink and argue with me relentlessly that what I’m saying didn’t happen, despite it being my experience, her not being there, and the issue not being all that important. It’s infuriating. And when I stand my ground she doubles down on her argument, especially if there are staff or her family around. She’s never done it in front of HER friends.

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question: I am having a very difficult time accepting my fiance’s past relationships. His past is not a past as he has two ex-wives and a kid from each of those marriages (although he questions if he is the real father and was not really in their lives at all until recently) therefore, his past is really part of our present and our future. Between constant child support payments, conversations with the ex’s, his family’s connection with those ex-wives (since they still talk) I feel like we are never going to be able to move on with OUR lives and focus on starting our own family. I am tired of having to deal with all these ex’s and kids when all i want him to do is have him cut them out of his life completely or not talk to them and only talk with the kids. However, I know this is unfair. This has all DESTROYED us financially and is now putting stress on our own relationship. We also recently found out that his 16 year old daughter is having a baby so now there’s not just kids but grand-kids! This is all new to me as I was not brought up this way at all and am having trouble not being judgmental. What can I do to learn to accept his past and know that it will always be a part of our lives because I do love him and want to be with him. (From the USA)

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question: From a teen in France: I sometimes see things that aren’t there. It doesn’t happen often, but I do. I sometimes see shadows that aren’t there from the corner of my eyes ( I know that they aren’t there because when I turn to look at them they’re gone ), but apparently it happens to a lot of people so although it’s kind of scary it doesn’t worry me.

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question: My niece accused me of molesting her as a child, 10 years ago. In the beginning, she changed her story 4 different times, 3 of which didn’t directly include me. She has had problems with her parents, teachers, others, and marriage to an unstable criminal (along with their 2 daughters they live with her parents). Her parents have been believing her about the molestation, sharing it with my ex-wife and her family (She and her three children are survivalist from a third world country = fooled me, lies, cheats, steals, immoral). So they have joined in out of spite. When married we had one son, who is now married and has his own son. My son knows me and knows I would never do anything like molestation. As I raised him with respect, responsibility, and to be a mature man.  They are trying to convince my son that he was probably molested by me and that he has blocked it out.  Also, some of the family has disturbed my daughter-in-laws thinking and she won’t let me hold my 9 month old grandson. Which Hurts !!!  My niece keeps calling my son and he is polite and then hangs up.  My brother keeps involving our elderly parents (86 yrs old), which causes them extreme anxiety. Early on, I told my brother I would “falsely” admit to the molestation if it would help my niece, but I knew it wouldn’t help in the long run. My brother wants nothing to do with me, though he loves me in some way.  Bottom line, I don’t know how to handle all of this and it hurts.  I hurt for my son too as he tries to defend me.  Please help me handle all of this in a wise way. (From the USA)

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question: My mom introduced me to this really nice man. He wined me and dined me like no one has. We went to dinner and parties and seem to be getting close. He told me he was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic.( i dont know anything about this disorder) But he acted so normal to me and I immediately fell in love with him. My main reason was because he was going to school to become a minister. He prayed and read his bible faithfully. Then he told my mom he was falling in love with me. I have had a lot of bad relationships so I thought god finally answered my prayers. I WAS WRONG. We had an the worst argument I ever had with anyone! I had some out of town friends to come and he went into this jealous rage. He accuse me of sleeping with people who are like family to me. He then said they were touching me right of him…

Distorted part: I have had a lot of bad relationships so I thought god finally answered my prayers. I WAS WRONG. We had an the worst argument I ever had with anyone!
Dominant distortion: All-or-nothing thinking
Patient question: Hi, so last holiday I went to visit my cousin in countryside for a week and there she told me about all her problem. She told me that her parents are often fighting and both are abusive. Her mom seems to cheat on her father. She told me that her mom even told her to prepare for not having a mom. She said she’s depressed and stressed that she harm herself. She showed me her wounds she made and a knife she use. She save all her dried blood on tissue and write the date she harm self on it. She told me she used to passed out in her room without no one knowing and sometimes think about suicide. She said she couldn’t trust anyone else but me. It feels hard to think I’m the only one who can save her and lead her to the right path, moreover I also struggle with self-harm although it’s not as bad as her. (From Thailand)

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question: I have a real catch 22 situation which may sound trivial BUT my job which I love requires me to maintain a social media presence that I hate it & posting photos of myself is really not something I like doing but without my job/business suffers I try to force myself to do it but sometimes I just can’t. It’s not a body image thing it’s more I feel like a dick doing it and it seems very contrived & superficial but the only one suffering as a result of not doing it is me. Is there a way around this?

Distorted part: It’s not a body image thing it’s more I feel like a dick doing it and it seems very contrived & superficial but the only one suffering as a result of not doing it is me.
Dominant distortion: Labeling
Patient question: Despite tireless efforts so that my family stays in the dark, I’ve known for years now that there is something wrong with me. I have a family history of mental illness and OCD. I scored high on this site’s OCD test. I’ve attempted to point out behaviors in mind that point to OCD to my family but I’m always shut down. I struggle with anger but, growing up, I was not allowed to express my anger at all. Even as a young child, I was expected to ‘act mature’ and couldn’t even raise my voice a little, or I’d get in trouble. Because of this, I privately turn my anger inward at myself; punching myself, scratching my skin, and getting into fits where I convulse and shake and cry– all while staying completely quiet, of course, because it would not be considered acceptable by my family members. It is how I learned to cope. I have thought before after I had finished having one of these ‘fits’ that if I saw a video of someone else behaving in the same way I would think that they were completely insane. Deviant behavior is held in low regard at my house; even people with tame fetishes my parents and sister proclaimed to be mentally ill and awful people. This way of thinking has been devastating to me, as a person with a few unothodox fetishes and is someone who enjoys ‘kinky’ behavior (I’m not into pedophilia or rape or anything harmful like that, of course). I believe I’m a disappointment for these interests. Certain sounds and physical feelings (for example, the sound of someone humming/singing in the feeling of my hands or arms being kissed or touched and parentheses are simply unbearable. They send me into a panic. These feelings are brushed off by my family if I mention it. I also engage in self stimulating behavior like biting or psyching my fingertips, bouncing my legs and rocking, and very frequent masturbation. Does any of this sound like there is something wrong with me or my just being too sensitive and overreacting like my family says I am wont to do? Sorry if it’s a lot of information; I feel like it’s all connected and if I can get an outside opinion maybe I can do something to help myself. Or maybe it’s nothing. Either way, thanks a lot for reading.

Distorted part: I believe I’m a disappointment for these interests.
Dominant distortion: Labeling
Secondary distortion: Mind Reading
Patient question: From a teen in England: I continually go through different moods throughout the day and i’m recently struggling to see the point in living, but I do not want to die. I often look at the world and think everything appears to be fake, that buildings and other objects could easily be ripped down.

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question: If I feel motivated, I am either triggered by anxiety, or I am just doing something that I very much enjoy. I feel lazy, and I wish I wasn’t. I know my responsibilities, but nothing ever seems to make me prepared for them. I rarely ever bathe, brush my teeth or my hair, and I have LITTLE motivation to get dressed, and when I decide to do all of those things, I am probably going out in public or visiting some people, and MOST TIMES, I won’t even do my hair or get dressed — I’d just wait in the car and stay incognito. I rarely ever go out and I’ve never had any friends in school. All the people that I’ve known before are never interested in my friendship and I feel like there may be something wrong with me. I always hear the same excuses. I should be writing a book right now, but I never feel motivation to do that either. I feel like maybe if I had some friends that accepted me, that I’d LIKELY go the extra mile and do all of these NORMAL things. Sometimes anxiety isn’t enough to make me want to bathe and it can take me hours to get a SIMPLE TASK finished — because I am so slow and unmotivated! I feel happy when I do things I love — other than that, I’m always bored or something. I’m usually on the internet watching movies or listening to music, scrolling Facebook to see if I’ve gotten a message from my ACTIVE friend. The only person I feel TRULY respects me, is someone from the internet. I get bored sometimes because it’s not like we can actually go out or something, we are HOURS away from each other, and the flight would be very expensive. Sometimes I use material items as motivation, (not often) and I wish I didn’t have to do that. Not many things impress me anymore, and all the things I would like to have are probably overpriced. (From Canada)

Distorted part: I rarely ever go out and I’ve never had any friends in school.
Dominant distortion: Overgeneralization
Patient question: I don’t know why, but I have the urge to hurt or kill certain things. I was at a friend’s house this weekend and I was playing with their cat. I felt the sudden need to hurt the cat. I don’t know why, I love cats and would never want to hurt one, but my mind just kept telling me to harm it. I never did hurt the cat, I stopped playing with it because of this. Also, when someone gets me annoyed or mad I want to harm them even though there’s really no reason to. I have never hurt or killed anything in my life, but this feeling has been going on for a while now. I don’t know why this is happening, please help!

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question: I have been unhappily married for 11 years. I basically married the wrong person. We have 2 boys. I thought my husband represented all I wanted from life. My sex life consisted of all give and no take before. I had no intimacy with my husband, he was gone all week and only home on the weekends only to be miserable and grouchy and very non-intimate, but expected sex every night he was home and blatantly told me at the beginning of our relationship that sex was a very important part of a marriage.

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question: From the U.S.: I’m 22 and ready to move out, but I’m not sure how to break it to my mother… My mother is financially dependent on me and has been for about four years. She has a job, but is not extremely responsible with money and because of that her credit has/is suffering. I have attempted to help her with her debt, even went as far as offering to pay for her to file bankruptcy. She has refused the help and lied several times about her plans to get herself help financially. She becomes vague or argumentative when I bring up her money situation.

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question: My husband is a wonderful man who has many different interests. But, since we have been married, I have noticed that he gets his mind on a certain hobby and, well, almost obsesses about it. Last year, it was photography. He was talking about wanting to be a professional photographer. He bought many many books on how to become a photographer and to submit his photos to get them published. Although I believe his photos are very nice, he never once submitted one of them. He also convinced me to buy a very expensive digital camera which he has not used in months. At the time he wanted the camera, he said that if I bought it for him that he would help pay me back. This never happened. In fact, he began looking up other expensive lenses and equipment. He was constantly looking on websites and in catalogs to find more stuff for his photography.

Distorted part: But, since we have been married, I have noticed that he gets his mind on a certain hobby and, well, almost obsesses about it.
Dominant distortion: Mind Reading
Patient question: Hi. This is a complex issue. But essentially my husband’s family recently learned that his younger brother suffered sexual abuse from a family member 10 years ago. I was in this family 10 years ago (though not married yet), but when they met to discuss the issue, they excluded me. My husband flew across the country to learn the bad news in person, and I had to stay here waiting to hear over the phone…

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question: The relationship between me and my mom is quiet difficult to describe and understand. At one point we often laugh and talk together, when I want a hug she’s the first person I’m going to, but at the same time she’s the only person that I actually fell deep hatred towards. For already 4 years now she’s been slowly damaging my mental health and I can’t do anything about it. When I was 13 I started being completely unmotivated for an unknown reason which led to me laying in my bed for 90% of my free time, not studying etc. The only thing she said was: ‘You’re acting like you’re depressed. I have to warn you – no child of mine will be mentally ill, so I hope you’ll get out of that immediately’. I never spoke to her about my real feelings, only some minor things, like stuff that happened during day, a book or a movie. She doesn’t know how I feel, at all, but I’m sure she can somewhat sense that I’m not doing okay.

Distorted part: She doesn’t know how I feel, at all, but I’m sure she can somewhat sense that I’m not doing okay.
Dominant distortion: Mind Reading
Patient question: I have a friend who’s parents found cannabis in his bedroom. Following this discovery they removed him from all outside activity, got him a prescription for large doses of antidepressants and are currently forcing him to take them.  Since he started taking them he’s begun extremely troubling behavior. He has been drinking extremely high doses of cough syrup, ingesting huge amounts of benadryl with hopes of hallucination, taking large doses of snorted painkillers, heavy trazodone use and probably far more that I don’t know about. He recently described feeling like a brick wall after taking his prescribed medications, he described a deep hatred for them and a will to stop taking them, I’ve been asking why he can’t refuse to take them and started to see some of the extent of parental abuse. In the past I’ve witnessed physical abuse from slapping across the face, to emotional abuse of shaming him for being gay and kicking him out of his home. People have tried to get CPS involved to no avail. I am extremely worried about his health and am wondering if a parent can legally force their child to consume prescribed medication, and as a minor if there is anything I can do to help the issue. Thanks in advance. (From USA)

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question: From the U.S.: A few years ago, (5 or 6 years) when I was still trying to figure out who I was and what i wanted out of relationships, sex, etc etc I became very dear friends with a couple who were open-ish (wife is Bisexual and Husband is Heterosexual). The friendship started out as just a great platonic friendship. They’re both a little older than me so I would go to them with relationship struggles or just general life advisers and confidantes.

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question: I’ve seen my current T for a year and we have managed to build a good and trustworthy relationship. Now he started his summer vacation,I last met him 3 days ago. Our next appt. will be in 6,5 weeks. This is really hard cos we met thrice a week, which I feel isn’t enough.I have no one else to turn to. I am so weak and broken, traumatized and beaten up. No one understands. I’ve seen a psychologist at the psych. outpatient clinic but he just hurt me more.T is everything, and the only thing that helps.

Distorted part: I have no one else to turn to. I am so weak and broken, traumatized and beaten up.
Dominant distortion: Magnification
Patient question: From a teen in Serbia: My psychological state was never quite alright ever since I entered puberty it seems. It first all started with a case of mild depression as a result of having some existential dilemmas and coming face to face with the uglier face of this world for the first time. Slowly but surely this feeling of dread started creeping into me, and I completely shut myself of from the rest of the world somewhere at the age of 13, spending my days in the darkness of my room along with a book.

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question: From a teen in Serbia: So, I am 16 and this is happening a few years so far. I’ve been wondering if I can deal with this issue by myself (i don’t want professional help)? I think a bit bad of myself and like I’m gonna blow up after shortly after that happens, but nothing other then that and that confuses me. Like it doesn’t really affect me and it makes me feel that there’s something wrong with me. I know that abuse is not my fault but i can’t figure out what’s wrong with me.

Distorted part: Like it doesn’t really affect me and it makes me feel that there’s something wrong with me.
Dominant distortion: Overgeneralization