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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 11 of 11. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Toph on April 30, 2005, at 20:27:21
What if we were considered sane and everyone else insane? We might call those unlike ourselves “normies”. If one of us started acting real level headed and unemotional we might say in a condescending way, “You normie @ss.” Saturday Night Live would have a skit about two guys who go to a dance club wearing expensive Italian suits. Politely asking two women to dance they proclaim, “We are two mild and normie guys!”
Normies would go to psychiatrists to try to gain insight into why they are so stable. Therapeutic treatment would strive to make normies develop frequent mood swings and more chaos in their lives. We would ridicule their feeble attempts to hallucinate, loath life or obsess like we can so easily. If normies were excessively grounded they would be detained in hospitals until they convinced the staff that they had sufficiently reduced their sanity.
A psychotic physician who is on the faculty of South Chicago Community College would create an internet support site called Normo Babble. Posters would support each other by sharing such problems as sleeping 8 hours every night, tremendously enjoying the company of their parents, and having too many promotions at work. Pharmaceutical companies would spend millions developing medications that would instill anxiety, depression, delusions and mania in desperate normie patients. The DSM IV would have such diagnoses as chronic considerate personality, unipolar calmness disorder, and excessive self-confidence syndrome.
OK, so this notion may be a little far fetched, but imagine that most people were born with some form of mental illness and normal people were in the minority. Wouldn’t we become the standard for normal behavior, ideal brain chemistry, and desired genetics? Call me crazy, but it would be nice to see others spend years on the couch trying to be more like me for a change.
Toph
Posted by Susan47 on April 30, 2005, at 21:15:06
In reply to Call Me Crazy, posted by Toph on April 30, 2005, at 20:27:21
To be quite honest with you, Toph, the sad truth is that people who are too normal, well, quite frankly I find many people a bit boring. Because those normal people I'm thinking of, well, they're just not in touch with the intensity I have for everything. That makes me feel uncomfortable, as though I were too big for my skin, I'm popping out of it, you know? And that's at my down times as well as my up times, that feeling is constant for me, being different. It's gotten to the point in my life where I'm learning to make the most of it, the best I can, of that. Being in theatre really helps, there're lots of non-normies there. And you know, I think we ARE something to aspire to, sometimes.
Posted by alexandra_k on April 30, 2005, at 22:05:53
In reply to Re: Call Me Crazy » Toph, posted by Susan47 on April 30, 2005, at 21:15:06
Oh yes yes yes Susan - you have nailed it.
It is funny...
But the people who find life so unbelievably HARD and don't even want to be alive sometimes really do tend to be the most alive and vibrant people around.Who wants to be 'normal' or 'average' anyways?
Happy, I could buy.
But not at the expense of passion.
No.
Thats why I wonder if mental illness is really a mixed blessing...
Sure, there are a lot of downsides.
But maybe there are upsides too.
Of course, it is impossible to see the latter when you really are down and life seems so very hard.
But I would hate to be boring
yup yup yup
Posted by alexandra_k on May 1, 2005, at 4:11:58
In reply to Call Me Crazy, posted by Toph on April 30, 2005, at 20:27:21
(As requested)
Posted by Toph on May 1, 2005, at 6:32:27
In reply to Re: PS - You are Crazy, Toph ;-), posted by alexandra_k on May 1, 2005, at 4:11:58
Posted by AdaGrace on May 1, 2005, at 9:38:19
In reply to Call Me Crazy, posted by Toph on April 30, 2005, at 20:27:21
Call us insane.
Hey Tophiary,
It's hard to be normal you know. I acted that part in a long running play way off Broadway for a long period of time.
It was called...."Gracie's so called Normal Life"
Eventually I got fired because I kept showing up to work with vino on my breath. But while it was running, and I was actively working, I felt a tremendous amount of pressure from the role. People would come up to me and ask me how I did it. How I managed to play the part of a mother, lover, sister, brother....and stay sane.
It would be the best compliments I ever got. My best performance, don't you know. Oscar worthy actually. Until the day the trap door on stage fell open and I fell into the abyss below. One can only pretend normalcy for so long, until people become wise to the act. Isn't it funny how "normal" can be portrayed. Aren't "normal" people just acting? And yes Susan is so right, isn't she? "Normal" is so utterly boring.
Posted by AdaGrace on May 1, 2005, at 9:39:59
In reply to Re: Call Me Crazy, posted by AdaGrace on May 1, 2005, at 9:38:19
Posted by Toph on May 1, 2005, at 14:47:09
In reply to Re: Call Me Crazy, posted by AdaGrace on May 1, 2005, at 9:38:19
Gracie, like alex said, you're so normally crazy here that you're crazily normal here. : )
Posted by Susan47 on May 1, 2005, at 21:38:10
In reply to Re: Call Me Crazy, posted by AdaGrace on May 1, 2005, at 9:38:19
An actress, well Gracie, now I know what I was instantly attracted to. Uh-huh.
Posted by broken on May 2, 2005, at 7:59:08
In reply to Re: Call Me Crazy » Toph, posted by Susan47 on April 30, 2005, at 21:15:06
You have described my feelings to a tee.
I don't think there has ever been a "normal" artist. Musically, painting, sculpting, it's all the same. These people are normally labled eccentric, because you wouldn't want to call someone revered by millions of people crazy, would you?
Can you imagine a life without passion? I can. I can see it all around me. Sometimes, I feel sorry for those people. One day, they will be dead, and what have they done? What have they left behind? Oh, people all around their town will come to the funeral and discuss the "fine upstanding citizen", such a solid, stable, person.
I won't be described like that. I'm too erratic, too volatile a personality. I'm the guy that had nearly waist long beautiful hair, that was mistaken for a young lady until I was seen from the front. The one that shaved it all off, leaving not a trace of it behind. The one that spent time in the "local mental health facillity, and married the girl from California who he met over the internet." In my little southern town, I'm the outcast, and was from my teens till now.
But the people who know me, know me as passionate. Passionate about sex, about music, about my life. Even though I'm crazy, not eccentric, not famous, but closed up like a recluse, I live. It's not always fun, sometimes it's terror filled, but I am alive, and I will be until I'm in the ground. Some of them are dead already, and just haven't realized it yet.
Posted by AdaGrace on May 3, 2005, at 17:09:12
In reply to Re: Call Me Crazy » AdaGrace, posted by Toph on May 1, 2005, at 14:47:09
I'm Crazy.
Yeah, but it just doesn't seem to say it all does it. Mad. Insane. How about twisted. Yep, I am definitely twisted. Evil at times, twistedly evil. Wicked. Deliciously wicked at times.
It's a mad, mad world I live in. Funny how only I seem to realize that, and the ones I live with or consort with or work with.......they just think I am b*tchy. If they only knew. If they only had a clue how my mind spins tilted on it's axis.
This is the end of the thread.
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