The derogatory for mentally ill is a hot button

Post Reply New Topic

All my life I have had people think that it is okay to call me the "C" word or crazy. I admit this is an area that I am extremely hyper sensitive about. I am trying to learn how to ignore people who make those assumptions about me.

I filed a lawsuit against he last person to openly refer to me as "Mentally Ill". We settled out of court, and he and his family moved to the other side of the San Bernardino Mountains.

I call myself crazy, no one can bother me with that one....cause in conventional senses of the word it does fit. I've attempted suicide usually that's not something sane people do unless its that or some horrible slow painful death. Not to say I'm always irrational or self destructive....but it is something I have to fight, its an ongoing battle. I think my families got a bit of crazy in its blood. Of course it would upset me if someones putting me down for it...but yeah most people I hang around are all a little bit crazy more than once we've discussed 'are any of us sane'...and we all agree that no, certainly not.

It's either me and everyone I know is crazy for the most part or society is crazy....lol.

I am in my 30's and I admit that whenever someone calls me "Crazy" and thinks it's funny because they are being mean I still get very angry. There are some young teenagers who live in my complex and they are mouthy kids who don't have respect for anyone. You try and set boundaries with them you get sassed off at. In fact you have to call their step father if you get any trouble from them.

One of them and their boyfriend were standing outside calling me myself and a "Crazy B" for no reason. I got really mad at them yesterday without using profane words myself while telling them what they were doing was not okay.

They don't bother me otherwise and I had been having a rough weekend and I was trying to go out and feel better then I ran into them.

Either way they are mean kids.

The thing that annoys me is when people discount my opinion because I'm "odd." I can understand why they do, though, because I've done it too... when I was young and more insecure.

We look at a person and evaluate their value from superficial attributes.
And then I think, If I grew out of it, why can't others?
But I guess that's their journey.

It's just annoying because it can affect job and career prospects.

And it can create annoying work-arounds when people don't make use of my experience.

I once started a new job, where we all started together. I was the only one with a fairly complete understanding of the outcome requirements, but those above me insisted on learning the hard way and ignored my knowledge. A couple of years later, they had the cheek to say, "None of us knew what we were doing at the start."

I've done too many weird things to care if random people think I'm crazy anymore, the few people I care about know that I'm not. I used to care, but whats the point? I can't control how other people perceive me.
Like suddenly jumping and squeaking when someone touches me unexpectedly, I'm not always capable of containing that reaction, but I have reduced it from a shout to a squeak and thats as much as I can do for now; people still find it weird though, I can't stop them thinking that.

I made peace with the fact that I've behaved in ways that made other people uncomfortable and continue to make changes where I can, I took the approach of not being able to control what other people think and say, and focused on my own thoughts and actions instead. People will usually take the path of least resistance, the easy option is to dismiss the person as crazy and usually only loved ones will make the extra effort to understand and not invalidate.
Unless the words impact on my life in a tangibly negative way, I shrug it off or find some way to laugh at how their narrow outlook must impact on their experience of life.

I don't get angry when people call mecrazy or a nutter. I remind them I'm pleasantly disturbed and ask them if they are bothered by that. I get all sorts of reactions after that

Its not personal so don't take it personally. Some people just want to come out with offensive crap to get attention. If someone called youa chair you wouldn't be offended cos you know that you're not a chair. You also know you're not crazy. See it for what it is. People doing what people do best. Talking crap.

Sometimes you have to just own it. My therapist told me I'm doing well because I have rational thought processes and am expressing myself coherently... that doesn't set the bar too high on the sanity meter.