Normopathy: Symptoms And Causes Of The Desire To Be Like The Rest
Surely you have ever thought about what would happen if you were more normal with respect to current social dynamics and customs, to fit better into society and the environment that surrounds you.
This need to be more like the majority is common in increasingly alienating and unifying societies like the ones we live in. However, some people can develop a true obsession with being normal and adapting to the most widespread social norms, a pathology that eventually becomes a mental health problem.
This phenomenon is known as “normopathy” and usually generates a wide variety of symptoms of discomfort and distress in the person who suffers from it as well as other more serious nature, which interfere with your private life and affect your mental and psychological health.
Normopathy is the obsessive drive that some people feel for conform to social norms and thereby achieve permanent social validation and approval.
It is evident that we all have, to a greater or lesser extent, an interest in fitting in with society and ultimately in being as “normal” as possible, something that undoubtedly helps us relate better to our environment and constitutes an adaptive personality trait. .
Most people manage to establish, throughout our lives, a balance between the internal drive to be different and project our uniqueness, and the need to adjust to the prevailing norms of the group in which we live.
The problem comes when some people develop a pathological desire to be normal, to the point of denying their own nature, their true self and everything they really are.
This denial of oneself to present oneself as more normal people and adjusted to the prevailing social demands, causes a very negative impact on the mental health of people who suffer from normopathy.
That is why normopathy can be faced by building a strong “I” that is, enhancing our own and personal characteristics and ideas, working to bring out our true personality, above imposed social conventions and preconceived ideas.
Symptoms of normopathy
Normopathy is a psychological phenomenon that has been studied by health professionals for a relatively short time; however, it has been possible to establish a series of specific characteristics of this pathology that are common to all people who suffer from it.
1. Fear of being different
One of the first characteristics of people with normopathy is the constant fear of being different from the rest of the people with whom one surrounds oneself.
There is a real concern and a terrible fear of being perceived as different from the social group at any time in life and they are also terrified of dissenting, being contrary or being a discordant element within the group.
2. Need for validation
Validation from the environment and social approval is the greatest desire for people who have normopathy and their daily life is based on doing everything necessary to receive them.
That is why the normopath will always adapt his personality to the group in which he finds himself, imitating the behavior of others and asking at all times what the people around him think about each topic.
3. Denial of one’s own “I”
The need to adapt is so intense that people with normopathy come to deny their own self, that is, their own personality and who they really are. All this with the aim of being normal and not out of place in a certain social group.
Denying oneself also implies creating a new artificial personality based on what the people around him are like and what they say, that is, superficial, frivolous and lacking authenticity.
This denial of one’s own feelings, thoughts, ideas, aspirations or approaches ends up taking its toll on the mental health of the person, who tends to hide their true personality in the depths of their psyche, relegating it to oblivion.
Likewise, normopathy is also based on an absolute lack of critical thinking and a notable difficulty in criticizing, analyzing or reflecting on any social phenomenon that is accepted by the majority.
In the same way, there is a tendency to accept as true any idea, habit, custom or approach that constitutes the social norm, without thinking for a second about their logical validity.
5. Disconnection with oneself
This denial of one’s own “I” inevitably leads to disconnection with oneself, that is, with one’s own emotional, intellectual and spiritual world.
People with normopathy disconnect from their own “I” to fit into society, and They end up having very superficial criteria about everything that surrounds them and in the same way they are incapable of developing deep and elaborate discourses about their opinions and tastes.
6. Lack of connection with others
This superficiality, which is a consequence of the creation of a new artificial personality, also makes relationships with other people difficult, since it is almost impossible to connect with someone when you are not truly yourself.
The denial of our own self means that we never show ourselves how we truly are and that other people can never know us in depth and genuinely.
7. Feeling of inner emptiness
By disconnecting from their emotions and feelings, people with normopathy end up developing an intense feeling of inner emptiness that is very unpleasant and distressing; they feel that their life has no meaning.
This causes them to focus even more on adapting to the environment to feel better and more directly abandoning their personality, their emotions and their personal values.
Causes of normopathy
As a psychosocial phenomenon, normopathy does not have a single cause or trigger, but rather several that interact with each other and give rise to this problematic way of relating to the world and to others. Some of them have to do with the person’s personality, and others are associated with experiences lived in the past.
With this in mind, let’s look at the main causes of normopathy, summarized.
1. Traumatic experiences
It is considered from the field of psychological study that people with normopathy can develop this pathology after experiencing a traumatic experience that marks them for years.
These traumatic experiences, such as wars, an experience of humiliation or an episode of rejection; They can generate enormous shame and anxiety, which makes the person disconnect from their “self” and their past wounds, and begin a process of adaptation to the established social norm as a survival mechanism.
2. Extreme conformism
People with normopathy tend to be adaptable and conformist, that is, able to adapt at all times to any expectation or request.
The personality of normopaths ends up being an adaptation mechanism to the environment in which they find themselves, trained to respond adaptively at all times based on the established social norm and not on what one feels.
3. Lack of social skills
The lack of social skills in people with normopathy is notable and usually makes them unable to relate correctly to other people.
This is due, as we have seen, to the fact that their personality and their way of acting are not authentic or genuine as a mechanism to try to “compensate” for the defects that the person sees in themselves; That is why they lack the tools to communicate or relate honestly and sincerely and enter a vicious circle of frustrating and anxiety-generating social experiences.
4. Tendency towards neuroticism
The personality trait of neuroticism increases the risk of developing normopathy, due to the difficulties this generates when facing and managing anxiety.
This phenomenon is associated with emotional instability, and the desire to be like others can appear as a desperate way of trying to set a behavioral benchmark and know what to do in the face of the anguish produced by the indecision of not knowing what to do in life. In turn, this leads to self-esteem issues.
