Sometimes when I don’t know people to well I want them to know that I am schizophrenic. The reason being that I get anxious very easily around people that I do not know. I figure that if they know my diagnoses than maybe if I seem a bit weird they will just not think much about it. I guess I feel less pressure of fitting the concept of what I consider normal. I have ask many people that I trust and know me well about social situations I have been in and they always say I act normal.
9 Likes
I do so they will understand, but I am sadly terrified of being isolated as I have before. It is sort of upsetting though that few people will ever know who we really are 
4 Likes
I prefer if other’s didn’t know, stigma is every where and people judge you.
4 Likes
It’s nobodies business. I mind my own business, I don’t cause trouble. I’m a responsible taxpayer, I have never harmed anybody and the fact that I have schizophrenia does not really effect most people. So all those facts make me rationalize that I do not need to tell anyone in real life about my illness. I don’t owe anybody details of my medical condition. Here’s my favorite line that runs through my mind. Why tell someone something that they might use against me if I don’t have to? In a perfect world, stigma would not exist, but until someone turns the world into a perfect place to live I will not feel obligated to tell anyone. I have enough problems with my symptoms as it, I don’t need the extra burden piled on my shoulders of having people treat me bad.
9 Likes
I usually do not tell people like most of you. It is just sometimes it seems like it might ease my anxiety.
1 Like
Hey, if it works for you to tell other people than that is cool and I respect that. I was mainly talking about myself in my own situation. Hey, if I could, I would love to tell the whole world. But as of now , that’s not going to happen.
3 Likes
People who will judge you or get their panties in a bunch over your social anxiety, are going to judge you and get their panties in a bunch over you having schizophrenia. It doesn’t take that much empathy and logic to figure out when someone just has social anxiety and to be chill about it. People who lack the grace and wisdom to avoid being a total ass to you about your social anxiety, are not going to handle knowledge of your schizophrenia very well.
That’s the crux of worrying about what others think of you. People think what they want to think, regardless of reality, so it really doesn’t matter, and you really can’t control it. How open someone wants to be about their MI or anything else is up to each person, but don’t be fooled into thinking that sharing about it will somehow turn immature asshats into understanding good people.
5 Likes
Ditto for me, except for the final sentence. I don’t always act normal. I have involuntary behaviors that are strange. That’s why I sometimes want people to know I am sz.
2 Likes
I don’t even want to know I have schizophrenia. Why would I want anyone else to know? But I live in a small town - people know. The best I can do is make them forget it.
1 Like
Oye, I’ve been trying so hard to make some people forget. Is it possible?
@77nick77 “In a perfect world, stigma would not exist, but until someone turns the world into a perfect place to live I will not feel obligated to tell anyone.” That’s perfectly true. But at the same time it is US who can change that world and stigma. Coming out and showing we are “normal” people with some imperfections fight the existing stigma associated with schizophrenia. The same as people who discriminate others due to different reasons until they have a gay friend, a handicapped friend or a Muslim friend… I say it in theory, still thinking how to act being afraid of rejection (and also not wanting to be perceived as throwing myself at others seeking for sympathy or whatever else) but there were several situations when I revealed my illness by occasion relating to current situation and have never received any negative feedback. It of course depends who you tell it to, people can be incredibly superstitious and silly so they need to be chosen carefully. Let them then spread the word in our favour…
7 Likes
It’s kinda of difficult to explain the way my life turned out without mentioning it but I do have things I can do with my brain in spite of it so I want to know that there’s more to me than schizophrenia but want to make sure certain people know I have it in order to get the help I need to survive.
1 Like
I dont tell others about my Mental Illness - Not unless I have to.
Stigma is a big issue - And frankly its no ones business.
My Family knows.
2 Likes
Yes, I think it is - at least for moments.
No I don’t. I keep my sz top secret where I live. Nobody knows what’s wrong with me here. And I stay out of everybody’s way too.
I talk a bit open at the mh clubhouse. I express I have" mental illness" on Facebook and in the world. Sometimes I use the term" brain damage" I don’t tell many I’m sz
1 Like
I wish I could tell people and people would just love me for it.
1 Like
@Lara, I agree with your post very much… I tend to think like this as well. That second hand knowledge of the condition through encounters with people like us will outweigh possible prejudices from much more indirect sources. If there are these prejudices to begin with - most people I disclosed to simply had barely heard of the term schizophrenia such that I had to explain from the beginning. Just like you say, I believe negative prejudice persists mainly among people who do not personally know of anyone with the condition, this seems to hold in many other cases like ethnic and sexual minorities. I don’t go about telling anyone from the start, but if we have become friends I have no problems with it. Idk, to worry about stigma too much reminds me of my paranoid episodes and I don’t want to think like that anymore.
It has been suggested in research that @mortimermouse posted on the forum, to model disclosing after coming out as homosexual. I don’t know too much about that, but I think there is this element of pride involved. I think we could use a bit of that as well to get things going. It’s difficult though, the whole situation seems like a bit of a vicious circle to me. Given that stigma is around, it is understandable to hide the condition. But to reduce stigma, it seems to me one of the best ways is through advocates and role models. Many more than are currently out in the open. But that implies disclosure from those people… Maybe a start would be for us to watch out for signs of self-stigma, which is around as well, maybe particularly so in those of us who tend towards paranoid ideation. To me this looks like a first step towards acceptance that we can take ourselves, without disclosing to others yet.
5 Likes
I also agree with @Lara and @flybottle.
I feel much better after disclosing, and truthfully if people don’t understand it’s their ignorance, their problem, not mine. I have a clear conscience of my mistakes, and I only hurt myself and that’s damage enough for one life time.
In disclosing people associate our good things with the illness as well, and the one the many things I heard while telling is that people associate genius with it too because of Jonh Nash Lol, I have to explain I’m no genius and that that’s not a symptoms of the illness sadly.
4 Likes
Life is too short to worry about people judging you. If someone won’t accept me for who I am then they can ■■■■ off.
3 Likes