Anyone else can’t hide the fact that they’re mentally ill when in public?

[Close_to_freedom]

It sucks. I used to be able to hide it better.

 

[AnxietyAttack44]

The secret is in knowing that you will die someday wich gives us comfort. Once you know and are comforted by it, you can stop caring about your soroundings and opinions. You get to relax a bit.

 

[glittergore]

Sometimes, especially if I'm put under stress. It doesn't really happen when I'm out and about for general things, but during jobs? It can be crippling. I had to quit my last job because of a meltdown I had.

 

[Close_to_freedom]

The secret is in knowing that you will die someday wich gives us comfort. Once you know and are comforted by it, you can stop caring about your soroundings and opinions. You get to relax a bit.

Ptsd has kept me in a state of high stress for years.

Your advice works if I'm okay being a loner forever, which I'm not okay with.

 

[AnxietyAttack44]

Ptsd has kept me in a state of high stress for years.

Your advice works if I'm okay being a loner forever, which I'm not okay with.

You are right. I hope you will find something or someone that will bring you peace and comfort then. Maybe just observing world around you. Or talking with someone who understands you, untill it gets easier

 

[Azzy69]

Yup cuz i have no way of hiding my self harm scars and I talk out loud when im manic lol :(

 

[WinterFaust]

I legitimately stopped going outside or leaving my room for this reason. I really wish I was more high-functioning. I know it has its own set of problems but it sucks being this much of a mess and not even being able to hide it.

 

[Close_to_freedom]

You are right. I hope you will find something or someone that will bring you peace and comfort then. Maybe just observing world around you. Or talking with someone who understands you, untill it gets easier

Won't be happening. The severely mentally ill are lepers.

Yup cuz i have no way of hiding my self harm scars and I talk out loud when im manic lol :(

Do people think you're schizophrenic?

I legitimately stopped going outside or leaving my room for this reason. I really wish I was more high-functioning. I know it has its own set of problems but it sucks being this much of a mess and not even being able to hide it.

I leave the house once a week to get supplies and food. Being in my room damages my mind after about 4 days.

I took a shower today. It's been a week. I became severely claustrophobic and left the shower and sat on the bathroom floor for awhile before finishing up.

 

[Azzy69]

Do people think you're schizophrenic?

I don't really know but I assume so. Nobody says anything to me they just stay clear off me which is actually good because I don't have to wait ages to get an item off the shelf :D

 

[WinterFaust]

I leave the house once a week to get supplies and food. Being in my room damages my mind after about 4 days.

I took a shower today. It's been a week. I became severely claustrophobic and left the shower and sat on the bathroom floor for awhile before finishing up.

Honestly it has been pretty damaging. Of course since I'm doing worse, it makes it harder to get anything done and it's just a vicious cycle. I do manage to take out the trash but that's about it.

Congrats on the shower! It can be really tough sometimes. I'm struggling with that too. It's just tough.

 

[Close_to_freedom]

Honestly it has been pretty damaging. Of course since I'm doing worse, it makes it harder to get anything done and it's just a vicious cycle. I do manage to take out the trash but that's about it.

Congrats on the shower! It can be really tough sometimes. I'm struggling with that too. It's just tough.

It's weird. I feel like I'm the only one who lives like this. When I go out in public, everyone seems normal and I feel out of place.

 

[Raminiki]

To a degree, I can. The only method I can muster to camouflage my weirdness is being nigh silent and avoidant of interaction. I'm known for being withdrawn and reticent, and it soon turns people off from trying to interact with me. They don't know how to get me to open up and they find my silence and dampened affect unsettling. Eventually the strain of burying everything and the isolation that entails breaks me and I have a meltdown.

 

[Nipuedoniquiero]

Sometimes I can, sometimes don't.

 

[FriendofDeath]

It's weird. I feel like I'm the only one who lives like this. When I go out in public, everyone seems normal and I feel out of place.

With quarantine and the pandemic, it's much easier to hide. And now we can wear something over our faces, too? I actually, for the first time in maybe 6 months decided I would put color on my hair. That was huge for me, but I haven't been anywhere to show it off! Sometimes when I go out, I feel like I'm in a Walking Dead episode. I am able to hide my mental differences for the most part in public.

 

[SpottedPanda]

Even though I try and avoid going out in public, as much as humanly possible, I'm highly functioning. Even when in severe psychosis, I can somehow compose myself and perform basic functioning quite well.

However, because I'm quite scruffy, and am not altogether confident, I feel people are going to inevitably question if there's something wrong with me. Not all's quite right, from the outside looking in, I feel.

 

[wonderworld]

only at work do people notice my health because I spent two hours crying outside once and no one knew where I went... I'm surprised I didn't get fired...

 

[YukiFox]

I suffer a lot in public because I want to speak to myself in public and, before the pandemic, I chew bubblegum to keep my mouth closed. Also, as I`m extremely quiet person, presumably the people took me as sociopath. So I can`t hide myself. My brain works in a slow rate. Yeah, I accomplished the chores at work and all stuff, but I feel so discnonected from society that I don`t care anymore about relationships, sex and friendships.

 

[stillweary]

If I'm too relaxed, I will slip into a dissociative state when I'm running errands or something. Those are relatively easy to snap out of, because getting weird looks from people is enough of a trigger to force me to exert more effort into being "present." But if I'm stressed, I can completely forget where I am and get stuck in a dissociated place, which is scary and humiliating, because I don't have the energy to stop it from happening.

 

[ItsAllTooLate]

I can hide my mental illness to a degree. If I work at one place for awhile everybody starts to notice that I'm different.

 

[GoneGoneGone]

The secret is in knowing that you will die someday wich gives us comfort. Once you know and are comforted by it, you can stop caring about your soroundings and opinions. You get to relax a bit.

I used to be so comforted by this thought before social media, knowing that in 50-70 years no one will remember me/ of me. Now I'm afraid (or I know) that if I were to have a mental breakdown, psychotic episode, or major panic attack in public, I'd go viral, and all extended family and acquaintances would find out. Which only feeds into my disorder further.

 

[Close_to_freedom]

I used to be so comforted by this thought before social media, knowing that in 50-70 years no one will remember me/ of me. Now I'm afraid (or I know) that if I were to have a mental breakdown, psychotic episode, or major panic attack in public, I'd go viral, and all extended family and acquaintances would find out. Which only feeds into my disorder further.

I've often wondered if someone in a parking lot has ever pulled out their phone to record me when I've engaged in my ocd compulsions.

 

[k3v3r]

That's the reason why i don't go anywhere, I'm so scared of getting a flashback or gettting overwhelmed. I want to look normal

 

[Deleted member 17949]

The only thing that slips out in public is the social anxiety tbh