What It's Like To Be Someone Else

We often pass judgment on people without knowing them, and there's no stopping it completely. It is how we judge threats or someone who could be understanding when we need it. It is how we decide who to talk to in a group of people, and who to avoid. However, we can decide to be more open to others and not to pass judgment so quickly. We don't know who someone is or where they come from. We don't know what happened to them or why they act the way they do.

I saw this quote online recently, without author credit:

You know my name, not my story.

You know what I've done, not what I've been through.

Stop judging me.

I often get judged in public for staring. I am constantly scanning the room, looking at everyone, sometimes at some individuals in particular. People look at me strangely, like I'm intruding on their privacy.

I have PTSD, or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I scan the room, assessing people for potential threats. I look for threatening or strange behavior, which causes me to single out some people in particular to watch, as happened in my post from yesterday on eating disorders.

People don't know that. They don't know what happened to me, they just judge me as weird or creepy because I'm staring at them.

Sometimes in public I appear high or drunk. When I'm severely manic, I may look like I'm hyped up on crank or speed, but I'm not. After a sleepless night, or many nights of little or no sleep, I will appear drunk: slurred speech, staggering gait, fuzzy thinking, impaired judgment. But I'm not high, and I'm not drunk. I've never done drugs in my life, and I haven't had a drop of alcohol in six years.

People don't know I'm manic or sleep-deprived. They look at me like I'm a mess and look at my husband as though he lets me be this way in public.

People don't know what it's like to be me. They just see me as different or strange, even creepy.

No one knows what it's like in someone else's shoes. No one knows what it's like.