You can be going along, having what seems to be a normal relationship, and a normal person will pull Ego on you, and say you stepped on their toes. They might even be your friend for many years, but then you make one slip up, and you become persona non-grata, an unwanted friend.
Being mentally ill means you are more prone to making social mistakes than most people. Thus, if your "friend" takes something the wrong way, and gets really mad at you, not feeling forgiveness towards you, then you are screwed. Its real easy to get treated like a persona-non-grata by a so called "normal person". Its the stigma that heightens the "normal person's" sensitivity. They figure if you are going to screw up once, you are going to screw up many times. Thus you become an undesirable friend, unforgiven, and cut-off. It doesn't take much. I just had a "normal friend" of 5 and 1/2 years take offense at something he thought was just outrageous, and now I'm cut-off from his friend-ship. Note the word "ship" in friendship. When someone cuts you off they really are throwing you out of the "ship", to the shark infested waters. As of this writing, March 6, 2009, I am waiting for this angry friend to get over his anger, and give me a break. I made the mistake of offering him a free room at a local convention---he took offense, and has pointed the finger at me for being so "insensitive" to dare offer him the room when he wants to commute back and forth from the convention. I think there is more behind this "anger" on his part than the "room offering". I think he may have decided that I'm no longer worth being a friend. He may be writing me off as a minor loss. I have put up with many of his idiosynchronies over the years. Perhaps I am too kind. Whatever it is that is in this "normal friend's" mind blocking him from giving me a break, I know it goes deeper than the "room offering". We'll just have to see what happens.
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