Sounds really bad, I know, but I’m so obsessed with my mental illness that I’m finding it harder and harder to relate to anyone who hasn’t had a psychotic experience (my bf and most of my family fall into this category… :(). I know everyone has their struggles. Depression and anxiety seem to be common among normies. I don’t mean to downplay anyone’s hardships in life. But the feeling of not being in control of your own mind is absolutely horrifying and I’m having trouble moving past my wretched period of delusional thinking. I’m being encouraged to find more interests, more hobbies; I’m intensely questioning myself to find out what I’m truly interested in, and once I find those things, I’ll have more to talk about, more to think about. For now though, what can I do to feel less like an outsider in the midst of people who aren’t ill like I am? Thanks for reading.
I was just thinking the exact same thing today. I just feel like a complete outsider in society. I’ve moved passed “not being able to relate” to people and onto really disliking them. Hopefully that won’t happen to you but it might be a natural progression…
they seem insulated, don’t they?
like nothing will ever touch them.
I admire them for that, but I’d like some in return too.
@everhopeful I understand why you feel the way you do. It’s hard not to be envious of people who haven’t been psychotic, and envy often leads to resentment. I’ll have to really turn things around with my thinking to not become resentful.
@Daze Yeah, seems to me like they’re able to handle so much!
And to think I was once one of them. I should have done more with my life before things went drastically south.
my mom says
I’ve always been weird.
thanks, mom.
I haven’t met one of those.
Everyone has their own hardships, even people who haven’t experienced psychosis. And everyone’s different. We all have our quirks and our flaws. Relating to everyone around you is pretty hard, but I’m sure there are lots of normies who feel the same way. No one’s a normies if you think about it
You can think about that people as if they were you before your illness, if they ignore everything about this illness, it is not their fault, they are ignorants.
I can’t help but think how rude so many normies are.
This one cocky older guy cut in front of me while I was waiting to pay for a quart of milk.
I let it go like a dummy because I didn’t want trouble.
@antidepressant044 show me a normal person lol, i dont even know what that is, nobody i know is normal lol
idk if it should be an ‘us and them’ type thing anyway
normal to me is not so much who they are but what they can do like, get married, have kids, big house, car, good job…
I found my mind one morning and it explained everything - because my mind had been on war and death and I had suppressed that as unacceptable. Now that I found where my hidden mind was, I want more to do. I’m reading again and want to be busy again, mentally. Now, it’s the physical problems that are slowing me down.
One of the things that led to me thinking about the woman who became my GF was something she said when I first met her and was gingerly talking about my disability. I remember her being completely calm and not showing any signs of discomfort or hostility. She said “what’s normal anyways?” When I talked about my feelings of abandonment from my family, she asked why they didn’t care and said my illness was no different than any other illness. Implying an opinion that I found refreshing, she was questioning the very reasoning behind attaching any stigma.
I find my life is different cos of motivation and worries of relapse …I think with time hopefully we will become less traumatised (I think we have said this before lol but just in case) and then it may be easier but I just dunno how long that will be for me personally. I do feel like I will have the thought of relapse in my head all my life tbh but maybe if u dont relapse after a certain time point then the chances become slimmer so then the thought becomes vaguer???..sorry I feel like I cant give great advice on this but I do sympathise though.
There is a difference between normal and schizophrenic. They have so much going. I could never contain so much. I wonder how much of it is valuable. Maybe a lot -
I don’t need to be able to relate to my co-workers, just to get along with them politely for 7.5 hrs per day. That’s manageable.
This. The more you engage with normal people, the more you’ll find, we’re not so different.
Sure, you and I have experienced different realities to them, and it’s not necessary to share that with them. But life isn’t easy for anyone really.
idk how they get by without meds tbh
I can’t relate because of cognitive difficulties. I sort of shut down in small to large groups of people. I can’t process all the information.
I think everyone has to toil in the dirt just to get by. Psychosis is like going off to war in a sense. You come back to normal life and you realised how much it messed you up.