Sort of like collecting stamps... my stigmas

Collecting stigmas can be fun…

Yesterday after I managed to finally get some pants on I was still feeling a bit all over and my head circus was sort of acting up. So I was getting a bit… snarky I guess would be the word.

So guy at the gas station who I can see cringe when I walk in, I had to ask… Do I annoy you?
His reply… “All of you burnt out surfers change your mind 100 times. Why? Why can’t surfers stick to a decision.” He did say surfers… So my stigma as a surfer

The lady at the coffee shop who I wonder about… I had to ask, “Do I annoy you?” She rolled her eyes and cringed, and Ok I admit, I pushed a bit and she finally said, “You men are all the same. Ugh… men”
So my stigma as a man.

Then I decided to bother someone else with my loveliness… One of the people who my sister knows. I go to her water ex class too sometimes and she just looks at me and shakes her head. I had to ask… “Do you not want me in your class?”

She said “Well, it is a class for fast movers and you are a bit tall for shallow water. I know tall people don’t always have that much full co-ordination.” … So my stigma as a tall person.

So far people are judging me for being a tall male surfer… no one said anything about my SZ. (I might need that badge after all. Or a medic alert bracelet.)

Today is a day off and I’m almost tempted to get out there and try and annoy new people with my tall, male, burnt out surfer loveliness and see what other stigmas I can collect. :wink:

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I had that hobby once and I still have a huge collection of stamps, and a very valuable collection of coins.

It’s been nearly a month since I collected the first few stigmas of being a man, being tall and being a lost surfer…

Now I’ve been thinking of the “These Kid’s Today” stigmas…

The way things went with the kid sis yesterday really makes me think more and more about the whole…
"kids today are… " Some are I’m sure, but a lot aren’t.
My sis has friends who are kids who aren’t like “Kids toady”

I was also thinking about her 67 year old glass blowing friend who I’m sure gets stuck in the age box.

I was thinking about the stigma of SZ all and I do hate it when I come across it, but what is better…

To never say anything and let people hold on to their ideas of what SZ is, or to try and open that dialogue and show them the other side of it? If I never let them see me when I’m in my day to day head, then how will they ever know I can be in a day to day head?

If we wanted to spark the change… what could we do?

That’s better… :relieved: :coffee: :smoking: :egg: :pill:

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It’s good that you can talk to people in a friendly way. I could never pull that off. Carry on.

That’t the main problem with prejudice and stigma. It holds true because no one shows them anything different.
You’d think in this day and age with the internet, more people would come forth and show the truth behind the label.
Only the few that make the occasional news have the power to change a lot of minds at one time.
The rest just have to hope to get notice by the few they interact with?

One good thing about my therapist is that she does not like to label people or put people into boxes.
She has an aversion against diagnosing people. She agrees that I have a complex illness, and she basically leaves at that - she feels that I have both schizophrenic and bipolar symptoms

I am sitting at a computer in the library surrounded by normals, doing this site. One reason I’m sitting here is to confront the stigma attached to being SZ. One person has complimented me on being 72. Two stigmas right there!

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I like how you live. just telling everyone about your illness. I can’t do that i think i would be paranoid as hell when dealing with people!!! but i do admire it!

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It was pointed out that I used to do this as a way to scare people away from me so I didn’t have to get to know anyone. That’s how it started. Now it’s a bit of that and a bit of hey, I might be mentally ill, but I’m not crazy.

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