Undecided, being social is both important and unimportant
0voters
So I have schizophrenia. One area that it has impacted me is in socializing. I acted strange for a long time and lost friends, and made people who were never my friend dislike me. However, one thing I noticed that if I alienated myself from some people, there would be countless other people to associate with instead. This is especially so if you move, get a new job, go to other places etc. Although it does happen that people you were weird around can sometimes make contact with your new acquaintances. Despite this I came to the conclusion that there is so many people that alienating myself doesn’t matter. However, now that I am medicated I don’t alienate myself anymore but at the same time have no interest in being social.
Schizophrenia is a privilege in a sense. It lets you be insular and self absorbed to the extent you can figure out what you really want in life. Let me guarantee you it isn’t endless small talk and socialization to some aimless loathsome end.
I miss having more friends. I’ve been pretty isolated for the past two years. I seem to have lost the will or ability to reach out and start new connections. I also don’t have a car so I can’t even leave my house if I wanted to. I can wait a year to get a car, or I need to start making some moves. A friend I met in IOP is going to help me figure out how to finance a low income vehicle if I end up getting benefits. So this may be a step forward, I am trying to meet people but its difficult also being in recovery I want to make sober friends and connections, better influences.
Being social matters if one is a political leader, a business magnate, an entertainer, a professional athlete etc. There is no schizophrenic who is any of the above aforementioned occupations I just stated. Being social is being normal.
It matters if you’re not suffering from the mental disorders. In a realm that doesn’t hate you, you can kinda trust your output and have much enough strength to be able to take it all.
I think it’s good to be part of society. And if you don’t like your current social I see nothing wrong with creating your own full of misfits and unique thinkers.
When it comes to opening up about my schizophrenia I gravitate towards my friends or really educated people like librarians.
I know it sounds kinda funny but librarians in America have a lot of experience with schizophrenics.
Not surprised by the poll result, afterall the site is geared towards sz recovery and the medical opinion seems to get szs involved involved in social activities. However i think being social is not right for everyone and that there are actually social types and nonsocial types with szs being mostly the latter. One function of socializing is normalizing behavior as the current social ethos is ‘normal’ with social groups enforcing social norms in a decentralized way. Although at other times normal wasnt always the popular ethos. I dont know if those periods were any better for szs.
I find that I often feel better after being social. But, I have to be in the mood for it. I don’t hang out with a group, I have one main friend offline that I spend time with sometimes. It helps me a lot.
If I tell people I’m schizo they act weird around me.
If I just be myself and withhold my diagnosis they say things like “yeah moose is a little eccentric/weird, but other than that he’s a cool guy/manager”