#calling them psychotic or delusional or schizo

[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.

[meowticta]

just so you know,

i love you people who are in remission of their psychotic disorder/symptoms.

i love you people who don't have a diagnosis yet

i love you people who are psychotic and loud, and have no filter while talking and ranting.

i love you people who dont suffer from any shame when they're psychotic and say ''weird'' shit that only them understand

those who do not care if people think they're weird, annoying, ''dangerous''

those who are violent, who get restrained, those who are in psych wards, the so called ''crazy and insane''

those who have more delusions than hallucinations, or the other way around.

those who, will never recover, those who dont take meds nor therapy

the schizoaffectives, the schizophrenics, the schizophreniform, the brief psychotic disorder ones, those delusionals, to anyone who had or has a psychotic episode because of drugs or other reasons

i love you, you're not a bad person, you have 0 control of what your mind thinks or does, your condition is stigmatized, but i love you, you can take up space, you can talk about your experiences, and that will be valid, and cherished, i know people are afraid of you, of what the mind can do, of what they don't experience, but never believe that you are a bad person because of your psychosis,

be loud, be scary, be dirty, be ''embarrasing'' be ''gross'' be everything, or nothing at all, be proudly mad.

let people know about you, you have a voice, you have stories to tell, and your stories? will always be accepted by the right people, you won't be judged by the right people

this one is for the schizos, for the psychotics, the delusionals.

shoutout to you

[mlmxreader]

the cod fandom has a serious issue w saneism

I'm genuinely not joking. so many of you fuckers are guilty of being absolutely abhorrent towards people with personality, schizospec, psychotic, dissociative and trauma disorders and you need to stop before you genuinely harm someone. no, you're not "cute" for it - you're an ableist, nasty little cunt for it.

so, let's go through it a bit; I'm not gonna go in-depth, bc ik some of you lot won't take criticism w/o treating it as a personal attack, and ik a LOT of you don't actually give a shit abt hurting people either. but I'm gonna quickly cover some things that need addressing.

First and foremost: "delulu".

"delulu" is a term that's been shortened from "delusional" to essentially mean "I have a thought/opinion that few others have".

which isn't the correct way to actually use this term whatsoever; according to the correct definition, a delusion is stated to be "A delusion is a strongly-held or fixed false belief that conflicts with reality.", and an example of that would be (for example) if someone believed that their behaviour, thoughts and emotions were being controlled by the government or aliens. THAT is a delusion.

"Soap isn't dead uwu" is not. by using the word "delusion" colloquially and by using "delulu", you are minimising and misusing a term used solely meant for usage within the mental health field. it's not that hard to say "I have the opinion that-" or "I think that-", because what you're experiencing isn't a delusion. it's an opinion.

Secondly: "psychopath/sociopath".

"psychopath" and "sociopath" are widely misused and derogatory terms used often towards people with ASPD to portray them as violent, evil, etc. and within the cod fandom is often used as a derogatory term for villains like Makarov and Shepherd and Graves.

the terms themselves are wildly outdated and no longer used within the mental health field due to their derogatory and untrue definitions; "psychopath" and "sociopath" can ONLY be used by people with ASPD and other such disorders, otherwise, it does count as a slur.

if you cannot reclaim it, you cannot use it.

otherwise, you're only pushing and furthering stigmatisation and stereotypes that render it HARDER for people to seek help and support for their mental health.

Third: "schizo".

"schizo" is a fucking slur. end of. it is a slur against people with schizospec disorders. it's a slur, stop using it.

it's not cute and it isn't funny; the word is a slur, and if you cannot reclaim it then why are you using it if not to treat schizospec people as a fucking joke?

why is our mental health a joke to you when you would kick off if someone did the same to anxiety, or depression?

why is it okay to treat one disorder as a joke, why is it okay to treat schizospec people as if we're second class citizens?

Fourth: "psycho".

the same as above, "psycho" is a fucking slur. stop using it.

the word has a long, long history of being used in a derogatory, offensive and bigoted manner in order to portray someone as being violent, evil or otherwise terrible - "he's such a psycho!", "she's acting psycho!" - and yet, the cod fandom throws it around as if it means nothing despite the fact that one quick look will show that "psycho" is a slur and is as bad as calling someone a "faggot" as a slur.

Fifth: the treatment of Nikto

in recent weeks, Nikto has become sort of the "new" König - he's an object of desire and attraction, which... Sure, whatever.

but Nikto canonically has dissociative identity disorder, a mental health issue that is largely misunderstood and mistreated massively.

the fandom treats Nikto two ways: either his mental illness boils down to "uwu soft baby" disease, or it doesn't exist at all.

that is NOT how dissociative identity disorder works; by treating Nikto as if he's some completely innocent, infantilised, glamourised depiction of dissociative identity disorder, you are further perpetuating that it is NOT a serious disorder and it is NOT something to take seriously.

furthermore, by acting as if his mental health disorder doesn't exist AT ALL, you are also furthering that a character CANNOT be desirable, loved and attractive if he has any kind of mental health disorder.

how would you like it if someone treated anxiety or depression that way?

how would you feel if someone erased depression to make you an object of desire, instead of treating it with respect and decency?

it's not nice, is it?

so why do it at all?

conclusion

the cod fandom has a massive, massive issue with saneism and ableism, and it needs to stop because all you're doing is being shitty and bigoted towards marginalised people to the point where even something that's supposed to be FUN can't even be that anymore because people with these disorders have to CONSTANTLY be on guard and CONSTANTLY have to deal with stigmatisation and demonisation to the point where no one can be trusted outside of ourselves.

so stop it, have some fucking courtesy for your fellow man and have some respect and decency for once in your lives.

yes, you can reblog, but don't fucking derail.

[confused-therian]

Btw, if you call people you don't like delusional or schizo as an insult you are ableist, no ifs ands or buts about it. I don't care if you're disabled yourself, you're a fucking ableist. I don't care if they DO experience delusions, if you're using it as an insult you. Are. Ableist. Also, please do NOT call yourself "delulu" or stuff like that, it's fucking ableist. Don't call people narcissistic or psychotic or a sociopath as an insult, THAT'S FUCKING ABLEIST. It doesn't matter if it's "just a word" if I walked up to someone and called them several slurs and said it's "just" a word I'd get my fucking teeth kicked in.

(Also, I've seen this in proshipper circles so many times so I'm tagging it there. It's getting fucking ridiculous. Do better, genuinely. If you try to argue with this post, I WILL laugh at you and I actually don't care what you're going to do, I see you as an awful horrid ableist. I'm so fucking angry right now.)

[strawberrybabydog]

I just had a small question I feel like has been answered before, and I'm sorry if so.

I've seen a lot of people say that "psycho" and "crazy" and quite a lot more words that are so mainstream nowadays are incredibly harmful to people with psychosis? Or any type of "scary" mental disorder. So I wanted to ask some clarification on what words are offensive and what replacements for them may be. Thank you in advance

sanist slurs & inoffensive replacements (aka, what people ACTUALLY mean when they say these things:)

psycho/psychopath: dangerous, threatening, menacing, frightening, malicious, scary, evil

psycho/psychotic: dangerous, threatening, menacing, frightening, malicious, scary, evil, ridiculous, bizarre, disconnected, unbelievable

schizo: unbelievable, shocking, erratic, disconnected, evil

sociopath/narcissist: unempathetic, unsympathetic, uncaring, selfish, greedy, egotistical, self-indulgent, mean, bullying, evil

delusional/deluded: mistaken, misinformed, evil, confused, misled, illogical, deceived/deceiving

thats pretty much all i can think of but there's probably more i'm missing. of course, "crazy/insane/lunatic" also came to mind, but i chose to exclude them because i don't think most people consider them offensive enough to say they're actually slurs, unlike above. i mean, i dont speak for everyone, there might be people who disagree with me here, but let me explain:

"crazy/insane" are really... vague. they have a LOT of applications. where i grew up, most things called crazy or insane were positive (as in, unbelievable or amazing.) if they were being used in a negative way, it was almost always directed towards a woman, not a person displaying (perceived) signs of mental illness/danger. even so, any woman labeled as "crazy" was usually acting in a way that didnt make sense, but was ultimately harmless

the problem with the slurs above is that they all (in some way) are used to mean "evil/dangerous." crazy/insane arent really used that way, at least not in my experience. "but psychotic can be used in a positive way to mean the same thing, why dont you exclude that?" because psychosis is an actual diagnosis*, and because 9/10 times, if "psychotic" being used in a non-literal/non-medical way, it's negative.

i excluded "lunatic" because it's not used very often if at all, and also because i'm unsure if its a sanist slur or an ableist one (it has roots in epilepsy mostly.) the replacements for lunatic follow the same for "delusional/deluded" though, if you're curious. i excluded "hysterical" because it's also not commonly used and iirc is more of a misogynistic slur than a sanist one, according to modern use. replacements for hysterical would follow "psycho/psychotic, schizo."

i mean, none of this is to say that the words i've excluded are absolutely not ever sanist, and again i'm not speaking for everyone. i think there are certainly better word choices to make there still, and if you want to make better choices you should. i just dont think it's anything to be completely up in arms about. i hope i explained myself above well though

also yeah i've been called crazy/insane/batshit before because of my mental illness/trauma/whatever. i'm not an etymologist but i do qualify as an authority on this subject to some extent LOL

[drowninginredink]

Hi! It's me, autistic Chosen anon.

Firstly, I appreciate it that you took the time to share more of your experiences with me. I've actually read your reply multiple times now, and I have to say, it's very sobering. Especially in the sense that I recognise so much of it.

Just one(1) personal example, the part where you talk about already fixating on delusional thought processes as a kid. I did that too! Except in my case it developed into mood and anxiety disorders as I got older, instead of overt psychosis. Look, I already had compassion for psychotic people of all types, because life simply dealt you a very difficult hand. But it also felt like something distant from me. And it really isn't. You were right. We're not that different at all. ALSO, as we're seeing more and more of these overlaps and interconnections between all kinds of diagnoses, I think there's A LOT to be said about the approach of the psychiatric field as well as the neurodivergency and mental illness communities...

That being said, cheers to you, my fellow in neurodivergency, and thanks again!

Oh Jesus, do not get me started on my issues with diagnoses. I thought about going into it in that reply and I was like "you know what? Too complicated, too personal, and too much baggage." But if you're bringing it up? Let's go.

So. I am not actually diagnosed with schizophrenia. My official diagnosis is "other specified schizophrenia spectrum or other psychotic disorder." I think you can see why I simplify to schizophrenia. But also, I was not diagnosed by the actual DSM criteria. I was diagnosed by a research clinic attached to a university that is trying to get the criteria for various psychotic disorders changed for the DSM-6, and to get their own evaluation to become the standard instead of the current ones. The thing is, their evaluation is much stricter than the current criteria. By the DSM? You need to fit at least 2 of 4 categories of symptoms (which I do). By this clinic, you need to have all 16 of 16 of their categories of symptoms. The last time they evaluated me, I had 11 of 16. If I were evaluated by other clinicians? They'd just diagnose me as schizophrenic. In fact, I've explained this to other medical professionals and had them say, "what? 11 out of 16 is definitely enough to be schizophrenic? You definitely don't need every symptom?" So as much as yes, I do not have every classic symptom and my schizo-spec experience is non-traditional... There's a reason I have no problem just calling myself schizophrenic these days.

The clinic very much is doing that thing where you try to solve a problem and end up creating new problems. The problem is that a lot of people have what are called sub-threshold psychotic symptoms. Basically, psychotic symptoms without ever going into a state of actual psychosis, or completely disconnecting from reality. I personally am not convinced that there is a hard line between experiencing symptoms and having "actual psychosis." Like, these therapists say I have never had real, full psychosis, but I have been pretty goddamn delusional. I sure wasn't functional! I was out of school! I was constantly fixated on my delusions! I was in a state of severe distress! And the onset of my delusions was a pretty sudden thing to the point that I can tell you the exact date and time. It was my birthday. Lucky me. Anyway. Point is. There are a lot of people who experience these symptoms who, unlike me, will never reach the point where anyone would diagnose them as schizophrenic. Right now, they are slipping through the cracks because there is no diagnosis to give them. There is a push to treat them, but coming from the idea that people with these symptoms are in the early, pre-psychosis state of schizophrenia (the term here, if you want to google it, is prodromal psychosis). The idea is that treatment in this early stage will prevent people from ever actually reaching full psychosis. That's why the clinic started. But as they did research, they discovered that even without treatment, only 20% of these people will actually develop "real" schizophrenia and "real" psychosis. This isn't just the early phases of schizophrenia; it's a separate thing of people with more mild symptoms existing who will never convert to schizophrenia. The term that they want to be in the DSM-6 is Attenuated Psychosis Syndrome. Attenuated means less severe. So literally, "it's like you have real psychosis but less bad." Needless to say, I fucking hate this term. It's still better than their original term that they're moving away from, though, which is Clinical High Risk syndrome. Literally just "well, you're at risk of developing a real disorder."

To use autism as a metaphor, it's like if people noticed that hey, a lot more people seem to be autistic than we are actually diagnosing. Right now we're just diagnosing the people with high support needs who are super disabled by it. But other people could use recognition and help too. But instead of just lowering the criteria for what counts as autism, they say "hey, let's invent Asperger's syndrome." You know. That diagnosis that doesn't exist anymore for good reasons.

And then, also, how do we communicate with these people with Asperger's syndrome? Instead of saying "hey, you're autistic, and that's okay and awesome and valid," we say "while yes, you're on the autism spectrum, don't worry. You're not actually autistic. You're not one of those people, and you'll probably never have real autism. Don't go calling yourself autistic. You're not one of them." Yes, you heard me right... They actually have the gall to tell people like me "you're on the psychotic spectrum, but you're not psychotic. You can't call yourself psychotic." Which... What? That's not how spectrums work? The entire attitude of the clinic is "don't worry. You're not schizophrenic. You don't have psychosis. I know those people are scary. Don't worry. You're not one of the scary people with the scary thing." They look at the stigma and instead of even trying to fight it, they say "don't worry. You're not one of the stigmatized group."

So imagine being me. You just got a diagnosis that doesn't actually exist. If you google it (which is hard because they're using about 5 different names for it and can't just decide on one), you'll find a bunch of information that is either in scientific papers that are only written for other psychiatric people to read and not laymen, or information that is outdated compared to what the clinic is now discovering (stuff saying that sub-threshold symptoms only exist as the prodromal phase of schizophrenia). You feel alone as shit, because of course you do, the entire world thinks that psychotic people are cr*zy freaks. So you start looking to psychotic and schizophrenic people for community. You start identifying with them. When explaining your mental health, you just call yourself psychotic. And what do your therapists say? "No. You can't call yourself one of them. You are on their spectrum, but you're not really one of them. Doesn't it make you feel better to know you're not one of the freaks?" No. It doesn't. I'm already one of the freaks, and you've just cut me off from the only community I have because you've given me a diagnosis without any recognition or community. The reason I'm now confidently able to say "fuck you, I am a real psychotic and a real schizophrenic" is because I haven't been part of that clinic for two years so no one is telling me that anymore. The bounds of their studies mean that you can only be treated by them for 2 years and then you get kicked out because if you make it to 2 years without developing "real" psychosis, their research says that you never will, and they are still sort of operating under that original mission of keeping people with prodromal schizophrenia from going into psychosis. While I was still there, the way they tried to distance me from the rest of the spectrum as if that was a positive thing fucked me up. I felt so alone for so long, and I felt guilty for associating with and seeing myself in "real" schizophrenics.

I think the model we've reached with autism is where we should go with schizophrenia. Just call everything "schizophrenia spectrum disorder" (Yes I know autistic people hate ASD as a label because of the disorder part, but I think even the proudest schizophrenics who like and embrace some of their symptoms and don't want them all fixed still agree that it is a disorder. Yes, not all delusions actually need to be cured. Some of them can be positive and beneficial, even if personally none of mine ever have been. But stuff like disorganized thinking, anhedonia, and catatonia are always awful, and they're part of the package too). People who are currently going undiagnosed and who attenuated psychosis syndrome was coined for are the low-support needs end, and people who are currently diagnosed with schizophrenia are the high-support needs end. It's not exactly a perfect correlary, but I think it's reasonable. Unfortunately, while I don't know what's going to actually happen with the DSM-6 (which is still probably a good ten years out since a revision of the DSM-5 was released last year), as far as I know no one is proposing that. God knows when we'll ever get a reasonable and destigmatizing approach to the schizophrenia spectrum, but not any time soon.

God that was long. Well, thank you for giving me an excuse to rant. Basically, fuck the medical model, fuck the DSM, and fuck the people who are trying to change the DSM, too.

[straydogkins]

hey, i was just wondering what do you think is wrong with IRLs? I thought that they couldnt control their beliefs. I dont want to start an argument or anything ive just never heard of that being bad before

Hi anon, I will answer this to the best of my ability just know that it's early morning and I am somewhat upset about an unrelated event so I may not be entirely coherent.

To start with I want to make something very clear: We have PNOS, it's been diagnosed. We've had delusions, hallucinations, paranoia, impared speech abilities, brain fog, ect. for 6 years (probably longer before it was picked up on and treated) alongside this and we're on antipsychotics. So I will be talking from the point of view of someone who has a psychotic disorder and knows what they're talking about in regards to psychotic disorders from lived experience.

-

Now for the main issues of this ask: It's not the delusions we have issues with. You can't control your delusions. I know this, in the past we've had 'delusional attachments' (medically they are classed as a form of delusion of grandeur, so that's what we will probably call them through out this post) that we're either a fictional characters and religious figures. It's just a thing that can happen when you're psychotic.

-

However, the issues we do have with these people are with the community, the language used in said community, and the attitudes that are common in there.

Let's start with the 'less important' medical stuff: 'Delusional attachments' and 'IRL' are terms made up by the community. This is not an inherently bad thing, for example in the DID community we have several terms (ie EC-DID) that aren't medical that people use for clarification and there's no inherent issue with this. However, my issues with the medical side is when people act like it is an official diagnostic term/thing for psychotic disorders because it isn't and never has been.

Now the real issues deep rooted in the community (and my main issue): The Encouragement of delusions and attitudes towards psychotic and schizo-spec individuals.

If someone is having a delusion (regardless of if it's harmful or not) You shouldn't encourage it (it will push the person further into the delusion) or reality check them (will cement the belief instead of discouraging it a lot of the time). Although complicated, it's important to walk the line between the two and not encourage the delusions or make the person feel like they aren't being listened to or mocked. The community is... Not like this at all.

Say I believed I was Hastune Miku and in that community, it would be Very common and encouraged to call me Miku and act as if I'm Hatsune Miku irl. This will encourage the delusion that I am Miku and send us deeper into a psychotic episode.

Another thing from our experience actually being in the community, 'DA's' are treated as the Only Psychotic Symptom people experience.

For example, we have seen people claiming to be psychotic and they Only have the firm belief they are [character], this is a major issue for us because psychotic disorders (even on a base level) always have comorbid symptoms (disorganized speech, hallucinations, ect) which is an issue for a community that claims to only be for people with psychotic disorders.

Which leads to people actively trying to give themselves psychotic symptoms, being pressured into saying they have symptoms inorder to belong, or just flat out lying about being psychotic.

This can then also lead to some really wild hostility towards people whose delusions are 'undesirable' (ie believing that you're dead, that everyone around you have been replaced, ect ect) I've seen people with delusional attachments harass and trigger people with psychotic disorders- Even in the community I've seen people who are doubles interacting with other doubles with the sole reason of wanting them to spiral for being a double.

-

Long post short: We have no issues with the delusion of being [character], it's the community at large we have issues with.

-

Alternative readings

An essay written about the term Delusional attachment (with medical sources)

Tumblr user strawberrybabydog has a really good tag talking about the issues with the term, the community, all of it

There's a few cards out there but I don't link linking them because I don't know who wrote them and some of them are lacking in info imo.

[dadwithout]

I am going to do a controversial.

SCHIZOPHRENIA IS A CHRONIC ILLNESS THAT DESERVES SPACE IN CRIPPLE PUNK

As an example, I had a delusion for 4 years, that was so pervasive that I ended up seeing 3 immunologists and in treatment on drugs meant for Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. My delusion? An ever-growing list of primarily food allergies that causes debilitating, painful, and sometimes life-threatening symptoms, when the third immunologist suggested that I may have a stomach issue with processing certain foods instead of allergies I had 50 or so known off-limits foods and was eating plain rice, carrots, bananas, and diet soda only. My physical pain and symptoms weren't unreal because of my schizophrenia, it caused me to miss events and stuff.

Schizophrenia can overlap with a lot of physical disabilities to the point where it is a bit of a blurred line between what is caused by mental health and what is caused by physical problems in the body.

I think another layer complicating this is when our bodies don't work. Catatonia, a symptom characterized by strange movements, and inability to move at times is often a feature of schizophrenia. Catatonic movement is something I have been maligned for throughout my life and has never been something I can hide.

What about when delusions complicate our movement? When I have delusions of being dead, often during that time my head tilts to the side and I can't move it without great effort on my part, I also heavily limp, and my arm movements become jagged, to the point where I'm unable to use my wheelchair and crutches for my hEDS pain.

There is also the mistreatment we get for our facial expressions, a key symptom of schizophrenia is that facial expressions are pretty much non-existent or sometimes entirely wrong for the situation we're in (i.e. Laughing during the funeral service of your friend's dad who was murdered) and that can cause us to face abuse because our face doesn't work right and our brain can't translate the right emotion sometimes.

Hallucinations are entirely physical sensations we experience, I frequently experience painful tactile hallucinations, is that pain less real than that of someone with fibromyalgia or hEDS? What about the olfactory hallucinations? When I hallucinate smells so strong that I vomit, is that not a physical manifestation of my disorder? Visual and auditory hallucinations are sound and visual disturbances. For many schizophrenics, auditory hallucinations cause episodes of being unable to interact with others in a sound environment because hallucinations can be so overwhelming. Our body can't tell the difference between reality and hallucination, disability isn't as simple as separating category by cause of disability. In some cases, it's more cut and dry but schizophrenia literally isn't.

My schizophrenia has probably impacted my physical health and disability more than my hEDS, POTS, Gatro(hopefully -paresis, otherwise IDK what it could be), asthma, and episodes of CRPS ever has. We already aren't welcome in mental health or neurodivergent communities because of the ableist idea that associating with us makes others look bad, so it just generally sucks to exist as a psychotic and especially as someone with a Schizo-Prefix disorder.

Side note - The reason psychotics and especially schizophrenics are always rejected from community spaces is because people use "delusional" and "psycho" and "schizo" as insults to undermine and bring into question the intelligence of the person making the arguments. I bring to your attention #abledsarepsychotic during the #abledsareweird era of Twitter. Where traditionally physically disabled people and aspychotic people, in general, used our disability to discredit ableism against them by saying ableds were unreliable sources due to experiencing psychosis, a disability. When I called this out on Twitter I got a lot of angry DM's from people telling me I didn't get a say on disability justice, despite A)Being physically disabled myself, B)Being generally disabled myself, and C)Me literally knowing what I'm talking about in regards to ableism against psychotics.

I can't help but think this messaging about using psychosis as an insult being okay, for even other disabled people to do is about palatability to ableds you know?

[mythicalcoolkid]

Hey can we stop throwing psychotic people under the bus? ESPECIALLY when we talk about politics? Every time you make fun of "crazy people who believe in conspiracy theories" and talk about trying to "out-crazy" them, every time you talk about how stupid anyone would be to worry about being tracked - ESPECIALLY every time you "counter" it with information on how you actually are being tracked through your cell phone or whatever - every time you use psycho or delusional or paranoid or schizo or insane as an insult, every time you present "evidence" that a politician or bigot has x mental illness, you are furthering the stigma against psychotic people and making it harder for them to seek help

"But what if I think they really ARE delusional?? Why can't I call them that?" Guess what? Not only are you not qualified to armchair diagnose someone, but even if you are right? You still shouldn't make fun of psychotic people! Psychotic people are everywhere! They're your coworkers, friends, family members, classmates. They're people you never would have guessed experienced psychosis. And they can hear you every time you record the "crazy homeless guy" on the bus or make fun of people for being scared of "vaccine microchips." You are sending a very clear message that they are, at best, ignorant and laughable, and at worst, evil and beyond help

If you absolutely NEED to say something about it for whatever reason? Don't imply that the people saying those things are mentally ill or that they're stupid. Don't say things that could further a delusion by adding onto it (like that "the Chinese government is using anti mask disinformation to weaken US citizens" post. You're not funny or helpful, you're potentially making someone's life far worse). Don't reblog posts that do that. Call it what it is: repeated strong exposure to propaganda and disinformation campaigns. Yes, it's a bad thing and harmful to others. Yes, it's upsetting to see it so widespread. Yes, something needs to be done. But harming psychotic people who already face so much harm and discrimination not only won't change anyone's mind, but it's not a remotely okay response. It's ableism, and it's dangerous

[ourpickwickclub]

What is the basis of these Shelberts still holding on so long? I really want to know what they saw in Blake and ML’s love story that is worth being such a crazy person about it 6 years later. The way they started was not romantic. They broke up a bunch of times. Their public image was bickering and ragging on each other and having to deny cheating rumors. Probably the nicest thing about them is the story about writing Over You and when they won awards for it, but guess what, Blake and his whole family hate her now so that’s ruined too. I just don’t get what they think was so special about this couple looking back in hindsight. Especially when most of them also tell themselves that he cheated with Gwen. Ok if you believe that, why would you want them back together? Can someone help me understand the rationale from these psychos?

It is a dark and scary ride to try to go into the minds of a Shelbert. I’m going to blame Blake, he humanized her, he charmed people into believing that that relationship would stand the test of time because he put up with things, he joked about her shrill voice, her nagging but said in such a way that he sounded like a jokey husband...instead of looking at her they focused on him, “How cute is he? He sounds just like my husband” not taking into account that underneath those words was a warning...how much longer can somebody stay in such a relationship? I’m sure there were “romantic” things said but put up against an onslaught of cheating allegations, copious amount of drinking, long stretches of time apart there was no way a normal person would think “Yep. That’s the kind of relationship I want!” and that is why you are left with a bunch of psychotics. I feel like there are two separate groups of Shelberts, the delusional ones that didn’t really know much about them other than what was on the surface, cute interviews, magazine spreads and a song about Blake’s brother...they never looked deeper into their relationship at the time so didn’t pay attention to how often they were apart and the cutting things laced with humor that they said about each other, probably didn’t know that she couldn’t be around him longer than two weeks and stayed in a separate house from him in Oklahoma so being reminded of that time they aren’t seeing it for what it was...a really shitty relationship. Then you have the other group, the schizo ones that go from calling Blake an alcoholic and who say they are proud of ML for talking shit in her songs...what a badass but then will turn around and cry and lament about wanting them back, those people just want to “win” they were assholes from the beginning and damnit they will stay assholes until the end, they won’t concede that Blake is happier with Gwen because they don’t want to look like they were ever wrong and if he doesn’t go back with ML then the least he can do is be a pitiful wreck and be unhappy how dare he still be in love and be happy...it’s not supposed to work that way, they were supposed to be right, they were supposed to “win”. That’s what I think anyway but I would love to hear what you guys think!

-L

[bellwitchfaggot]

What are your opinions on kinning?

I...cant tell if this is like a bait anon but I'm gonna answer transparently:

I am a kinnie and I have been a kinnie since I was 13 and I was kind of a member of the original kin community on tumblr just being upfront DIDKDKRKFKFKFFKFKFK. My ex best friend and roommate who I had a huge falling out with in january was uhhh. The person who introduced kinning to tumblr in 2010. That's not a lie, and now any time he realizes I've turned anon back on he sends me petty hate anons till I turn it off again. Take from that what you will

For a lot of people it's not that serious, which is fine. For a lot of people, it's a spiritual thing (if u dont get how it's a spiritual thing, I'm not really in a place to even begin to explain). For me, it's a schizophrenia thing and my kinning comes from a place of delusions. In my personal opinion, most more serious kinning is a delusion thing, altho I dont talk about that a lot cuz a lot of ppl dont like it. I believed it was a spiritual thing (was a pagan and witch for years) literally up until last november when I had my first acute psychotic episode, was hospitalized, diagnosed with schizophrenia, and then realized 90% of the things I believed in life were delusions

The thing is theres a literal clinically researched type of delusion called zoanthropy (basically the official name for clinical lycanthropy) which in the dsm is. Basically word for word the same experience people who kin very seriously have with kinning. It's my personal belief as a schizophrenic kinnie that most kinning people take very seriously is a form of zoanthropy delusion. I dont like. Derail kinnies posts or go into kinnies homes accusing them of believing delusional, that would be rude, but based on my own experience with kinning as well as with witchcraft and paganism being a years long delusion for me, I cannot personally believe that it's anything more spiritually deep than a vaguely dormant mental health issue. Again I'm basing this 100% off my real world experiences so dont come for me for like. Being schizophrenic thanks

Also because of the way schizo spectrum stuff affects your brain most ppl who will go on to be diagnosed in adulthood show certain symptoms as younger people, including "non malicious" psychosis (such as...believing you are not human or not yourself), and every schizophrenic adult I know (including ones who dont know what "kinning" is) can corroborate that they had similar experiences as teenagers. What I'm saying is I think that psychiatrists should list kinning as a symptom of schizophreniform (/j)

[schizosupport]

Hey sorry if this sounds dumb- but do you have to have schizophrenia/a schizo-spec disorder to have delusions? I have them really frequently and I don't really know whats going on and I'm a bit scared;;; thank you in advance.

Hey there! Well, it’s a bit complicated, and depends on the type and strength of delusion. 

There’s something called delusional disorder, which is just delusions, but afaik it doesn’t cover bizarre delusions, but I suggest looking it up, I don’t remember bc I haven’t eaten in a long time and my brain is fried--

Anxiety and delusions can also be similar, and it can be hard to tell the border.

Some disorders also can come with delusions, such as OCD, PTSD and more.

Furthermore, depression and mania can easily cause psychotic symptoms.

So in short, yes it is possible to have delusions without being schizo-spec.

Cat

[butwhatistrue]

The past two days have been wild. yesterday i went to have all four of my wisdom teeth removed, I’m not gonna go into detail, but it wasn’t pretty or comfortable at all, and I have a lot of stitches in my mouth now - yay!

Today i went to the psych department. i tried calling them yesterday and asking if i could move the time because of widom teeth removal, but it turned out I was seeing their senior doctor, not a nurse, and that shw wouldn’t have time to see me again before in a long time. so i had little choice but to go.

I talked to her for two hours. First she asked a bit about my history, not really family history, more like, when did i start school, what have i been doing with my life so far -ish questions. After that we moved on to the checklists for things, mostly psychotic stuff. She was ~very~ interested in my hallucinatory stuff. I tried to be pretty conservative about it. Surprisingly she didn’t really ask about delusional stuff beyond the classics, though i assume she read the notes from the other people i talked to. 

In the end she gave me a preliminary diagnosis along the lines of “non-organic psychosis unspecified”. She said she felt like my issues were a mix of autistic traits, psychotic features and lots of anxiety + history related stuff, and that I didn’t fit well into any category. 

I asked her what she thought about schizotypal since I’ve been looking into that, and she said her instinct wasn’t to go for that because my psychotic symptoms were beyond quasipsychosis, and she didn’t think i exhibited a good deal of the symptoms (particularly those related to negative symptoms of the schizo-spectrum, i think.) She did say that there was a likelihood I’d get that as part of an official diagnosis at some point, since it would convey some of the more atustic-spectrum issues along with the more psychotic stuff. 

I’m going to be called in for conversations with a nurse, and she made a prescription which I’m not yet sure if I will use.

It’s for risperdal, which is one of the new-generation antipsychotics. though, it’s not very broad-spectrum compared to most other new-gen. it should be fairly non-sedative as far as antipsychotics go.. She told me they usually use 0.5-1 mg for anxiety, and 3-4 mg for psychosis, and she suggested I try just 1 mg and see how that treats me. It should be fairly kind in regards to sideeffects at that level.

I have no idea what to do actually. I guess part of me is just like fuck it, let’s take their damn medication. while another part is too afraid to lose my edge and become unable to deal with these symptoms if i start relying on a drug to do the legwork. 

The thing is, i don’t think they are going to try and help me with other types of drugs before I’ve given this a chance. She seemed to believe that a lot of my general issues, including spaciness and the like, might be a bi-product of these symptoms, and that it made most sense to attempt to treat this first. 

She suggested i apply for a mentor at university, to help me structure my time and get my work done, and she also suggested getting a “bostøtte”, which is like.. “external living support?” Basically they’re people who drive around and come by maybe once a week and help you straighten out your home. That sounds really humiliating and anxiety-provoking tbh, but what do i know.

Anyways do i know anyone who tried risperdal (risperidone)? I’m really unsure how to proceed. I’m kind of considering just never showing up for an appointment there again.

I may have made some type of mistake smh. I’m still super confused about the line between psychosis and quasipsychosis but she seemed so sure that I belonged in the first category :/

Well the good news was that she wasn’t particularly worried that I was going to get a lot worse (aka she didn’t see me as being at particular risk for schizophrenia f.ex.), likely since my symptoms hav been a constant my whole life. On the other hand she also didn’t believe I was ever going to be “healthy/sane/neurotypical”, basically for the same reason.

I feel like this still leaves me with no words to describe myself. I was starting to like stpd too. I don’t feel like it’s completely out of the game anyways, we’ll see about it all.

In any case I’m feeling fairly chill. My only issue is that my mother is going to call me tonight and I haven’t made up my mind about what to tell her. I am not going to tell my father or stepfather anything - which kind of pushes me towards wanting to disclose a bit more to my mum.

She was very set on the idea that I needed to try medication for adhd, but now that they’ve diagnosed me with psychosis they’re probably going to be careful with stimulants? She has a lot of users who are really not digging their antipsychotics, and I’ve been feeding her anti-anti-psychotic notions as well, so I’m not sure it will go over well if I present that aspect.

I could present it more as an anxiety-med, but I know that she is going to ask for the name and research the hell out of it. I told her I wasn’t going to accept anti-psychotics and she is likely to remind me of that.

At this point I honestly don’t know what I want for myself. Still, I worry about alienating my mom. If i had just not told her about the whole asessment in the first place, but I did, and I kind of sold her on the idea of stpd, but this is maybe something else..

Anyways, sorry about this excessively long post! EDIT: I just talked to my mum, and to my surprise she thought i ought to give the medicine a chance. interesting. im still thinking it over

[lorax177]

Let's talk about ipseity!

Ipseity is the sense of having a minimal self, which is essentially a feeling of mine-ness to one's thoughts. It is different from the narrative self, or identity. Thought ipseity is non-reflective--that is, you don't have to think about a thought or experience you're having to know that you're the one having it. For most people, that is. However, for those with schizo-spectrum disorders (like moi), this ipseity is often disturbed, called self-disorder. There's a number of ways one can feel distanced from one's thoughts and experiences, and some of them overlap with other disorders, but many of them are virtually only seen in schizo-spec people. Here's a list of some of them:

-Thought pressure

-thought block

-thought echo

-ruminating (rethinking or reliving events that have happened over and over)

-hearing one's own thoughts

-experiencing thoughts in physical space

-experiencing multiple contradictory feelings at once, causing issues making insignificant decisions

-confusing real perceptions with imagined scenarios

-being unable to describe or name one's feelings

-becoming irresistibly drawn to a meaningless detail

-short-term memory disturbance

-differences in the perception of time

-word-finding difficulties

-feeling anonymous

-feeling as if one's thoughts are not one's own

-feeling disconnected from the world

-hyperreflectivity

-feeling as if there are multiple people within oneself; this is different from having alters in that a) they do not have distinct identities, b) they cannot independently control the body, and c) there are no memory gaps. This can also have delusional qualities, such as having other beings transmitting thoughts into one's head.

-lack of common sense

-feeling as if one is younger or older than one is

-lack of clarity of consciousness

-mind-body distance

-feelings of the body moving when it's not

-suddenly needing to consciously control movements which are usually muscle memory, like walking, brushing teeth, etc.

-feeling as if there is a link between one's own movements and that of other people's or of objects

-confusing oneself and/or one's body with someone else, or feeling like another person is somehow intruding on one's existence by being near them

-thinking that unrelated phenomena reference oneself, or that the universe centers on oneself

-feeling that the world is fake or an illusion/that other people are automatons

-sudden change in spiritual or religious beliefs

-misinterpreting objects

-visual fragmentation

-objects shifting or changing before one's eyes

-objects appearing larger or smaller than normal

-vision seeming brighter or duller in color or illumination

-objects appearing closer or farther away

-distortions in the perceptions of space

-differences in the volume or accuracy of sounds

-synesthesia

-perceptions of past, present, and future are warped, confused, lacking, intrusive or otherwise disturbed

-feeling like anything could happen and it wouldn't be surprising or worrying

-feeling profoundly different from other people, observing them as a detached spectator

-feeling as if one can read others' minds or control their actions

-Feeling as though other people can read one's mind or control one's actions

-familiar people or things seeming unfamiliar in a strange way, or vice versa

-people seem as though they are trying to communicate something important regardless of the content of the conversation

-feeling compelled to withdraw from other people, defy people's wishes, act without regard for social rules, get along perfectly with everyone, or make everyone laugh

-having trouble with associating the meaning of a word to the word itself

-having unconventional ways of breaking up words and assigning meaning through storytelling throughout the word

-using grammar in unconventional ways

-using make-up words

-disorganized speech

-echolalia

-feeling like one is speaking about someone else when speaking about oneself

-inanimate objects seeming alive

-deja-vu or jamais-vu

-feeling as if the world has become puzzling or incoherent

-constantly feeling watched

-feeling as if everything is being controlled by an outside force

-double-bookkeeping

-feeling as though one is an automaton

-feeling as though one is a character in someone else's story

Of course most people experience a few of these occasionally, but if you experience many of these you might want to think about wether you fit the criteria for any of the schizo-spectrum disorders: schizoid personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, paranoid personality disorder, schizophreniform disorder, delusional disorder, brief psychotic disorder, schizophrenia, and schizoaffective disorder. If you already know you have one of these, i hope you can get some clarity out of this! I'm schizoaffective and I just learned about it recently, and it makes a lot of sense that I've experienced most of these. <|:)

[drowninginredink]

Hi, it's the anon who headcanons the Chosen as higher needs autistic.

I just wanted to say that I'mactually thankful you educated me on your schizoprenic experience, because I didn't know any of that was even a thing! I'll take that with me going forward.

You're welcome! If you want proper schizo education, let's do it! Actually, a note first, because I'm going to be using the terms psychotic and schizophrenic a lot and you should know the difference. Psychosis is a symptom. It is basically just disconnect from reality, generally meaning delusions and often, but not always, hallucinations. Psychosis can happen because of pregnancy, medical conditions, other mental illnesses, or drugs (both legal/prescribed and illegal). Schizophrenia is chronic psychosis that cannot be attributed to any other cause. All schizophrenics are psychotic; not all psychotics are schizophrenic.

1. I know I already said it in the original post, but do not call 911 on someone in a mental health crisis. I will not share the details of what happens to psychotic people (and let's be clear here; it's almost always Black psychotic people) in police custody. And the "good" scenario is them ending up hospitalized, which really isn't much better. I work in nursing, but I will never, ever work in psychiatric nursing because the way psychotics get treated in psych hospitals? I could not see that every day. I could not be part of that system. And there's no way I'd have any leverage to change that system. Psychotics get forcibly medicated, restrained, treated like weirdos and pariahs by the other patients... And then thrown right back out. Why are there a bunch of homeless schizophrenics? Well obviously it's pretty damn impossible to hold a job when in active psychosis, but also, how are you supposed to keep getting your meds or get any lasting therapy when after you get out of the hospital, you're going right back to living on the streets?

2. If someone says stuff that seems delusional, do not fact check them (unless they explicitly ask you to). It will not work. It will just distress them and make them double down. The correct approach is to very slowly nudge them out of it until they realize for themselves what was a delusion, but that's not your job. That's for their therapist to do. Don't encourage them either, though. If you can change the subject, that's the best approach.

3. There's this image that all psychotics need to be medicated, because obviously therapy wouldn't work because they're completely irrational. Medication actually doesn't help 25% of schizophrenics, and therapy is generally way more effective. The problem with that being that you know who else thinks of psychosis as a "just throw drugs at it" issue? Lots and lots of psych professionals. And a whole bunch also just don't know what to do with us. Or they don't want to deal with us, because it's hard. As someone in the medical field Therapy is super useful, though. The standard approach is CBT for psychosis (which personally I had a terrible time with. DBT ended up being my magic bullet). Fun fact: my old psychiatrist is currently doing a study on controlling voice hearing yourself. Basically, you can stop hearing voices by telling them to shut up and fuck off. I'm unconventional as far as schizophrenia symptoms go, so I never really had much voice hearing, but I did for a brief period of time and that's how I got it to go away. Learning how to reality check yourself is the most effective way to deal with psychosis.

3. a. Back on meds, for me personally, anti psychotics did help with my dissociation, but did nothing for my hallucinations and delusions. I'm not on them anymore. We found that an ADHD med actually worked really well for my dissociation, interestingly enough. Anti psychotics also have awful side effects. Schizophrenia is not fun, but the worst thing I've ever experienced wasn't schizophrenia at all. It was akathisia, which is a side effect of anti psychotics. It's restlessness to the absolute maximum. You can't concentrate, you can't think, you can't sit still, you can't sleep. Your heart feels like it's burning a hole in your chest. It is hell.

4. Schizophrenia is actually neurodevelopmental. Our brains look different than other brains. I know personally, I have always had delusional thought processes. It's just that as a kid, I was fixating on, say, the fact that I just could not leave this party right now or that for some reason it was a huge deal that the teacher didn't call on me. So no one thought it was delusions. But now that I've been overtly delusional? The thought process is exactly the same. It's like you're wearing blinders. The world flattens out to 2D and you just can't see the truth. And then when you do realize it, you feel like an absolute idiot for letting it go on for so long. That's true now, and it was true when I was freaking out about dance recitals as a kid.

5. Let's talk about the absolute worst psychotic symptom you've never heard of: disorganized thinking. It's what it sounds like. It's like your brain and thoughts are a deck of cards that are constantly being shuffled. You lose your train of thought. You forget what it is you're doing. I know when my disorganized thinking was a lot worse (those ADHD meds have also helped a ton with that, thank God) I would just get trapped scrolling my phone because I couldn't keep a train of thought for long enough to decide to do something else. Or rather, I'd decide to do something, and then forget about it before I could, over and over. For people who aren't me, it will also manifest as disorganized speech, where you know what you're saying in your head but complete gibberish comes out of your mouth instead. A thing people do not talk about enough is how much schizophrenia absolutely destroys your ability to think. Between disorganized thinking and dissociation (and God, my dissociation is terrible... And this is with it medicated down to levels where I can actually function) sometimes my brain is just absolutely useless to me.

That's probably enough for now? I could keep going for hours, but I think that's a lot of really good information. Truly give me an inch and I'll run a mile