Family vs Everyone else

Leroythelost wrote:Thank you Skittersih for replying

You're welcome Leroythelost. I didn't realise you'd already accessed mh supports, it does sound frustrating. Unfortunately I went thru a lot of trial error too, from what some peers w complex mh issues have told me it's not uncommon but with persistence they found what they were looking for. It may help to be able to convey more specifically what your goals are, what you want out of therapy (or whichever treatment you access).

I'm wondering what the barriers to making friends are. I respect your privacy & understand if you prefer not to talk about them here. fwiw the questions that come to my mind are...

When you try to build bonds with new people, say at uni, do you have a lot of friends & acquaintances who you spend time with but the feelings of attachment & bonding aren't there, it's more like 'going thru the motions' in a detached state?

Or, when you want to befriend someone new do you avoid them altogether, for example, go and spend lunch in the library by yourself instead of with people?

Do you feel you have good social skills with new people like conversation, feeling somewhat relaxed in their company, being able to read people & social cues, or is the social world more cryptic?

I can relate to all of these! I relate to feelings of isolation tho it may vary from your lived experience & be for different reasons. Everyone is so different, even within PD's individual personalities can vary a lot. My impression from irl support groups is that folk w supportive family succeed in their mh goals, isolated folk have a much bigger task.