Anonymous-EmpathyAI/Distortion-Analysis-PACLIC39 huggingface dataset:
Patient question: I recently ended a 3 year relationship with someone who I’ve realized was emotionally abusive. I started wondering if I was being abused about a year ago, and recently read an article on this website that seemed to detail exactly how I feel and how I was treated. The title of this article is ‘Emotional Abuse and the Impact of Absence.’ He would withdraw without telling me what was wrong, leaving me to guess. He would rarely apologize, and seemed to be emotionally unavailable. Sometimes his withdrawal was due to me being upset about something that had nothing to do with him. He was extremely critical of my children, and my family. He found fault in the way my kids walked too loud, held their fork wrong, a look on their face he didn’t like, etc. and claimed that it wasn’t their behavior that was the problem, but my lack of disciplining them for it. However, it seemed no matter how I responded, he would find fault with it, and I felt like I was walking on eggshells when he was around because I never knew what would irritate him next.  In the past, I have tried to tell him how his actions made me feel, and how it affected me, but he responded with defensiveness and I ended up feeling worse, like everything was my fault. I felt like I was accepting any crumb of affection or attention from him even though I knew I wasn’t being treated right. I quit trying to talk to him about my hurt feelings because I feared it would just make him withdraw more, and possibly end the relationship. I’ve told him the situation was emotionally unhealthy for me, but I never confronted him about his actions being emotionally abusive. Now that the relationship has ended, I’m still struggling with all the hurtful things he did, and can’t seem to get past it. Should I confront him and tell him I think he was emotionally abusive and why? I’m afraid if I do, he’ll respond negatively and I’ll end up feeling worse, and if I don’t, it will continue to eat away at me, and I’ll regret not standing up for myself. (age 42, from US)

Distorted part: In the past, I have tried to tell him how his actions made me feel, and how it affected me, but he responded with defensiveness and I ended up feeling worse, like everything was my fault. 
Dominant distortion: Personalization
Patient question: I was professionally diagnosed with ADHD and I’ve struggled with it since childhood. Later I was diagnosed with BPD and GAD, and a different doctor diagnosed BD2. I am certain about the BPD and ADHD, but I think I might actually have MPD (not GAD and BD2) and I’m concerned. I always hate telling my parents or my doctors about problems I think I might have for fear of looking dramatic or “wanting to have problems.” I fit every description in the DSM5, but when I think of MPD I immediately picture the movie Sybil and I know I am not nearly as severe as her. I would like to get help but like I said, I’m afraid it will be seen as one of my “attention seeking behaviors” (but I’m extremely aware of those, and I’ve been making them healthier behaviors as much as I’ve been able) I wouldn’t even know what to do if it were MPD, all the treatment options sound so scary and the thought of being labeled as one of the so-called “crazy” disorders is also scary.

Distorted part: I am certain about the BPD and ADHD, but I think I might actually have MPD (not GAD and BD2) and I’m concerned.
Dominant distortion: Emotional Reasoning
Patient question: I live at home with my sister and parents. My sister never leaves the house and doesn’t ever visit any friends, although there are people who care about her and often ask me how she is doing. Basically she’s at home 24/7. She sleeps a lot and is sad often. She doesn’t answer text messages from anybody, not friends or even family. I have spoken to her because I am concerned about her mental health, and she knows she is sick. She thinks that she has depression, as well as a disorder somewhere between social anxiety and avoidant personality disorder. But she just won’t see a doctor. I have set up appointments for her only to fail in getting her to go- she just refuses and makes up an excuse like ‘I’m feeling tired’ or ‘I’m busy’. The few times she has set up appointments have been the same- she just doesn’t go. When she’s physically sick she will go, but won’t tell the doctor about her mental health because she feels embarrassed and awkward to tell a stranger about it. I can’t afford to have a doctor come to her, and neither can my parents. Even my parents don’t seem that concerned about her, they just complain that she has no job, even though that’s the least of the problems and a mere symptom of her mental health issues. I just don’t know what to do. It’s also hard because she seems to be dependent on me as I’m the only social contact she really has. When I went away on holiday for a month, she complained to me that she missed me and I needed to come home. I want to be there for her but it is so draining to be the person that she depends on, especially because I’m not a doctor, and she is not receiving any therapy at all. When she comes on outings with me, I end up not enjoying myself because she gets very anxious and I feel that I need to mediate that all the time. I also suffer from social anxiety on a smaller level, and it’s stressful to wonder what people might be thinking, if they notice her dependency and us both being anxious, and because of this, I prefer going alone. Please help, I don’t know how to help her! (age 22, from Australia)

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question: I have a long history of trauma and deal with symptoms of CPTSD on a near daily basis. I am on a low dose of Zoloft and see a therapist once a week. Progress has been very slow but I do see a steady improvement in my ability to self-regulate and a shift in some of my very fundamental patterns of thinking.

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question:  From the U.S.: In the past, I have been described by therapists as having all of the hallmarks of a PTSD sufferer, except for the fact that I do not really recall events with specificity. Instead, I forget them for the most part. If flashbacks happen, they are triggered by very specific things. the time I was so anxious all of the time that I was non-functioning. My GAF was probably around 30.

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question: I have a very hard time explaining things so Im going to keep this short. I have a lot of problems with me as a person and every time I think about my problem I just get this sinking feeling then I get angry and just sometimes I hit myself like punch my head. I have social anxiety, suicidal depression, ADHD, and Im pretty sure I have dyslexia as I have a very hard time forcing myself to read things. I started hating myself since 1 year ago and it just keeps getting worse. I’ve been in home hospital since the start of 9th grade because I could never focus in class because of my social anxiety and ADHD, its been helping but not enough and none of my parents are helpful since they cant relate. I dont know who to go to so Im going to try to find help here.

Distorted part:  I started hating myself since 1 year ago and it just keeps getting worse.
Dominant distortion: Mental filter
Patient question: Lately I’ve been feeling very strange. I’ve always considered myself to be very bright but lately I feel like I’m slowly turning into an idiot. I’ve loved reading ever since I was young, and I used to be able to read an entire book in one day, but now it seems like the words make no sense to me and I often have to read things over and over again just to understand simple sentences.

Distorted part: I’ve loved reading ever since I was young, and I used to be able to read an entire book in one day, but now it seems like the words make no sense to me and I often have to read things over and over again just to understand simple sentences.
Dominant distortion: Should statements
Patient question: I don’t know what to do anymore, I avoid my thoughts and feelings by focusing on anything to keep my focus off of how I really feel. I know my actions are unhealthy, I know it is affecting my life negatively, but I am afraid. I can’t get anything done, I can’t focus on important things, because that makes me think about myself, which leads to me feeling worthless and hateful of myself. I have problems remembering things, and I think it is linked to my repression. I need help, but I don’t want my family knowing just how broken I really am, I don’t open up easily, I am not even sure if anyone notices how much pain I am in everyday. I want to scream it at them, but I fear how they would judge me. I also tend to put others before myself, and that is part of the problem here, they have their own issues, the last thing I want is them to focus resources on me, when I feel they would be better spent on almost anything else.

Distorted part: I can’t get anything done, I can’t focus on important things, because that makes me think about myself, which leads to me feeling worthless and hateful of myself. I want to scream it at them, but I fear how they would judge me. 
Dominant distortion: All-or-nothing thinking
Secondary distortion: Mind Reading
Patient question: Hey, I’m suffering here from my skinny body and I cant move on with this issue, last week I had to meet a guy who was talking online with me and had to meet up finally in real life, once I met him and went back home he changed with me I think because of my very skinny body, I don’t know what to do because im really hurting deep inside and I feel like I will never gain weight and have feminine body, also if I were in his situation I would never accept a person with ugly body like me , im writing now and my tears fell down because I really hope I would find confidence and find my beautiful soul , now we are talking to each other but I feel like he doesn’t want to show me that he didn’t accept me or find me different from the image he was thinking about when we didn’t meet up in the last,, I feel his words like something he must do it to not lose his manity and to show me that everything s ok but its not in fact.. he didn’t say to me I miss you or even this he didn’t say anything about our meet up date ,, which make me sure that he didn’t like me , im sorry but I feel down,, if I were a guy I will choose a beautiful girl with a feminine body and nice soul,, I have nothing but nice soul. I don’t blame him for nothing because he try to make me feel like nothing happened bad, but I feel the ignoring and I feel the pain and the way he act make me more sad because he changed , I know this from his words,, he started to act like im his friend not a girlfriend.. I really want to build confidence and to gain weight and to walk without caring about my thin arms and skinny thigh and without caring about not to show my hands cause my fingers is like baby fingers,, every one in my college started call me alien and kidding with me, I laugh with them but inside im crying blood tears honestly. im 37 kilogram and 156 cm and 23 years old. please help me to find my real life. thanks.

Distorted part: Hey, I’m suffering here from my skinny body and I cant move on with this issue, last week I had to meet a guy who was talking online with me and had to meet up finally in real life, once I met him and went back home he changed with me I think because of my very skinny body, I don’t know what to do because im really hurting deep inside and I feel like I will never gain weight and have feminine body, also if I were in his situation I would never accept a person with ugly body like me , im writing now and my tears fell down because I really hope I would find confidence and find my beautiful soul , now we are talking to each other but I feel like he doesn’t want to show me that he didn’t accept me or find me different from the image he was thinking about when we didn’t meet up in the last,
Dominant distortion: All-or-nothing thinking
Patient question: I’m a person with various failed friendships, usually i get very close to someone but the friendship only last for like a year, and i always end up thinking that i’m kinda replaceable because for the other person is easier to find new friends. In my last year of college i found a couple of friends that i’m very close with, even when we no longer see each other every day and work in different places we have a very good friendship. The problem is that i’m afraid to lose them, in my line of work there’s not much chance to meet new people and i fear i won’t be able to find new friends if i lose them. When i make a mistake, or do something that affects them, or could make the angry, i freak out, even when they tell me that it is ok i can’t stop thinking that we’ll drift apart. I know that i did nothing so bad and i would forgive them if things where the opposite, but i can’t stop thinking that i messed up, it doesn’t matter how much i want to stop, i can’t. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to be this anxious all the time.

Distorted part: I’m a person with various failed friendships, usually i get very close to someone but the friendship only last for like a year, and i always end up thinking that i’m kinda replaceable because for the other person is easier to find new friends. 
Dominant distortion: Labeling
Patient question: Hi. I have a problem forming relationships with people. I’ve been working at this place for like 8 months and i still find it really difficult forming interpersonal relationships with everyone here. Not only people in the work place but also family members. I’ve noticed that every time I’m joking around and laughing with someone and getting along with them extremely well, i tend to back off and completely shut down after I’ve noticed that I’m happy or talking a lot. It’s really weird. I do have self-esteem issues and self-confidence issues and i believe i suffer from social anxiety and depression. I so badly want to form relationships with people but it’s like I’m not even allowing myself to you know? My childhood COULD have been better. My dad was a hermit and he didn’t talk to people that well and my mom was an alcoholic at the time so i don’t know if that has something to do with anything. I do remember that i was distant from people even when i was a kid as well. Well not so much distant but it seemed like i needed permission from my friends to go with them places, like i needed to know that i was needed and they liked being around me. I just want to know like what the hell is wrong with me? I just want to be happy. I want to feel normal and BE normal. HELP!

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question: So the issue is I don’t know what is wrong with me, I’ve been searching ever since I was 14 or 13 I don’t remember, it happened around that time. I was once a rowdy kid, in school i would interrupt class, I was craving attention i believe, I wrote on the back of a piece of paper that was meant for an assignment, of all of the reasons I’m fucked up, the teacher read it and gave it to the principal, they had a psychologist evaluate me, the duration of the evaluation i just looked at the security cameras and ignored his questions.

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question: My grandmother has some mental health issues. She has a hoarding problem with junk, and especially with cats. She currently holds a part time job that does not pay the bills. Her house is destroyed between all of the cats and no upkeep. She does not have heat (it gets very cold here in the winter), electric, or running water. My grandfather has many health issues and has been living with my mom and dad who care for him. My mom and dad have tried frequently to get my grandmother to live with them along with my grandfather. She insists on living in the house with the cats (both living and dead) and piles of junk. EMS arrived at the house one time to help my grandfather and almost had the house condemned. My family and I want to help but do not know where to start.

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question: From a 19 year old in the U.S.: I want to hurt people not a specific person but i want to hurt someone badly enough that i may kill them fantasizing about brings me pleasure but not sexual just pleasure a complete sense of euphoria and i want to know if there is a term for what this means in terms of who i am and if there are more like me. If there is a way for me to change before i really hurt someone I know its wrong but if given the opportunity i would hurt someone and i wouldnt feel bad but some part of me knows its wrong i guess thats why im here or its because i want to know what it is i am.

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question: My mom teaches at a private school and one of her students kept fighting with others. She asked me to go talk to him so I did. The more I talked to him the more signs of being a psychopath began to show. He claimed he had no remorse for hurting people. And he said calmly that he thought another kid was going to beat him up (A kid who I know personally would never do anything like that) and so he said he had to kill him. That kind of scared me but I made no comment in an attempt to not discourage him from talking to me. I talked to him some more and I remembered that previously I had heard about some kids thinking that only weak people care about others. So I asked him if he thought that was true and he said yes. I asked him if his mom cared about him (which I know that she does, I’m friends with her) and he said yes. I asked him if that meant she was weak and he said yes. He then continued to say that he would like his mom more if she didn’t fake committing suicide, which from the way he told it, sounding like she was going to commit suicide then stopped because she realized that would leave him and his 4 year old sister parent-less. (His father isn’t in the picture.The reason behind this is unknown. He believes he’s never met his father.) I attempted to explain that she just really cared about him and that she didn’t want him to end up living with people that were mean to him. I asked him if he would like living with people that were mean to him and he calmly replied, “I wouldn’t care. They’d probably have knives and I’d kill them.” I asked if he knew that when people died in real life they didn’t come back to life and he said that of course he knew that. He went on to say that he enjoyed hurting people. I knew that he couldn’t hurt me much so I told him that if he liked hurting people so much he could hurt me. So he hit me then burst into tears. I think he’s pretty far down the wrong track but still has hope. How do I help him?

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question:  I have been dating my boyfriend for about 1 year now. I moved from Arizona to Colorado to be with him. HE was living with his Mom and so I moved in as well. He paid her rent for his room and he did things for her around the house. When I moved in she also charged me for rent for sharing HIS Room. At first we got along but as time went on I began to notice things. She would constantly text him while we were just in the room next to her, she would constantly yell out his name for him to come… and just ask things of him. HE isn’t working as he is on disability and had been in jail. Well soon he got into some trouble again and his mom called the police on him and my mom and I had to bail him out ..his mom wouldn’t and sat around saying how glad she was he in jail. Now that he is out she is back to the same..this time we don’t live there but she is always asking him to do this and that and talking badly of me. They text constantly and even sometimes when he and I are talking he will text her. and it’s weird stuff..like how handsome her son is and calls him her baby and sends him emoji’s like sunshines and things. I find it strange how he is always needing to go see her and will find any excuse to do so. While he was living with her he gave her all his money and she gave it out to him accordingly., I came along and I pointed out how he needs to be independent.. he is 48 years old!!!! so he did listen to me on that. But I can’t seem to understand this relationship with his mom. She isn’t very good to him and he is allows her to be so disrespectful to me. I am getting tired of it.

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question: From the U.S.: I’m trying to determine the name of what I have so I can research it. Whenever I become romantically involved with a person, the more I trust them, open up to them, feel nurtured by them, and generally as I become emotionally close to them, the less aroused I become by them. I eventually lose any instinct to segue to sexual activity and instead prefer emotional comfort and intimacy. This does not exclude a desire for sexual activity altogether, because I still seek it while losing my ability to see the trusted partner as a viable option.

Distorted part:  I eventually lose any instinct to segue to sexual activity and instead prefer emotional comfort and intimacy. 
Dominant distortion: Should statements
Patient question:  From the Phillipines: Since when I was young I started talking to myself and do pretend conversation but in mute voice. I pretend to be a character that I knew or have a conversation with other T.V. personalities. Until now I am still doing it. I don’t remember well how it this talking to myself started. I just wanted to know if this is a mental disorder or this connected to my poor memory because now I can’t quite remember some of my past. How can I stop doing this? Thank you very much.

Dominant distortion: No Distortion
Patient question: After failed marriage I was in 10 year relationship that now I realize was filled with constant emotional abuse. My self-confidence lowered in time and now I feel like empty shell and completely worthless as human. I am 43 and I see no end of this suffering. I know I should be self-sufficient and love myself and to know how to be happy alone, but I need friends and I need someone to love. During that relationship I lost all friends, and he assured me, he was my best friend. Though I firmly believe he really meant that and he didn’t mean any harm, I also realize that man has serious problems he is not aware of. I ignored all caution signs for 10 years and now I am alone, left and feeling worthless and sad all the time. I can barely work, I am aggressive and sad, I can’t smile or talk.

Distorted part: My self-confidence lowered in time and now I feel like empty shell and completely worthless as human. 
Dominant distortion: Labeling
Secondary distortion: Mental filter