Playing with other children?

Who here has early memories of playing or not playing with other children? All I can think is from 8 onwards I was very much a loner and into solitary activities. I have no recollection of playing with other children before that age . Is that something you could just forget ?

I don’t remember when I was younger but as an adult I didn’t have many friends.

1 Like

@firemonkey
I think you would remember if you played with other kids.

1 Like

Even pre 8? 15 char

monkey. i was allways out going, and try all kinds of clubs and class,and music. kids that went said i push the teachers to hard, and i didn’t fit in because of that fact. i just need…

1 Like

@firemonkey
Yeah. I do. I know we struggle with memory, but there is emotional connection with people or we have images. I just think you would remember something. I could be wrong. I’m not an expert.

1 Like

Memory usually starts around three or four years old. I know the illness had affected my memory though.

1 Like

I have a lot of siblings, so there were always someone to play with. I remember one of my first friends I had when I was 3, Laila. She contacted me on facebook a few years ago, because she remembered me too!

2 Likes

I didn’t really have very many friends.

1 Like

When I was in my twenties, a year or two after being diagnosed, I started thinking of my childhood a lot and rehashing the good parts and bad parts of it. When I was 7 or 8 years old I remembered that when I was in about second grade I just remember long periods of time where I was in my room playing alone. It seemed that went on for a long time.

I think it’s typical for people with schizophrenia to think back on their past and try to figure out what went wrong and where did we go wrong.

I got very angry at my mother for just letting me play by myself so much because I read somewhere that socializing as young children is very important to their development. But that said, I do remember having a best friend from 1st-3rd grade. I remember being over his house a lot. A pattern in my childhood was that I was not unpopular (or popular) but I didn’t feel overly disliked. I used to kind of have periods where I would get close to one friend and hang around them more than anyone else for awhile and then months later I would be hanging around some other friend and be good friends.

So I had friends as a kid but I was OK playing by myself and I could be happy just hanging around our house climbing the big tree in our front yard or hanging out in our basement and exploring all the neat stuff my parents had stored there. Or even just playing with my sisters and building a huge cardboard house out of empty boxes and crawling around in it or playing with my cousins when they visited.

2 Likes

I had no problems playing with other children.

All my problems started in adolescence

2 Likes

In grade three I would sit in the field at lunch and meditate. I was a weird goth kid. Didn’t have too many friends.

1 Like

You must be Canadian

1 Like

How did you know?

Grade three is called the third grade in the us

1 Like

Honestly i think its likely that theres some truth to it, its quite common although im sure if you asked someone theyd remember you having lots of friends (selective memory). I was quite an introvert as well. Nothing wrong with that. Its just how God made some people. We cant all social bugs like the ants, some of us are caterpillars or beetles or crickets and just need more time alone. :):grinning:

1 Like

I used to get in trouble on my report card for “too much socializing” in grade school.
Seems I coildn’t keep my big mouth shut.

Jr high was a bit more awkward, because my friends suddenly became competitive because of boys.

By high school I wasn’t interested in having friends anymore and just wanted to get out of school and go home.

1 Like

I remember playing with other children up to about grade six. After that, it’s like I was Kryptonite.

1 Like

I remember some friends I had in kindergarten. I played with other kids but I was also relentlessly teased by older kids. My big sister saw to that. I’ve always liked having friends.

1 Like

@77nick77
Is the isolation linked to schizophrenia? I had a lot of friends and was close to my family in elementary school when I started hallucinating. The same in high school. I was a cheerleader, co-captain for the powderpuff team, and captain of the lacrosse team when I quit school and sports because I couldn’t think anymore. I was married with kids, working full-time, and serving in ministry in my 30s when I completely lost it. I’m not familiar with the connections between lack of socialization and illness. Can someone please explain them to me?