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Living with MI and Making friends

Living with MI and Making friends

Do you find it hard to connect with others or have you lost friends due to having a MI? How do you broach this topic with new friends? How do you know when to open up? I read this insightful article by Michael Hedrick and would love to hear your thoughts about it.

Here's a snippet:

"I have a hard time making friends.

Getting to trust people well enough to call them a friend takes a lot of work. It’s especially hard when you are living with schizophrenia and think everyone is making fun of you.

Schizophrenia is the devil on your shoulder that keeps whispering in your ear and, no matter what you try, the little demon won’t stop. He hasn’t stopped in the almost nine years I’ve lived with the illness, and he’s not about to stop now. He’s just quieted down a bit. I’d call him my companion but that would imply a degree of friendship, and there’s no way in hell I’m the little devil’s friend." (For full article by Michael Hedrick, click here).

49 replies

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In response to: Living with MI and Making friends

Re: Living with MI and Making friends

karma, I am sorry for that slip of the tongue, but at the time I had been suffering the pain of Cellilitus in the left leg for over three week. Pain killers do not help and because I have had so many anti biotics in such a short time I am not able to have anymore, orally, at this stage. The next stage is hospital and IV antibiotics by the bucket full. Six times I have had this in 7 weeks. The words meant, "take to many pills"but now I am aware that this is not the place to say things like that but through tears I just had given up. Saw my shrink 3/11 and spoke for over a hour , helped abit, but decided, been there done that and failed far to many times and I could not face another failure. tHANK YOU FOR YOUR INPUT AND OFFER, IT MEANS THAT i NOW REALLY BELIEVE MY OWN WORDS WE DO CARE IN THIS FORUM for each and everyone.

On the upper.

loopy.

In response to: Living with MI and Making friends

Re: Living with MI and Making friends

Something I have learnt is that when I was ill, I was extremely intense with conversation and me not realising that..did not realise how anti magnetic that is to most folks. Mostly people just want a friend who is light of heart and umm mind, they want someone who will make them laugh and feel good. This is not a bad thing by any means, but the trick f it is knowing what sort of friendship is required.

In response to: Re: Living with MI and Making friends

Re: Living with MI and Making friends

@Loopy, thanks for updating us

Physical health I liken to a car...when it is running well it's a dream, but when they break down they're a curse!

Here's to a speedy recovery...your medicine, a healthy dose of lived experience forum, administer daily, (hee hee)!

In response to: Re: Living with MI and Making friends

Re: Living with MI and Making friends

karma, had a good talk with my shrink and said that intence pain can cause a depression relaps, he gave me some pain relief and sleeper. i must admit i feel a bit better also words of encouragement from this forum are a great help.“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”

kind regards,

loopy.

In response to: Re: Living with MI and Making friends

Re: Living with MI and Making friends

karma, “All things are difficult before they are easy "

loopy

In response to: Living with MI and Making friends

Re: Living with MI and Making friends

I couldn't think of any words for you loopy except for this.
You inspire me to work harder on myself to try and get somewhere closer in my health to where you are with yours, your journey is such a journey that you should be very proud of how far you have come already and that you will always have people who care for you whether known or unknowns - ie people from the forum.
Every small step is another small step closer to the giant leap we are all aiming for. I hope that makes sense to you..... I am never really good at putting my thoughts into words lol
I hope and pray that you are feeling in a better place mind body and soul

In response to: Re: Living with MI and Making friends

Re: Living with MI and Making friends

kato, I thank you for your kind thoughts and comments. With age comes alittle more wisdom. Unfortunately I don't always take notice of my words to others. I am overwhelmed by the comments I have received, but with age comes wisdom, so they say. Also I do feel a bit better and mostly because of this forum and its members. Words cannot express my gratitude. "When life seems to beat you down, dare to fight back."

loopy

In response to: Re: Living with MI and Making friends

Re: Living with MI and Making friends

loopy,

Enjoy reading your posts.

In response to: Living with MI and Making friends

Re: Living with MI and Making friends

Dear wacky world,

how are you ? I've always 'done my own thing,' but similar to many other teens when teens were around,,,,1080 to 1983 esp. I was massively bullied at high school. Then, did my own thing when in my 20s and 30s and now 40s. I'm reminded though, I can still speak I do my own thing .....but do I have those special two friends that your supposed to have ? No I don't but .....got this forum I feel okay in.

In response to: Re: Living with MI and Making friends

Re: Living with MI and Making friends

Hey all. Hope you're all good today.

I've never had many friends. A few, but I always find it hard to make new friends. So I make an effort to hang on, and stay in touch.

I can't stand small talk. I'm not good at it. Maybe this is partly a guy thing: male friendships aren't really like those between women. Friendships between men are most often formed against a backdrop of common interests: for example work, cars or sport (playing it or following it). For me and a long-term mate, it's music. We used to send each other tapes; now it's USBs.

I'm not really a party person. I would rather just chat to one or two people for a couple of hours. Which I do but not often enough. I think I put people off.

My careers outplacement counsellor (see also my post about being managed out of a job) told me I come across as too intense. And that I should smile more. I find it hard to force that wort of thing. That was always the worst torture at school, smiling for the school photos.

This forum's good. I don't need to pretend to be what I'm not.

Z

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