Navigating relationships

Hi @Meowmy , I totally agree with you. Friendships are hard and with a mental illness it makes them even harder. That is why I value my forum friends on here so much more. I still know it is not the same as having those friendships in real life...

@Snowie @Not easy to get the appropriate distance right and feelings often can be confusing. With MI, hard to know if the other party would have much prejudice.

Since my mental illness I have lost lots of friendships. Not sure if it is them not knowing how to deal with me or me pushing people away. I seem to think it is the later. We certainly go into our own little bubble.

@Meowmy

@Snowie @I did the same thing for twenty years. Lately I had been stable and contacted a few of them. Some of them quite happy to reconnect. So it may worth the efforts.That also seem to help my sense of loss too.

Glad you have contacted a few of them @Meowmy Hopefully you can have good and supporting friendships with them. Well done for reaching out to them

Hi, yes I totally understand that.

@Snowie @Bentpole-01 I think friendships are slow to build and reconnect. I am just making baby steps of recovery and finding friendships again.

May be having MI teaches us some thing deep and richer that we can connect with more meaningful friends over time.@ali11

Yes, it's slow to try and reconnect. I think also you have to make a choice to walk away from a friendship vs staying and hoping people with make the effort to stay connected.

@Snowie I tried to reach out to a coworker whom I have worked with for six months. She is a single mum and asked me for some relationship issues. I offered to walk together during the Easter break, but she said she has to sort out her house. So may be next time. I am organizing a lunch with a few people I knew before my illness for in two weeks. So I feel a bit more connected.

Hope you feel better and enjoy some connections you like.

@Bentpole-01 Hope you are working things out with your partner. Relationships take work. I find it hard at the moment with my aging mum with early dementia. It feels tense. I try to breathe and take it easy around the house and keep positive. Hope you enjoy Easter break and gain some satisfaction from relationships and friendships.

Take care.