Hello, everyone.
As I have mentioned before, I have therapy (CBT). So, my doctor says that I am stigmatizing myself. It’s true, but we all do. The bad thing is that I see it like my doctor said it’s my responsibility for all the stigma, etc! How do you cope with self stigmatizing? Perhaps it would be better if we all stopped it?
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My therapist says review my accomplishments…
One therapist I had said put my accomplishments on a scale of 1-10 for example. Then when faced with something new… assess it and see if it’s harder then something I’ve done before… or easier then I’ve done before.
For the most part… I get help getting over my lack of inner confidence.
Good luck and I hope things get easier for you. It’s hard work… but I feel CBT helped me a lot.
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Thanks for your wishes. I don’t seem to get helped by CBT, because I don’ t remember everytime about what we had spoken the previous time. So, money is wasted. I am also not willing to change, because I think it’s the others’ fault for me being so depressed, and my doctor says it’s my fault. He wants to blame me for everything, like many people do, and I don’t like that.
I’m sorry your CBT is going like that. Mine seemed to focus on helping me get out and moving. Creating steps to a goal and avoiding self destructive behavior. I don’t remember my CBT trying to talk me out of depression.
What do you mean by this? I don’t understand…
I’m sorry… I think maybe I miss read something. Sorry for me being confused. I’ve been miss reading all morning. Please forgive.
I was trying to relay that my CBT seemed very concrete goal oriented. Lots of cause and effect.
Therapists often say to take responsibility for our own thoughts. Like, “don’t blame others or project” and I understand where you are coming from. Therapists are not us, and can only offer counsel to help us grow. I’d take everything a therapist says with a grain of salt. I had a therapis who tried all sorts of techniques new to her on me for resolving trauma, but I tired of it–felt I began reliving the traumas unnecessarily instead of moving past them.
I would like to try therapy again as I feel at this point it could help me. I’ve been my own therapist for awhile, and it has worked greatly when at my worst I hid my symptoms or could not leave all the reign to someone else. I found it unsuccessful in my most traumatic moments of psychosis because I felt vulnerable with the experiences, but am willing to give it time to process better now that I have overcome them.
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Why forgive you? You haven’t done anything wrong! My English is not perfect, so, I didn’t understand what “talk out” means. To get you out of depression?
self stigmatizing reminds me of “can’t take a compliment”.
That’s how I think CBT should be…not focused on emotions, but on cognitions and correcting erroneous thoughts. I think I’ll either drive my therapist away, or drive her mad if she sticks with me. 
It’s not your responsibility for the stigma in other people’s heads, it’s for the stigma you are seeing around you when there is none, thus making people think “oh, redrose is acting like this because of the illness”. It’s a judgement I’ve personally seen you tend to bestow on others, that they stigmatize you, even if they don’t, until they start to think that maybe there is something wrong if you perceive things like that… Aaaand that’s how self-accomplishing prophecies tend to appear, if you know what I mean.
Please don’t get offended by the above, I am giving you my honest input on the subject.
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I did some research on this for one of my thesis ideas, we often attribute stigma to ourselves due to an internal attributional style.
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But there is stigma by everyone I think, even between szs. And since I feel weak and not well, I do act like this because of the illness, if I was well I wouldn’t mind anything and would be stronger! Yes, sth is wrong with me, I do agree, but can’t change it even on meds! Shouldn’t people respect me?
I do not understand the concept of multiple SZs. There is one illness, that is SZ, and possibly multiple psychotic episodes. However, I do understand that you feel not well in between episodes and that, feeling not well, you believe that people stigmatize you. They don’t. Try simply being friendly and open (and who kows better than me that it’s a great effort to do so when you feel like your whole world is falling apart daily) and people will react the same way.
I’m sorry to be the one who breaks this to you, but people do not just respect other people. Even when they see a handicapped person that manages to do extremely well, someone has to tell them that they should respect that person in order for them to feel that way. People are just not built to feel that kind of emotion, they will feel whatever you determine them to feel - if you act weak and fragile, they most probably will feel aversion and the a need to avoid you.
Now, that may seem harsh, but it took me 10 years of illness to realize it. Wanna go through the same process until you hopefully realize you have to act positive and strong even when you feel you can’t? I beg you not to. Just take my word for it: people will only show you a mirror of what you show them. Change your appearance and you will see their attitude will change , too. 
I was not reffering to “schizophrenias”, but to schizophrenics. I don’t know if I am friendly and open if they will treat me better, perhaps not. I have had the illness for more than 20 years and been facing the stigma ever since. It’s not so easy showing up you are strong and positive if you are not.
I know some people who use their smartphone to record (via a free recording app like this:
Or here for Android:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cogi.mobile
Full list here:
So you can review them later.
This allows you to get a lot more benefit from the sessions.
Also - to benefit the most from CBT you need to write down the situations and thoughts that trigger negative feelings or voices, etc.
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Thank you! I have a question! I should tell the doctor that I am recording our conversation or not?
Sure - they won’t mind. Explain that your memory is not as good as you’d like and this helps you get the most benefit from your sessions. I’ve never heard of a psychologist that has a problem with it.
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Ok, I’ll tell him next time!! Many thanks.
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I think our basic difference here is that I want everyone to accept me with my illness, for example, if they say sth wrong is with me, still accept me as a person, because I 've become one with the illness after so many years, whereas you say that we shouldn’t get stigmatized each one as a person. Perhaps what you say is better for a patient that is going well, but, for a person who is not well, the first is prefered for me.
Not sure if this is what your therapist means by self-stigmatizing, but I’ve observed on other threads that you have been confused when people make jokes or comments and they aren’t being serious. You usually imagine that people seem meaner than they really are to yourself and others.
If you look for stigma in this world one can always find it whether it’s intentional or not. You aren’t going to change people and their attitudes about stigma, other than providing a positive example of someone with sz. But you can change how you think and react to what people say, and try to find the best in people rather than the worst. If you react to the positive and minimize the negative, you’ll project a more positive attitude, and perhaps feel better about yourself and other people.
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