Normopathy: symptoms and causes of the desire to be like the rest

Surely you have ever wondered what would happen if you were more normal with respect to current social dynamics and customs, to better fit into society and the environment that surrounds you.

This need to be more like the majority is frequent in increasingly alienating and unifying societies like the ones we live in. However, some people can develop a real obsession with being normal and adapting. to the most widespread social norms, a pathology that in the long run becomes a health problem mental.

This phenomenon is known as "normopathy" and usually generates a wide variety of symptoms of discomfort and anguish in the person who suffers from it., as well as of a more serious nature, which interfere with their private life and affect their mental and psychological health.

What is normopathy?

Normopathy is the obsessive urge some people feel for conform to social norms and thus 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 the most possible "normals", something that undoubtedly helps us to better relate to our environment and constitutes a personality trait adaptive.

Most of us manage to establish, throughout our lives, a balance between the internal impulse to be different and project our uniqueness, and the need to adjust to the prevailing norms in the group in which we 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 being and all that they really are.

This denial of oneself to present oneself as more normal people and adjusted to social demands prevailing, comes to cause a very negative impact on the mental health of people who suffer from normopathy.

That is why normopathy can be coped with by building a strong “I”, that is, promoting their own and personal characteristics and ideas, working on making bring out our true personality, above imposed social conventions and ideas preconceived.

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Symptoms of normopathy

Normopathy is a psychological phenomenon that has been studied by health professionals for a relatively short time, not However, it has been possible to establish a series of specific characteristics of this pathology and 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 one surrounds oneself with.

There is a real concern and an excruciating fear of being perceived as different from the social group in any moment of life and they are also terrified of disagreeing, going against or being a discordant element within the cluster.

2. Need for validation

Validation from the environment and social approval is the greatest desire for people with normopathy and their day to day 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 them think about each topic.

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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 you are like and what they say, that is, superficial, frivolous and inauthentic.

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 his true personality in the background of his psyche, relegating it to the forgot.

4. critical thinking deficit

Similarly, normopathy is also based on a complete lack of critical thinking and a notable difficulty to criticize, analyze or reflect on any social phenomenon that is accepted by most.

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.

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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 it difficult to relationships with other people, since it is almost impossible to connect with someone when you are not truly one same.

The denial of one's own self means that we never show ourselves how we truly are and that other people can never know us in depth and in a genuine way.

7. feeling of inner emptiness

By disconnecting with 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 turn even more to adapting to the environment to feel better and to more directly abandon their personality, their emotions and their personal values.

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Causes of normopathy

As a psychosocial phenomenon that it is, normopathy does not have a single cause or trigger, but several that interact with each other and give rise to this problematic way of relating to the world and to others. the rest. Some of them have to do with the person's personality, and others are associated with past experiences.

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; can generate enormous shame and anxiety, which causes the person to disconnect from their "I" and their past wounds, and begin a process of adaptation to the established social norm as a coping mechanism. survival.

2. extreme conformism

People with normopathy tend to be adaptable and conformists, that is to say, able to adapt at all times to any expectation or request.

The personality of normopaths ends up being a mechanism for adapting 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 feel.

3. Lack of social skills

the lack of social skills in people with normopathy it is marked and usually makes them unable to relate properly to other people.

This is due, as we have seen, to the fact that his personality and his way of acting are not authentic or genuine as a mechanism to try to "compensate" for the defects that the person sees in himself; For this reason, they lack the tools to communicate or relate honestly and sincerely, and they enter into a vicious circle of frustrating and anxiety-generating social experiences.

4. Tendency to neuroticism

The personality trait of neuroticism it increases the risk of developing normopathy, due to the difficulties that 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 goal for yourself. behavior reference and knowing 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.