Being normal

[Guest Teen]

How hurtful or detrimental is it to you when you act a certain way that’s abnormal/peculiar/quirky/extra, and someone close to you says: “Please act normal for once.”. Idk it’s pretty late, but its just eating me away and not sitting go well with me. Anyone else feel the same sometimes? About “being normal”?

[roboticanary]

It is a pain, i think in my case I am slightly annoyed that being 'normal' is something I am supposed to do not for a general benefit to humanity or some moral argument, or even for my own benefit, but simply for the sole benefit of the person asking me to act normal. If it was followed up by some appeal to ethics or sense that would give me a reason to behave normally that would be fine, but usually it is just someone thinking of their own comfort.

[SkyTuneRein]

I think those who demand others to be their idea of "normal" are the least comfortable with others being any different from themselves.

[Rolo]

Well I have not had anyone tell me to "be normal"  since I was about 14, and I would never choose to interact with people to whom "being normal" is important. I am very weird in several ways and I am totally fine with that. I have found many of my current friends via shared weirdness.

[ScarfOfSexualPreference]

Yeah, it's kind of a tricky thing for me, because I want to make others around me comfortable, so I often repress parts of myself that wouldn't appeal to them. I have a different personality for everyone I hang out with. It's really draining, and I wish I could be better about it. 

[Alaska Native Manitou]

Quote

Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.

-Albert Camus

[El011]

It depends on what it is I'm doing that is abnormal and whether it's objectively inappropriate for the current environment I'm in. 

[Neon]

For me, it depends on what I am doing, and the people I am around.

For people I am closer to, I tend to laugh such comments off, and/or turn them around on the speaker. I kind of leaned into my "strangeness" around my friends, so I know those comments are made affectionally and in jest.

For people I don't know as well, those comments piss me off. I will proceed to do everything in my power to continue to do the behavior, especially if it is annoying. But privately, I will worry about it, and it will bother me for a while (as in my brain will bring it up years later).