Does anyone here know what "normal" is?

Is it even possible for us to know what "normal" is?

We were all "normal" when we were younger, before BP started up... but I can't even remember what "normal" is like. It's hard to know when you're not stable.

Normal is just an urban legend.

I think I'm approximating normal right now. For me it means normal sleep, no mood elevation or depression, and no psychosis. Hitting all those marks right now.

Nope, can't really live a normal life in my situation right now, tbh I lost track of normal years ago, since I was about 11.

I feel "normal" when **** is hitting the fan, and everything is going wrong. That is the environment I am programmed to live in. Outside of that, I don't know up from down.

I don't know what normal is anymore.
bizi

I think that's the territory I'm occupying now. I'm neither manic nor depressed; I'm grieving for my husband but can enjoy life in between crying spells (which are also normal). I'm not sure if I ever have been normal until this year, when I got all the right meds in the right amounts. Now it's hard for me to remember that I really am mentally ill, that I haven't been going through an existential crisis since 2011. I have to watch that, or else I may get to thinking I'm cured and don't need all these pills. LOL

I wasn't even normal as a kid. I was bad, weird, did some crazy stuff along the lines of BPD/BP even at the age of 10. I had weird obsessions I won't even mention here lol.

I was never normal either, from as far back as I can remember I suffered from depression and suicidal ideation, but I was not as burnt out emotionally as I am now, and I never suffered from mania/mixed episodes/psychosis.

A setting on the dryer

i love this!

My normal is abnormal.

My normal is being able to hold down full time employment. Otherwise I'm pretty much a fruitloop in all other aspects.

were we though, "all normal", when we were younger.

example:

for me, it was normal to throw bits of cookies around the sitting room and play with a talking robot- while watching postman pat at 7 A.M in the morning

it was normal for me to play with my toast before eating it, and it was normal for me to blow bubbles in my apple juice

we're all diffrent- normal means diffrent things to diffrent people.

right now, if I got more than 4 hours sleep, for example, that's not normal (for me), but is for someone else.

Normal is boring a little loco is cool now a days. Enjoy the life

I don't think I'll ever know what normal is. My life is like a kaleidoscope. It keeps changing and it's never the same, even when it feels like it.

When I was really unstable, I still had some periods in between -however short-lived at times- when I was 'normal,' meaning not in the throws of an episode.

For example, right now I'm very sad that someone close to me has passed away and which has also brought back some terrible memories related to the war-torn country I lived in (because that's where he lives). I've been, at moments, overwhelmed by these memories and the sadness.

But all of this are normal reactions to the circumstances; though this doesn't make them any less difficult to deal with. It just means I'm human.

So sadness and feeling overwhelmed can also be 'normal' in that they are natural reactions to my circumstances.

I don't think 'normal' necessarily means happy or even contented. Just that we're not in the throws of an episode. And unless you're super rapid cycling that means that you have some 'normal' in between, however short-lived, and I think everyone's normal is different and can also change depending on the circumstances you're in.

What's normal for the spider is chaos for the fly. I don't think there is a normal standard. But we create what we think is normal over time.

9-5 job you hate, car, mortaged condo and a weekend house. Living your life around "what would PEOPLE say". Spending summer holidays in Croatia, but ignoring history of the country and whining about how the beer sucks and the food (what? No pork and dumplings? What an undeveloped nation). Buying low quality food because it is cheap and then throwing half of it away, because it's gross. Fear the Syrians, that they will ban booze and boobs (the pillars of our culture). Hating your neighbour, cause their condo is two square inches larger. Wearing dull boring clothes for which you pay fortune. *****ing about activists, NGOs, volunteers, backpackers and people who are trying to change the world. Looking down at and hating everybody who is younger, slimmer and more idealistic. Talking about "good old days, when beer cause 2 Czechoslovak crowns". Thinking that unless you are constantly in some heterosexual relationship, you are not complete person, therefor opting for subpar heterosexual relationships....

In other words, not something I aspire.

I have felt normal the last month. But I don't know how long it's going to last but I'm going to enjoy it as long as I can.

Normal doesn't come around here anymore.

normal is for the birds

I don't know what it is, but I know I drove myself around the bend a time or two trying to be whatever it's supposed to be ...

Happy to report I don't do that anymore!

Normal for me is people in general, ex-friends, family, all hating me.
Normal for me is agoraphobia, BPI, insecurity, constantly wondering if I have done something wrong.
Normal for me living in fear that my disability pension will be cut off or reduced.
Normal for me is living in fear I will be arrested for something I never did or being arrested for something I did do that I don't remember.
Normal for me is living in an altered state due to meds, psychosis or mental anguish.

Normal for me is something in my life or myself always being ****ed up.

Normal for some people is being content, loved, enough money and not having any of the things I mentioned above.

About a year ago I had a moment of feeling really normal and it made me panic, so I quickly took some meds to get rid of the strange, new feeling.

I don't know what normal is. But whenever I'm not too far up or too far down I consider myself stable. Normal is overrated!