Not All Crazy Creating Equal 🤪
Jun 09, 2025
Let’s just say it:
Crazy gets a bad rap. Don’t we all try to stay away from crazy?
We toss ”crazy” around when someone’s being dramatic, intense, clingy, erratic, avoidant, manipulative, anxious, controlling, impulsive, chaotic—you name it.
But here’s the thing—not all crazy is created equal.
There’s a world of difference between someone who’s depressed and shuts down vs. someone with narcissistic traits who shuts you down.
Between an anxious person who overthinks every text and a borderline personality who constantly makes you feel like the villain in their never-ending drama.
One might need compassion.
The other might need boundaries.
(And both might need a therapist. And actually maybe so do you, after dealing with them. 🧐)
Here’s where it gets tricky:
Offer too much compassion to someone with a personality disorder, and you may get emotionally wrung out, drained and tossed aside.
Clamp down too hard with boundaries on someone who’s clinically depressed, and you might just confirm their worst fear—that they’re too much and not worth staying in this relationship.
In other words: mismatching the response to the struggle? Can actually make things worse.
Whether it’s Axis I (think anxiety, depression, OCD) or Axis II (hello, personality disorders!), lumping it all together under “this person is crazy” isn’t helpful. Not for them, and definitely not for you.
So if you’re trying to navigate how to deal with someone’s “stuff,” try getting curious about what’s actually going on underneath.
Because when you understand the why, you’ll be way more equipped to handle the what now.
You gotta be crazy to respond to someone’s crazy without fully understanding! 🤭
🩷, Shifi
P.S. Not sure how to tell the difference between Axis I and Axis II in real life? I’ve got you. That’s what we’ll dive into another time. In the meantime, check out my earlier piece: Neurosis, Psychosis and More: A Basic Understanding for a foundational overview.
