People who are "CUED" by my behaviour...copycats etc

[Sugarshack]

Hello Sanesters I am looking for insight/opinion about the things that people do, specifically:

Imitating/being "CUED"/copying/following my behaviour.

I have now lived in sharehouses for some years and I find that quite predictably there are one or more people who "follow" or otherwise imitate my behaviour.

If I put a lid on my saucepan, they start putting a lid on their saucepan.

When I wake up, they wake up not long after.

If I use a certain space or stack things in a certain way, they will decide to also use that space or stack things the same way.

W T F?

It has now happened from enough people I am starting to wonder is there something about me that inspires copycat/MEERKAT behaviour...if I stand up on my legs, my shadow will do it shortly after. If I build a dunghill, they will build one too.

I find it extraordinarily irritating when people do this, and myself I make my own decisions and do my own behaviours. I cannot fathom why other people would be subtly watching and copying what I do, as to me it is wholly alien and creepy, innapriopriate, wierd to study another person and try to pick up their habits.

My last housemate I called THE SHADOW as he quite literally copied everything I did but in a horrendously poor quality imitation. I nicely cut and shaped the bushes in our yard, he would hack them down into square stumps like Minecraft. I arranged my food in the cupboards to suit my daily routine, he arranged his food into nonsensical clusters and heaps.  That person was a fairly low functioning person but his imitating was thoroughly senseless, it got to the point I was so disgusted by his shadow behaviour I hid all of my lifestyle and he actually turned against me and went into some type of breakdown because he had nothing to imitate. He was an utter creep.

Another thing I have noticed about these Shadow People is they have a large idea in their head, of "what they think I am" or "what they think I do". Now I live my life mostly getting around doing wha tI NEED to do. But these numbskulls have obviously spent a fair few hours painting a portrait of who I am without ever actually talking to me nor learning what my life is about. So I find it extraordinary to hear they are gossiping/whingeing/negging my life and lifestyle formed purely on an observation from a hidey hole.

For example "She was really angry this morning" = "I was walking quickly because I was late to work".

"She was rude to me" = "They threw a tantrum complaining about childish stuff so I said can you tell me your problems without shouting"

I would guess that is an ND thing but personally I find it so misguided and straight up WRONG....and moe than 20 years ago I can somewhat describe a similar headspace when I got my first ever job in an office, and I had no idea what was going on and I kept guessing other peoples intentions and motivations....to the point where my boss said to me, "none of that is your business, your only business is getting your job done and being polite to people because we are all here to get a job done".......

So it seems to me, by my own values these smallbrains are unable to cope with living with strangers and they are projecting their own opinions and problems into the situation, due to their own discomfort of sharehousing and related fear of being seen/judged as their true self. Myself I quite enjoy sharehousing and its a great replacement for estranged family. Some people are so good to live with, I try to be that person yet I get a cavalcade of wierdoes in exchange.

[DogMan79]

Hi @Sugarshack 

Before I reply properly, have you ever been diagnosed or screened for a psychotic disorder (Schizophrenia, Mania, Borderline etc) what you describe can change drastically if you have or have not. It changes it as it's a common symptom to have this as false beliefs. It's a common presentation

[Sugarshack]

Hi @DogMan79 I am in regular contact with various types of mental health people, GP etc. 

I understand that it COULD be from a paranoid/psychotic disorder, but I believe what's going on is more of a territorial/dominance thing going on from the other people.

I recall in my first job I loved my boss a lot, and looked up to her, and over time my office clothing started to become quite like hers to the point people called me Mini-(Name) and I realised what was going on and I started to buy different clothes and "not" wear the identical/similar outfits as i realised it made my boss uncomfortable and opened doors for other staff to pick on her.

In my life I am careful to think "Am I being paranoid" or "Is this reality...?" due to having a trauma history and in the past I have mistaken friendly behaviour for threatening behaviour until I sorted that out in my head.

So I respect what you say and it COULD be true, myself I just think it's wierd that people do the same actions as I do. I do know one person is ASD and he 'moves stuff around', places items in groups of shape and colour etc. If I do something major "downstairs" he will craft a type of miniature version "upstairs". And I have tested this behaviour by doing nonsense actions which he will repeat by way of rearranging objects.

Thus I think it's some type of tribe/group habit more than myself being paranoid or psychotic but I will mention it to the GP to exclude all possibilities within myself. It doesn't "do my head in" more than it's really annoying to see myself reflected in other people when I know that groups and tribes do pickup each other's behaviour to state a group compliance, for example I will talk in a certain way around my boss which is a more efficient language suited to his way of speaking, than my natural language.

I see this house thing as a 'keeping up with the Joneses" type of thing as in if someone on the street gets a new car, the neighbour might also get a new car - if someone plants red roses someone else might plant the same or different colour roses. "Monkey see monkey do" whereas my own values are wierd "monkey see, monkey do not do" and I know this comes from the way my parents raised me where they would pick on me for imitating other kids or they would further reject me for imitating the parents, when I see a lot of/most kids imitating their parents all through life and most parents think it's endearing and a sign of family values.