what is normal?

could someone please define this for me? Dr John?! anyone? i have been lost in the madness so long, dont even know what "NORMAL" is anymore!!

Normal?? NOT me! That's what's not normal. As to what IS, heck, I have no idea.
Silly word really. Nor-mal. If it was french, it would mean "north-bad." I can vouch for that...it is bad here in the north. Freezing, brrrrr. My nose hairs freeze up stiff when I go out.

sorry, skewed a little there, but I hope you smiled ((((cotton))))
thinkin about you
Tina

I beleive we are the real normal ppl , because we admit to our dx
Angie

I know a lot of "normal" people that scare the

crap out of me!

I think normal means "has not been diagnosed yet".

(((CCL)))-I don't mean to not take you seriously. I know it is a serious question. I am just not sure it can be answered. I think we all have to find our own normal, which could be nothing more than feeling OK about who we are, where we've been and where we are going.

Take care of yourself.

Kim

I say there is no normal, we shouldn't compare ourselves to others, I say that you define your OWN normal. *hugs* I hope you find the strength to shine in your own normalness!

I think of normal as nothing more than a statistical reality- a measure "central tendency". Know what I mean? Maybe not. I don't know how to say it intelligently lol! In stats, you can identify what seems to be the middle-ground, the average, or most common value. But that only shows you this TINY LITTLE portion of the picture. When you look at the real world, though, there is a lot more to it than the middle ground or the "normal" or the mode (most common). Our world is rich with differences (which I think is a positive thing) that define us as individuals, and looking at any "norm" will fail to capture the variability that exists. (Which is why there are calculations for variance that are more descriptive of the Bigger Picture, but I don't want to jumble this up with technicalities that will hide my real point lol)

I hope I didn't get too into the stats example there. I was working on stats homework this morning and, in my philosophical non-mathematical way, applying it to life lol. What can I say, I'm a psych major! (and very NOT normal!)

Normal is what follows the norm. It doesn't mean healthy or smart, or with no mental health issues. It is simply that follows under the norm.

Normal doesn't diferenciate right from wrong.
Sadly, the "norm" thinks that way (LOL)

I wondered this same thing the other day ihn my journal. I am taking meds and getting therapy so I can feel normal - but what is normal? Yes, I know the norm answers, etc. but do we even want to be "normal"? Think of some of the leaders of the world, of your city or county, think of some of the decisions made by powerful people who are supposedly normal - do we want to be like them? Destroying the environment, cutting off benefits to those who can't work, treating those who are different from them as somehow lesser beings - why would I want to be like that? Yes, I would like to not be depressed, not suffer from anxiety and guilt and grief, not to want to die. I would like to learn to want to live - to experience joy and beauty on a daily basis. That is what I would define as normal. I am a person who helps others, who cares about others and about the environment, who feels a sense of spirituality (and sometimes even peace) since I discovered yoga. I would not give up any of those things if in order to be considered normal I would have to be greedy, selfish, rude. Even if the reasons for my being nice lie in the roots of my depression and the lack of nurturing and loving parents growing up (make nice so you won't make "mommie" angry) - I still would not want to change that. I have really rambled here but this is something I have really been thinking about.

The proverbial 64,000 dollar question. And replies all good above. But it's just one more word in a long list of them which we have grown accustomed to using without any possibility of understanding them. Soul and reality for two more. As tempting as it is to stagger laughing down a humorous tangent here, I'll just say, I think what you are really after is a measure of peace inside yourself which you either remember or have glimpsed as possible, but which is hampered by your own body/brain chemistry. For myself, I've had to pretty much let go of any comparative sense of success or failure in that. How do "I" feel. Period. Does that make sense?

Maya, I love your post and I wish that kindness and good deeds were the norm. Actually this whole issue came up in therapy for me recently when I decided to "fight dirty" with the legal issues in our lives and the core of me who stops for animals and picks them up if they look lost, who stops and gets toddlers out of the road. Who has little but gives away a lot. I love what you had to say. As for Normal, Gloria is right, normal is only close to what is average or usual. You are wishing for less pain and distress in your life and that is possible. I do not have bp disease but my son does and has done well with lithium and risperadol, I think he's weaning from depakote. He is the picture of physical health and is really doing well with his bp disease. Control it, don't let it control you.

my t told me something that really stuck with me (and not much does the first time...lol). i told him that i just want to be normal! he said he can't help me there. i was shocked! he followed up by saying that he didn't not believe in normal and that's it's individual perception that may never fully be achieved and, therefore, always keeping a person feeling at a loss. he finished with saying that he DID believe in "average" as in terms of mental health, living in society, etc., and that he could help me with. i thought that was really something that i could attain, because in my case, he's right...i would never achieve normal. it's always out of reach as the qualifications continually change. average is much more attainable to me

be safe,

kd

Normal is a setting on my clothes dryer.

nice one, Dalila. LOL

I don't believe in normal either, except on the clothes dryer. Satistics are an illusion.

Did Mark Twain say this?
"There are lies, damned lies, and then there are statistics."

LOL

Adieu

definitions of normal...

"normal"... definition by english dictionary-----> 1: occuring naturally.

now what does this mean exactly? can this definition be applied to emotions? what defines "naturally"? would this imply reactive emotional states such as appropriate stress response.... or spontaneous emotional states as seen in "bipolar disorder"?

"Spontaneous" is a synonym of "natural" in the english thesaurus, therefore spontaneous bipolar states of emotion can only be defined as normal, according to this definition.

Seeing what normal seems to be these days, I'd sooner be weird.

You got that right