I’ve never much shared with anyone that I have sz. Does anyone else find it burdensome to not share about their situation with others? That’s why I’m really happy I found this site.
I tell people I’ve suffered from severe depression, and anxiety. Instead of schizoaffective. It doesn’t frustrate me I can’t tell them but it does frustrate me when people don’t give me credit in group therapy for my struggles with sza. I deserve credit but they like to believe I’m not sza because they’re scared to think I’ve had such a tougher time than them. People tell me I have mood problems in group therapy even though I have extreme psychosis. So now I just tell them that’s what I have. Ya I guess as I’m typing this out it is frustrating
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My job trainer is from new town, Connecticut where sandy hook happened so I didn’t wanna tell her I’m schizo
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Kudos to you for being strong. How is sza different from sz?
More moody…not saying it’s any more or less severe…that’s a case by case basis…but schizoaffective has mood and psychosis. I think sza is becoming more and more common…they’re realizing most ppl with schizophrenia have bad moods
[quote=“Tomasina, post:1, topic:34960”]
Does anyone else find it burdensome to not share about their situation with others?
[/quote]Whenever I get into the specifics of my SZ, I notice people start to zone out, or get weird, or flat out look worried.
I’ve been experimenting with trying to normalize people around legit SZ symptoms, but alas it is a DEAD effort - no one wants to hear the specifics of what you hear or see, besides curious therapists or doctors.
Needless to say, I have found it pointless to formulate friendships in real life because of this. Not everyone is as accepting as my psychotherapist as to what I see & hear. People don’t want me to talk about SZ, just continue carrying on with the “hardy harr har” derp conversations that talk about absolutely nothing important in the world. Sorry, I’m not that type of man.
Yes, I would suspect that educating people re: sz would be a challenge. I don’t think it’s one I’m willing to take on.
Thanks mister collie.
I feel it’s a burden not to share it openly actually.
But I don’t trust my class mates enough for it yet.
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Hi Minnil, I agree it’s a burden not to share. I did just make an exception to share - hope it was ok. All the best with your studies!
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Just wondering – has anyone felt like people treat them different after they disclose?
I never told anyone about it when I worked at my college (they thought I had depression. My suprvisor picked up I had mental illness from how my doctors appointments were spaced and she guessed depression. I’m sza bipolar but I was sz depression then so I wasn’t really lying when I went with just depression).
In the real world sometimes I tell people sometimes I don’t. Heck sometimes I forget to mention it. I usually say something when we’re in the “secret sharing” stage of the relationship. I don’t know if any of the other women have a term for it but it’s when you start to get to know another woman and you guys are becoming friends and you tell each other secrets. Not big secrets of course but little things. From what I can tell it seems to be a female bonding ritual. I guess the subconscious point of it is you are testing them to see if they are trust worthy with what you have told them and you have something over them if they turn out to not be trust worthy.
Things like this. I’ve found that if I wait for the secret sharing stage it comes off a lot better. They know me somewhat, our days are probably constructed so that we’ll see each other often (which is probably how we became friends) so it would be a pain to try to ditch me, and they’re emotionally invested now. I reassure them that their secret’s safe with me (and I don’t tell secrets) and now they know a little something about me too.
I try to tell anyone that I have SZ… Lately, I have been doing a lot of posting on my timeline on Facebook about my life with it, and posting links to medical sites so the posts aren’t purely subjective-giving people the facts. It had been harmful to me to keep it hidden. I don’t have to worry about work or an employer. If you’re worried about disclosing, see my Martin Hersey timeline on Facebook. I never know if disclosing is coming back at me in the form of stigma, but I deal with heavy self-stigma every day myself. Most of the responses are positive. People like the fact that I am talking about it.
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I would prefer to tell people about my actual experiences.