This girl at work was talking with a co-worker about their concussion issues. They had a 20 minute conversation on concussions. I can’t have that about schizophrenia/schizo-affective. First of all its too stigmatized to talk about and second of all the illness is so variable (differentiating in symptoms and whatnot), plus we’re too paranoid to have a decent conversation about it. I should tell you I’ve had decent conversations about it when I was living in the group home, but other than that I couldn’t see a forum built for a conversation about it much. I’ve had convos with non-schizophrenics about it too, trying to understand what I experience, but It’d be cool if I could have a connection in a place like work or school in a casual non-chalant manner “Oh yeah I was paranoid this one time and I drove my car through a 5 lane highway at 90 miles per hour”…no…it just can’t happen. Your thoughts?
Yes, you don’t want to share that kind of information at work, not only because of the stigma, but also because they couldn’t understand it. How could a person who has never heard voices understand what it is like to hear them?
the illness itself overall limits me from communicating any types of problems with co-workers. im scared if i talk about one problem it makes me paranoid theyll think i have another. but they cant think im perfect either. so i just stay silent. im not sure how to explain what goes on in my head, but its definitely a socially debilitating illness. although im doing well coping lately because i do have a good support group.
Yeah. People pretty much just ignore me anyways. It’s so much better to be alone and symptom free then it is to deal with that ■■■■. People are my only triggers. I know for certain that it’s all in my head, but after a while of hallucinating I start playing the game again and start to slip into delusion. Then it’s time to isolate and unwind.
It’ll get to the point where you don’t even want to talk about it. If you can carry on like it’s not there then it just becomes a back ground thing.
It’s definitely a personal thing that no one will truly understand. Other schizos can relate on the basics sometimes which helps.
I’ve already beaten this illness. Just gotta wait for the smoke to clear, then I’ll probably drop off this site and never think about sz again. If I’m lucky that’s all true.
Talking about your problems at work is not mandatory, right? All you owe them is a discussion about how we’re not getting enough rain this winter and who’s going to win the Superbowl next year. In an ideal world we could talk about schizophrenia like we do about the common cold or a broken leg. But this isn’t a perfect world and people are SURELY not perfect and understanding. My first job after getting diagnosed was at a small business who hired me directly from a disabled vocational program. My co-worker was schizophrenic too and we had several conversations about funny delusions and tried to one-up each other over who had the longest hospital stay (He won. A year to my 8 months). But unless you’re in a situation like that it’s not wise to disclose something incriminating that you can not take back. How serious is schizophrenia? This co-worker committed suicide about 5 months later.
Yeah this site can be depressing. Sad story.