Like attracting like re: friendships?

Has anyone else found that they feel more comfortable in becoming friends with other people who we view as socially awkward or just a bit odd?

I've become close friends with 3 people; the first has OCD and GAD, the second has Bipolar and the third has Borderline!

I myself have newly been diagnosed with borderline, and I found it very interesting that before knowing about their mental illness I got along easier and felt more accepted with these people.

Just wondering if anybody else has found the same and would like to share!

I think it's great your making friends and bonding with others.

congrats but for me it makes it worse because we can relate to each other and that's apparently a bad thing for me at the moment...

Do you think that maybe you trigger each other?
Or that you talk about it to much?

Ask because I think I maybe in same situation

Like definitely attracts like! My partner has DID/MPD, and the two people I would consider friends have things of their own. I think it's easy to sense when someone else has different ways of relating to the world than the norm, so we're drawn to them.

yeah, i guess you could say that they trigger me. i'm not good with most relationships. my husband is "normal" other than we suspect he's got adult ADD and Asperger's, he definitely doesn't have anything like what i do. but at least right now i'm having difficulty with trusting myself i guess? that would have to be the best description.

Yes. I seem to be more comfortable with people who have some type of mental illness. But that's human nature, though. We like to feel like we're understood. (Well, sometimes we do. Sometimes it makes me uncomfortable.)

I don't think this is a static thing. I think that at times we tend to attract and gravitate towards those like us that we feel more accepted by but at other times in life we may attract those that are opposite and fill our "gaps" in personalilty. At least for me, that's how it's been. Thing is, to be conscious of who you're going to connect with, neither is wrong but being aware of why you're connecting with someone makes for a better chance at a successful relationship, friendship or otherwise.

I think I fit better with people who have something going on simply because they have a modicum of compassion for what I'm going through. People who've never experienced any type of mental illness just don't "get" it and tend to dismiss my issues more quickly. The problem with being friends with someone who is depressed or has some other type of issue, I have found, is that they aren't necessarily going to be in the same place you are with their healing. And too many people who are mentally ill have boundary issues. One friend with depression, I've found, I have to limit my exposure to because she has an Eeyore complex. She is just so depressing and negative to be around. My other friends who have dealt with mental illness I've almost had to cut off (besides the occasional Facebook contact) because they expect way too much out of me as far as support. I mean, I'll be a supportive friend but I cannot take the place of their T, if you get what I mean. I am not a mental health professional and they just don't get that boundary line. They think I'm being cold and non-supportive when I say that I simply can't do anything to help them that their T can't do better and they need to call that person.