Making friends

I find it really very hard to make friends. I don’t have any tbh. I was talking to my colleagues this afternoon and they asked me if all my friends were married. I didn’t know what to say. I really would love to have a relationship too but I don’t know if I will be accepted with this illness. There is a huge stigma in my culture.

Where do you live? There is stigma everywhere, but if someone gets to know you, and then you tell them that you have schizophrenia, the chances are better that they’ll stick around.

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I have old friends who I spend most of my time with. I met a friend online too and now hangout with them in person and have made a couple friends at school, but I havent made many new friends since I became schizophrenic. I became an introvert, I was very extroverted before I became mentally ill.

But it’s not impossible- you just have to try rather diligently. I made a friend pretty easily in one of my classes because we have similar interests and I could tell that just by the way he was dressed. That and we are in the same program, the psychology program.

it all depends on what your occupation is. I am a student so that’s a decent place to make friends. Being in the workforce would be harder, but I imagine you would become friends with people from work or from an activity you participate in. For example, I go to a powerlifting gym and I will be joining their competitive powerlifting team this summer (I am training on my own now because of night classes) and I will probably enjoy the company of like-minded people who are obsessed with lifting heavy weights.

You’ve just gotta try hard! I strongly recommend finding an activity outside of work or school. Powerlifting is what I am into, but it can be anything, really. Again, I have made few new friends and still spend most of my time with old friends from high school. It’s not easy but I have had some success.

I am not stigmatized because I am very highly functioning and my medication works. I am sorry that your culture stigmatizes the mentally ill. Here in the USA it’s not all that bad, particularly if you are medicated, I have found. People think that it is interesting most of the time and ask me about it. But then again, I am in remission, so I don’t behave schizophrenically.

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I am in the UK and am Indian (Asian). To be honest I have a much more sociable personality now than before diagnosis. I’ve been in remission for almost four years since the onset. I’ve made “friends” at work I know they like me. I do not come across as someone who has schizophrenia. No one knows. But I would love to have a friend who I can tell and who will accept me as I am.

The thing is, you have to get out there in the world to find friends. You have to be “available” or in that mode to accept new people into your circle. They are out there ,you just have to find them and take a chance.
Friends are just people you share common interests in, and hang out.
Be the friend you want to find, and be ready to take a chance.

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If you don’t mind, what is your definition of a friend? Everyone has a different definition of friendship. I can say I have lots friends. But you draw the line somewhere as to whom you let in. There are values like, once a friend brings his toothbrush to your house. You gotta kick him out. My life had been filled with lame friends. They were NOT my friends. A real friend, is made and lasts for ever.

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The only friends I can make are ones that have overcome hard times.

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My husband tries to help me make friends. i stay more to myself. I have one close friend and I have dinner once a week with her. She tries to get me to talk but i not sure about talking. So I try to be her friend. I really like staying to myself.

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My two friends are my brother’s x wife and his current sometimes girlfriend. When people know me long enough they see that there’s something - someone? - to like.

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