my dad was out mountain biking with a few of his buddys the other day. They dont know much about my mental illness. They were asking him why I wasnt continuing my education pursuit into software engineering.
So my dad said in somewhat simple terms , well plans changed and he isnt able to continue it and will try to go back to work. he deals with some very big ups and downs to put it lightly.
Then they asked “well how can he do big mountain bike rides???” so he said well during the ‘up’ periods there is limitless energy. and also it is done as an escape from current reality.
and when its ‘down’ its not like having low motivation, its more like having 0 motivation.
They asked 'like did you notice anything wrong at times or earlier on? did anything get bad?
and my dad just said . well yeah it got bad, then it got REALLY bad. and then it got worse.
and left it at that.
so now they have a basic understanding. but really because of stigma cant talk about psychosis.
its too bad we still have stigma with normies.
i dont mind that they know a bit I just dont like to be bugged about things that are not understood.
my dad has a done a lot to learn about it too, to help me find good treatment and stuff.
im lucky to have supportive people in my life. Or I probably wouldn’t of made it through.
it took my family a while to accept that illness wasn’t going away by some miracle lol. although my mom 13 years later still says miracles happen you could get healed! Im still waitin mom!
When I came down with sza at the age of 34 (when I was diagnosed), my parents and siblings rarely to never came to visit me when I was hospitalized. My mother spoke to only one of my pdocs one time.
My family never expressed any interest or concern about my illness. All they ever said was either I didn’t have sza or they would say my illness was “the work of the Devil”.
yeah the pastor actually said i had symptoms of bipolar and should see a psychiatrist. as i had a crazy episode where jesus kept taking over my identity and id be referred to in the 3rd person, and many other things. my parents called the pastor to come over at 4am when i had gone totally insane. ill spare the details