Is it normal to think you're going crazy due to stress?
I've been studying ballet for 22 years, since I was 3. Just recently I landed the lead role in a new major production to be produced by my ballet company. But the director isn't 100% sure I'm right for the part. I have to now practice 10 times harder everyday, just to make sure he doesn't change his mind before opening night and cast someone else. There's another girl dancer who I know has it out for me. She wants to take the role away from me. I think she's trying to seduce the director. Not only that, but she dresses like me, fixes her like me and even followed me home one night. I think she's trying to replace me, not just in the role, but in my everyday life. Then there's my mother. She wants so badly for me to be a perfect, successful dancer. I want to make her happy, because she gave up her career as a dancer to have me. I can't let her down. All the stress is causing me to see things. Sometimes I have scratches on my back that are there one day and gone the next. I'll see blood around my cuticles and pull at loose skin near my nails. Theree will be long bloody gashes one second, but then they just dissappear. I just don't want to let anyone down. I want to be perfect. Is it normal for this strive for perfection to make a person loose their mind?