I take pleasure in the current little things which is how I make peace with myself. One thing I try to do is avoid keeping up with the Jones’. Comparing one’s life to another life is an exercise in futility.
Find the things you enjoy and pursue them no matter how insignificant.
100% agree with that statement, comparison truly is the thief of joy
I tried to figure out how one group of people I was around over a year ago was similar to people I was around when my kids were little. Some of it is they were people who were making comparisons and judging people based on what they do and what they have, including me.
Those types of people aren’t for me and I feel uncomfortable and self-conscious around them.
That’s a good observation.
I also find that I’m happiest when I do and pursue the things I want to do and don’t base that off of what other people are doing.
When I’m upset about what I believe was stolen from me and what I believe they did to me my partner says “at least you have pretty nails and that’s the main thing “ lol 
I was not happy as a child but suffered so much and as adult so it’s been my whole life .
I have not felt like myself in my own body msny times my life .
Others acting as me against my will and with malicious jealousy etc and felt tied in invisible restraint etc
I adore being and feeling like myself and miss myself.
Thankfully my sacred partner and dog are with me and they may know true me despite all the horrible ones 
..
Golden moments , light years , one’s spirit , one’s nature .ones space etc and true self and all one is will not be stolen or enslaved in end but come back to one and live in peace and love and freedom and happiness.
I never married or had children as such but spiritually deeper level maybe I did in way and I believe I married with children if I want 
with my one and may our children never mix with “those ones “and may “those ones “ have no access .(those ones meaning nasty fu#%*+# who were too putrid ..
I lost 2 years to burnout from my job and then 1 year to just total unmedicated mental illness. My family just treated me like a total loser because of it despite my entire life being an upward trend until that point. My parents let me live with them but my mom always complains about how I don’t help out and just stay in my room all day. They know I am mentally ill but don’t really understand it as a disability. It has been tough for me but I have had other supportive people in my life I could rely on.
My mom expects me to take care of her in her disability (self-imposed…alcoholism) while giving me no acknowledgement of or assistance with my own. 
I was asked to take care of her when she was having migraines due to being hungover. I actually get genuine migraines and have my whole life. When I’d ask my dad to keep it down he would purposely make the dog bark when I had a migraine to tease (and torment) me. Forgive me for having little sympathy for her or helping him take care of her in that moment.
I find suitable to chew tobacco after schizophrenia. Otherwise I didn’t.
It wasn’t problem for me. In the few years leading up to schizophrenia I wasn’t doing anything anyways. I was working a string of minimum wage jobs, smoking a lot of pot and had lost my few friends. I was broke and driving beat up old cars and wasn’t going to school and didn’t have a girlfriend.
The only worthwhile thing I did after graduating high school at age 17 was move out on my own a month after I turned 18. That lasted until I was 19 and I moved back in with my parents. I wasn’t even working the half year before I got diagnosed, I was just laying on my parents couch watching TV and occasionally going jogging in the hills.
The year before I got diagnosed I was seeing this cute young therapist. She was really nice but I never let on how bad I was doing so it was a surprise for me, her and my parents when the psychiatrist told us I should immediately be hospitalized. I remember my therapist crying when she heard this.
I went in the psyche ward for a week, then moved into Soteria House, a world famous, experimental house for schizophrenics. I stayed there a year then went to the hospital and stayed 8 months then I moved into a nice group home. 9 months later I got a job and stayed there four years.
Before I got sick I never held a job for more than three months but worked some jobs afterwards that I stayed for years. Since I’ve been sick I’ve been working.
I’m not saying I’ve had a great life with schizophrenia but I’ve traveled, had friends, had a couple girlfriends, many cars, I’ve lived on my own in regular society for 20 years and done a ton of fun stuff. I chose to isolate these past 8 years but I still go to work, make and go to all my doctors appointments and just take care of any business that comes up. I had fun as a teenager but I’ve also had a lot of fun despite having schizophrenia.