Helyna
Well-known member
Is it possible to be normal? Not in general. You can be normal for a certain group of people, or normal in specific areas, but I don't think anyone really is normal. Otherwise, we'd all be alike, and life would be boring.
So why do people obsess with being normal? Because it makes us feel safe somehow? Because we are so afraid of the unknown and different that we can't stand to see it in ourselves? But "normal" doesn't exist. We're all aiming for a mirage that we have named "normal".
Well, sometimes I wonder about how this mirage is affecting people with Social Phobia. I know that they feel an unusual amount of anxiety in social situations, and I'm not going to say that this isn't a real feeling or that it's entirely under our control. But could it be that half of our problem - beyond the original reactions - is that we are convinced that everyone else is normal and there is something wrong with us? This can only make us more anxious in social situations, since we think that we stand out as strange.
It's unusual, perhaps abnormal, to not be somewhat anxious around people you don't know well, or even the ones you do know, especially as a teenager or young adult. So people with Social Phobia feel this to a greater extent - but are they so far off from "normal"?
And if we weren't fixated on not looking odd, in most cases nobody would notice that we are any more unusual than anyone else is.
So could it be that if we accepted that we are normal - or that nobody is - at least half our fear would disappear?
So why do people obsess with being normal? Because it makes us feel safe somehow? Because we are so afraid of the unknown and different that we can't stand to see it in ourselves? But "normal" doesn't exist. We're all aiming for a mirage that we have named "normal".
Well, sometimes I wonder about how this mirage is affecting people with Social Phobia. I know that they feel an unusual amount of anxiety in social situations, and I'm not going to say that this isn't a real feeling or that it's entirely under our control. But could it be that half of our problem - beyond the original reactions - is that we are convinced that everyone else is normal and there is something wrong with us? This can only make us more anxious in social situations, since we think that we stand out as strange.
It's unusual, perhaps abnormal, to not be somewhat anxious around people you don't know well, or even the ones you do know, especially as a teenager or young adult. So people with Social Phobia feel this to a greater extent - but are they so far off from "normal"?
And if we weren't fixated on not looking odd, in most cases nobody would notice that we are any more unusual than anyone else is.
So could it be that if we accepted that we are normal - or that nobody is - at least half our fear would disappear?
