#actually schizospec

[glitchdollmemoria]

please can we stop describing bigots as delusional. please. im so fucking tired. someone being sucked into a hate group surrounded by others who believe minorities should be oppressed and encouraging them to believe in conspiracy theories that the rest of the group believes, is fundamentally different from someone having a mental illness that causes delusions.

delusions, by definition, cannot be explained by things like cultural background - such as having a belief constantly reinforced by intentional attempts to rationalize it for the sake of maintaining power over minorities. yes, someone can be both delusional and a bigot, and yes conspiracy theories can feed into delusions, but the two are not fucking synonymous.

i did not spend my teen years convinced that i was being stalked by demons just to hear so many of you people equate my disability with incel behavior and genocidal propaganda. stop reinforcing harmful connotations about mental health struggles.

[dysmotility]

please please please don’t forget to include intellectual disability, psychosis / schizospec disorders, level 2-3 autistics, folks w dissociative disorders, and others with “severe mental illness” from ur conversations about mad liberation.

these are some of the most vulnerable and disenfranchised mad people, and we need to give them a voice.

these are the places where liberation is needed the most

[crash-freak]

The internet honestly and truly despises schizophrenic people/people with psychosis. They despise our existence. So many “mental health” advocates actively demonize psychosis.

People refuse to listen to us when we tell them not to use “delulu”. They can understand why using mental health terms incorrectly is damaging. They can understand not to say “intrusive thoughts” when they mean impulsive thoughts. They understand why saying “I’m so OCD” when not describing OCD is wrong. They are actively refusing to understand why not to use delulu.

I’ve had people tell me, when describing why not to say delulu, that it’s not a big deal. It’s not a big deal to you. You’re not the one suffering. And even then, you don’t need to personally suffer in order to understand why something is harmful. You should not need to see yourself/someone in your life suffer to have understanding for those who do. Your understanding should not be based on proximity to the self, ESPECIALLY if you consider yourself a mental health advocate.

And if they don’t use “delulu”, then they’ll often describe someone they’re morally opposed/bigoted as delusional. As if being delusional is some sort of moral failure.

Not to mention how if someone so much as mentions their psychosis, they’ll get bombarded with “I’m in your walls” jokes. If someone hears that a person experiences psychosis, they will actively attempt to trigger that person’s psychosis.

They hate us. The internet hates us. I’ve grown up on the internet seeing psychosis demonized my entire life.

[valiumgf]

I also think we need to make space for people who ARE violent or agitated or aggressive or loud and threatening during psychosis in our activism, they are not evil for reacting to hallucinations or delusions in a way that is damaging, they deserve support and help and compassion, going through psychosis is traumatizing already for many of us and then being outcast from even the schizospec community is not helping!! they will not get better if they are never given the chance to connect and be accepted!!

[pansyboybloom]

shout out to psychotic people who struggle with anger. psychotics who get angry when they’re wronged, when they're scared, when they're overstimulated, as a response to emotion. psychotics who want to hit. who want to bite. who want to hurt. who want to scream and break things. who redirect with self-harm. who struggle to keep calm and keep it together. i love you. you deserve love and care to.

[madpunks]

people end up not wanting to associate with schizophrenics because we're "embarrassing" and "gross". we talk to ourselves in public, we forget to bathe and brush our teeth or become too delusional to do so, some of us can become terrified of bathrooms because of hallucinations or delusions and refuse to use them and use incontinence products instead, we forget to change our outfits for days at a time sometimes, eating can sometimes be impossible when you become convinced your food is poisoned or tampered with, being in places with overhead speakers or loud radios or TVs can be distressing and impossible to navigate for delusional people or those who are easily prone to command hallucinations, we often jump and panic and react to hallucinations and delusions and "cause a scene".

we're viewed as an inconvenience at best, and an outright danger at worst. we are neither of these things. it can be easy to decide to not associate with someone who has these problems, but it's impossible for the person experiencing them to just stop them from happening. you can make the choice to look down on someone and abandon them because they experience psychosis, but they can't choose to turn their psychosis off. one of these actions hurts and impacts a lot more than the other in reality. witnessing a hallucinating person will not irreparably damage you for life. please consider that this is not a choice for the schizophrenic person, and they don't want it, either.

[evil-flesh-eating-ai]

it’s very important to me that one day, if i hope hard enough, there will be a character in media who will be schizospec and it won’t be a huge deal and they won’t get put down by those around them. i hope that they are cared for and are loved by their friends unconditionally. i hope they are happy and can find little ways to manage. i hope they won’t be treated like a freak of nature if they have a psychotic episode. i hope they’re doing okay today.

[schizodiaries]

some schizophrenia symptoms that aren’t normally talked about

confusion

restricted range of emotion

incoherent thoughts/speech

lack of motivation

boredom/anhedonia

social withdrawal

apathy

trouble sleeping

taste and smell hallucinations

distorted thinking

thought blocking

poor memory

catatonia

labile affect

i usually see schizophrenia described in terms of paranoia, visual/auditory hallucinations, and delusions - so i thought I’d put together a list of other symptoms that may be present!

[giritina]

I just read maia crimews great article on the BRG tiktoks and felt vindicated to see the dog whistles called out for what they are. There are tons and tons of angles to analyze this from but I wanted to talk about the anti schizospectrum ableism. I get these videos on tiktok a lot and they're the biggest example I can think of of the aestheticized ~schizoposter~

I just want to highlight to people who might be thoughtlessly using the word schizo because it's becoming sort of memetic lately that this is the kind of person who started that meme.

People on 4chan and in alt right circles know that schizo is a slur and use it as such. But now they realize applying it to the self is a great way to normalize this edgelord shit while ostensibly being sort of "anti-ableist" or pseudo leftist via the framing of it as reclamation. People start out being minorly edgy, thinking they're joking about universal stereotypes people apply to the mentally ill, but it's a useful dog whistle for a reason.

I want to emphasize that you can't reclaim words that don't apply to you. Schizospectrum symptoms are real and that slur applies to real, specific people. The "schizo", a delusional, paranoid person, is not a trope formed from thin air. Learn about us and be our allies in the fight for disability justice and you'll be better for it. It'll be easier to spot this kind of shitty rhetoric even when it's disguised as harmless memes.

[clinically-kitty]

Ppl who have issues with hygiene ily. Ppl who cant brush theyre teeth regularly. Ppl who dont shower for months. Ppl who wear the same clothes for days.

If all u can do is brush or shower once every few weeks or months ily. If all you can do is change into a different pair of pajama pants today ily. Or if you cant do any of it ily.

Ik ppl will be like “its not healthy to spread positivity now my teeth are rotting bc I didnt care” which I understand to some extent for some ppl but no amount of scaring me about how my teeth health will suffer is going to make me do it more, my brain quite literally can’t foresee the positive outcomes and will refuse to make it a daily habit no matter how much its barked at me over and over.

Sometimes its not something that can be helped. And its not bc I dont care or i like being disgusting or dont understand the risks I literally just cant.

[zebulontheplanet]

A lot of people don’t know this because I don’t really talk about it, but I’m talking about it today!

I’ve been to three psychiatric hospitals in my life. Three. That’s quite a lot. I went from ages 12 to about 15 maybe younger, and was in for months at a time. People don’t realize how utterly terrifying and traumatizing psych wards are and it shows. If you even dare to say “psych wards aren’t that bad” then get the fuck out cause we had two different experiences.

It’s constant fighting, screaming, violence, sedation, med trials, seeing people getting restrained and getting restrained yourself. I’ve never personally been restrained or had more than a voluntary pill sedative, but still. Seeing those things, witnessing those things, is traumatizing. Seeing constant violence, being in constant fight or flight mode is not fun.

I would never go back, nor do I think I can ever go back due to my current support needs and the fact I need access to constant AAC which a lot of places deny.

I have severe psychiatric issues, and I think it was a good choice that I went when I did, however I will never be the same because of the experiences I went through while there. Yes, I had some good experiences, yes I had some bad experiences.

I’m tired of the constant romanization of psychiatric hospitals. I’m tired of the quirky “grippy sock vacation” shit because like, what the actual fuck? Do you know what psychiatric wards are like? Do you know how traumatizing they can be? Do you know that you can’t show an ounce of misbehavior or you will get in trouble. I couldn’t meltdown, I couldn’t shutdown, I couldn’t show anger, hurt, anything without getting in trouble! That sucks!

Please stop glamorizing it. Stop trying to make it silly and fun because it isn’t and you’re causing real harm. Instead, educate about psychiatric hospitals, tell the truth. Tell your experiences.

This post is not at all to deter people from getting help. If you need help then get help! If you think it’s the best option for you then go for it! Psych hospitals are great for getting stable on medication. That’s what they’re made for. To get you semi stable so they can do outpatient care or residential care.

I’ll speak more on this later but yeah. This was just my current thoughts.

[histrionicparanoidhell]

Non-cluster A people, y’all need to start recognizing that our PDs don’t make us “crazy”.

Schizoids? Their indifference and disinterest doesn’t make them crazy, nor does their flattened affect or lack of pleasure. Just because them not wanting to do something that doesn’t bring them joy for you doesn’t make them bad people or “weirdos”.

Schizotypals? Their unusual thoughts and mannerisms doesn’t make them crazy, nor does their lack of close confidants or general fear. Them doing what they feel is right is normal. Your beliefs are your realities, so don’t try and make schizotypals out to be the bad guys because theirs are odd compared to others.

Paranoids? Our mistrust doesn’t mean we’re crazy, nor does our self-preservation or self-defense. If the world was out to get you, you would be on edge too. Stop calling us burdensome because we have a normal human response to something thats abnormal to the average person.

Being schizoid doesn’t make you crazy. Being schizotypal doesn’t make you crazy. Being paranoid doesn’t make you crazy. Being cluster a doesn’t make you crazy. Being schizospec doesn’t make you crazy. We are not crazy.

[psychotic-tbh]

Shoutout to those who have had to go through things no one should as kids/adolescents due to their mental illness(es).

BUT ALSO:

Shoutout to those who developed their mental illness(es) after their tween/teen years and had to learn to adjust to life with mental illness.

ADDITIONALLY:

Lots of love to all with mental illness who had to adjust without much or any support from others/those you love(d).

END NOTE:

Mental illness is hard enough on its own, but these conditions can make it so much more difficult.

You’re worthy and deserving of love, support, and respect even if you haven’t been receiving it.

[inrecoveryhehe]

Respect psychotic folk!!!

respect psychotic folk by not assuming they're automatically dangerous or hostile.

respect psychotic folk by not feeding into and/or confirming their delusions/hallucinations.

respect psychotic folk by not calling strangers "delusional" when they disagree with you.

respect psychotic folk by not pseudo-diagnosing criminals as psychotic with barely any evidence.

respect psychotic folk by not interacting with "schizoposting" posted by non-schizo specs.

respect psychotic folk by not showing them potentially paranoia-triggering memes.

respect psychotic folk by not interacting with memes that make fun of the psychotic experience.

respect psychotic folk by realizing that none of the things listed are too much to ask for, and that it takes no effort from your side to not be sanist.

[glitchdollmemoria]

fellow heat sensitive individuals. go drink water. learn from my folly.

if heat makes you flare up, GO DRINK WATER

if your meds lower your heat tolerance, GO DRINK WATER

if none of the above apply to you but youre still suffering through a heat wave GO DRINK WATER RIGHT NOW