I am part of a process group on campus and today we talked about some things that are going on for us. A lot of people talked about inability to connect with others and depression and everyone responded to everyone and had good conversation. I revealed I have schizoaffective disorder and how it affects my ability to make connections and everyone just kind of looked at me without responding and for the rest of group no one responded to what I had to say or any interest in me being apart of the group. It felt terrible.
Was I wrong in revealing that about me. Im trying to figure out what happened. Nobody had any interest in what I had to talk about after that so I kind of went quiet. Do normals just view us as crazy. Why if i ever reveal anything personal i get rejected and shunned. I mean i know its not who I am but its a part of me and would be nice to talk about and get out my struggle. Everyone else seemed to be interested in each others struggles but when i talk about mine i get shunned. Like depression is ok to talk about but not schizoaffective?
I shared at AA meetings that I hear voices. No one talked to me and I felt awkward. I think they just don’t know what to say.
I don’t think it necessarily was that they didn’t respond because they had no interest - people don’t respond to things for all sorts of reasons. They may not know anything about schizo-affective and so didn’t even know where to begin, so the just didn’t say anything. Or maybe they were caught up in their own emotions and troubles - as many of commonly are.
How did the rest of the meeting go? Did you have any positive interactions?
I want to write something about stigma within the mentally ill one day.
I really do notice that the other mentally ill think differently of us and that we reciprocate it. Prejudice is a two way street.
sorry you had that experience.
Not really aftwer that experience i kinda went quiet and felt really uneasy beingin group
I wouldn’t take one experience of “silence” as an indication that the group isn’t interested in your or your problems or are not with empathy. I hope you’ll go again to the group meeting and see how it goes.
Yea its cause people don’t understand it cause you can’t unless you’ve been psychotic. For anybody I just ask if they’ve tried psychedelics and say on good days im decently normal like anyone else but on bad days its like a bad trip but without the drugs. Seems like a decent way of describing it to normal people. Theres really no other way I can think of. And id read that
I’m sorry you have a bad group time, i would think a lot of us have had a bad group i have for sure, thats a different story.
The best time i had to telling with not telling in group as to say “You know the River Tam character form Firefly?” gets a Yes or a blank WHAT?! if a yes then my crazy is like hers. If the what or no answer, i just drop it. Finding a way or saying it with out saying it or something. -.- But then i want a shirt with all my head stuff on it.
Hopeful your next group is better!
I too think people just didn’t know what to say.
It means you went through something harder to deal with than theirs.
You know, when we share personal things in a group we become vulnerable. Unless you are a superintelligent robot disguised as a person, that is. And when we become vulnerable we are sensitive to criticism and disapproval. I have been in a group therapy setting before so I know how it feels. And in that situation it is very easy to interpret otherwise normal things like not getting attention from the group as a sign of disapproval. It could be they just forgot the subject or didn’t know what to say. Or maybe they had too much to talk about and your subject got lost in all the chattering? I don’t know. I get that it sucks, trust me, but I wouldn’t be so sure that they were judging you or not interested in you. Maybe you should ask them next time?
This has also been my experience in a support for depression group. I told them about my struggles and hospitalization and violent thoughts and they would just stay quiet. However I guess I can’t blame them because it is called support for depression not support for schizoaffective. They simply cannot comprehend the mania and psychotic parts that we deal with. It’s hugely hypocritical also because half the people who go to that support group are not depressed at all whatsoever from what I can tell. They just go there to chat and these people are all the regulars of the group.