When I am reading this forum I see a lot more similarities than differences between myself and someone diagnosed with a mental illness.
I know that it can seem like non-sz or non-diagnosed MI people really have their lives together. That we are obtaining our goals, reaching our dreams, working at jobs of our choice, surrounded by family and love and just overall walking around like we have no cares in this world. Well that is not the case at all. We suffer from a lot of the same grievances like low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, social anxiety, not feeling loved or understood, feeling disconnected, lack of motivation, feeling judged and like we don’t measure up, feeling overwhelmed and even feeling uneducated or stupid to name but a few. We all have stumbled and fallen and have had life deal us some pretty harsh blows.
This is partly motivated by the fact that I cringe when I see references to normies or normal people like we are somehow from a different world with different standards, fighting for different things. We have the same goals of love and family and of wanting to somehow leave our mark on this world so that our lives have meaning. Maybe we do it differently but we are all in this world, the same world, together.
The purpose of this post is not to start a competition on who’s lives are the hardest or who suffers the most but to bring to light that we all suffer a lot of the same things that we think make us different but in my opinion should be bringing us closer together. I want to tear down that wall that separates us and bring us all into the same room. A room without prejudices of any kind but a room of people fighting for and against the same things.
So yes I want everyone to list some of the hurdles they face either about themselves or the world around them on a daily basis. I also want you to list some of your goals or dreams and what is important to you. I’m hoping the results will show that we all are not so different.
I have or have had issues with social anxiety, fear of driving, insomnia, shyness, low self-esteem and feeling judged.
Still trying to figure out my long term goals.
I dream of a nice house to call my own and growing old with my husband, with my children and grandchildren surrounding me.
My family is the most important thing to me.