#schizo-spec

[schizopositivity]

Things I'd love for the Internet to leave in 2023:

• misusing the word "delusional" or saying "delulu"

• public freakout videos that are just someone displaying psychotic symptoms

• "I'm in your walls" and other paranoia triggering "jokes"

• schizoposting

• misusing the word "psychotic"

• baiting and triggering people online who are openly psychotic or displaying psychotic symptoms

• excluding schizo-spec and psychotic people from any neurodiversity/mental illness awareness

Let's just all try to be better to schizo-spec and psychotic people. And hold others accountable as well.

[ginayoung]

Ugh there's a band that plays lots of shows in my town and they have "schizo" in their band name. Nothing on any of their bios says any members are schizo-spec, or talks about the meaning behind the name at all, but they do describe themselves as "wild" and "insane". It's just so annoying honestly. I'm always checking my favorite local venue's upcoming shows and whenever I see that band name I just roll my eyes. It would be different if they used their platform to spread awareness about schizo-spec disorders, but it seems like they just use "schizo" to seem weird and crazy which is just so disappointing to see over and over again.

[a-timeless-illness]

Paranoid Personality Disorder (Premorbid) Symbol + Flags

[Image ID: A 6 horizontally striped flag with a symbol in the middle. The stripes from up to down are pastel yellow, orange, maroon, eggplant purple, lilaec, and light lavender. The symbol is an eye where the pupil is a swirl. The eyes sides have arrows rhat go up, then down. The symbol has a gradient of the flag colors, and is outlined with white. End ID]

[Image ID: A 6 horizontally striped flag where the stripes from up to down are pastel yellow, orange, maroon, eggplant purple, lilaec, and light lavender. End ID]

Symbol with and without gradient

[Image ID: An image of a symbol where the symbol is an eye where the pupil is a swirl. The eyes sides have arrows rhat go up, then down. The symbol has a gradient of yellow, orange, pink, and dark purple. It's outlined in white. End ID]

[Image ID: An image of a symbol where the symbol is an eye where the pupil is a swirl. The eyes sides have arrows rhat go up, then down. The symbol is lined with black and outlined with white. End ID]

[noodle-shenaniganery]

I wish we had more schizo-spec representation that was just, y’know. A Guy. A Chill Dude, if you will. A Man In A Situation.

So often, schizo-spec characters are either The Crazy One In The Corner or The Insane Killer, and I think those are just really ridiculous ways of portraying such mental illnesses, y’know? Can’t we have more characters where their mental illness isn’t all there is to them? Like, “Meet Hannah. She’s a lesbian with two cats, a barista girlfriend, and she was diagnosed with schizoaffecfive disorder two years ago. She really likes chocolate muffins.”

To be clear, I don’t want to take away from the fact that some of these conditions can be life-ruining and truly devastating in some cases. These are serious mental illnesses, after all. I’d just like more representation of those who aren’t fully encompassed by that one, singular aspect of their identity.

One idea I had in specific was a sitcom (situational comedy) about a schizophrenic man in his late twenties who moves into a new house. It’s small, but surprisingly cheap, so he decides to take the deal. However, the twist would be that the house is haunted by several spirits which do not want people living in the residence. They try to scare him with all the classic horror movie tricks—but none of them work. He assumes that they’re simply hallucinations, and, honestly, he’s seen far worse. He just jots them down in his mental list of “I should talk to my friends (or therapist) about this” things and moves on. And his friends, most of whom also have stigmatized mental illnesses like BPD, DID, HPD, BIID, etc., are a big help in his life and would be the main side characters. I know that such an idea would have to be handled exceedingly carefully, but, I dunno… I’d like to see it.

Would anyone else? I’d honestly love to know.

[certifiedgoofball]

ipseity disturbance is so stupid because it makes me question if i'm a system constantly because i feel like a lot of my thoughts arent my own even though i know that they are my own. like when i say theres a brain worm telling me to do something i mean it thats what it feels like. i know the thought is mine and it comes from me but it is so disconnected from myself it feels like i have a parasite or brain worm or some shit but the relationship is completely symbiotic. sometimes its nice i'll do something bad and ill be like "i should kms" and then brain worm is like Shut the fuck up its not that serious. and im like so true... but its hard to explain because if i try to say this to a normal person theyll be like Wtf because sometimes i bicker with the brain worm but im not actually arguing with someone else im just arguing with myself but the disconnected thoughts of myself. And i know this probably makes zero sense

[self-dx-culture-is]

Self dx schizo-spec culture is "why does it suddenly smell like grape popsicles in here?" when no one in the house has bought grape flavored popsicles in years

-CCC (variations of this happen a lot)

.

[psychotic-system-culture-is]

Probably psychotic system culture is . Oh no . Why have I been really fucking paranoid and having hallucinations + delusions recently . I’m at the age where schizophrenia normally develops/starts showing itself . Oh god what if this whole time my plurality has been one big delusion-

<-w->

[neuroticboyfriend]

hi i was wondering what the best word for someone who isn't schizophrenic to use to describe someone who is? (just because on the post where you talked about the shorter version being a slur but also reclaimable inside community (totally makes sense!) i wasn't sure if that meant just the shortened version or the whole word as well.)

(if there's a resource you wanna point me to instead rad just wasn't sure my own research would land me w shit aside from abelist doctors )

it varies by person to person - some of us may not mind others calling us schizo (as long as they dont use it as a slur). but generally, just saying we're schizophrenic/whatever our label is (schizotypal, schizoid, schizoaffective, schizophrenic, schizophreniform...). schizo-spec/schizospec is also okay usually, since it's a shortening of schizophrenia spectrum; but because it uses the term schizo, some of us may not be comfortable with non-schizospecs using it for us. so just don't use it around those of us who aren't comfy with that.

but ultimately (when possible) it's best to ask us (as individuals) what we want to be called/described with.

[mad-pride]

Schizospec Autism Flag

This flag represents those who are on both spectrums (schizophrenia spectrum and autism spectrum). Although autistic schizophrenia (also known as schizophrenic autism, or Bleuler's autism 4A's symptoms in psychopathology) is its own concept, this is not the exactly same.

Words: schizaut/schizau (schizautism/schizautistic), schizoautism (schizoautistic).

[abyssa111]

Hi random question for the schizo-specs, is it delusions/hallucinations if I know that it might not be real. Like during episodes I’m completely convinced it’s real but I’m able to look back later and be like “that was a delusion”. And whenever I’m in an episode again I find it hard to call them not real / delusions, despite earlier being able to.

[chaosgremlim]

TW: Formication, tactile hallucinations, derealization.

The neurodivergent urge to gouge out your skin to stop existing and letting The Worms™️ free.

[schizopositivity]

It's interesting that when the topic of schizophrenia or psychosis is brought up (especially on the internet), people who don't have it are so often willing to dole out the personal information of someone who does have it. It's usually a family member of the person talking. And these people seem to have no problem revealing this person's most sensitive and embarrassing information.

I understand you are trying to find connection in some way. And you have a loved one with schizophrenia/psychosis so you feel that you should chime in. But tbh I don't want to hear about a stranger's most vulnerable moments. And I don't think the person who experienced it would be happy to hear that their family member/neighbor/etc is just spreading that around online. And it rarely adds anything helpful to the discussion, just an anecdotal story that is typically used to generalize an entire group of people.

So if you know/knew someone with schizophrenia or psychosis and you want to tell their story for them, please consider these things: Would they be alright with me sharing this publicly? Does this add anything meaningful to the discussion? Am I speaking over people who have experienced schizophrenia or psychosis themselves? Am I using this as a justification to generalize a group of people?

[anothersmallfeat]

Spoilers, theory, arcane:

Can somebody who watches Arcane tell me if other characters have real time flashbacks like when Vi is hurt and keeps hearing and seeing stuff from her past?

I think the creators did such a good job depicting psychosis that they know it has a genetic link. I think Vi has it but not nearly as bad. To the point Vi probably doesn't realize it's not normal, and might only really pop up when she's really hurt.

Anyway, I'm here for Vi/Cait dynamic and how they would each handle finding out Vi may also be prone to hallucinations. And comfort fics where Powder gets antipsychotics if you have them.

[trans-axolotl]

idk i think a lot of people sort of build up schizo-spec diagnoses in their head as this example of a "clearly biomedical disease that is the scariest possible example of mental illness that is always a crisis no matter what." and i'm not going to sit here and say that schizoaffective is always pleasant to live with, or pretend that it's something that I can manage perfectly-it does cause me distress a lot of the time, and makes some things very difficult. but for me, psychosis is by far not the most difficult symptom i have to deal with, compared to some of the other things that have brought me distress. And yet it's always the symptom that is reacted to with the most fear, confusion, and disgust by other people. I hate it when people generalize psychosis as always and inherently and forever a crisis, and ignore the fact that everyone who experiences psychosis is going to have their own experiences, perspectives on how it impacts them, and that treating psychosis as a super scary, inherently dangerous symptom is incredibly stigmatizing and prevents us from receiving support and care from our communities.

idk. i just really wish people would realize that for some people, psychosis can sometimes be a neutral or even positive experience (i've had some incredibly lovely psychosis experiences), and that by positioning psychosis as a "super scary disease that has no quality of life" and only offering carceral solutions, it perpetuates a pattern where we get continually pushed into harmful treatments. Instead of a situation where our autonomy is respected, where we're offered a wide variety of treatments from meds to therapies to peer support like Hearing Voices Network to material community based support and where we're allowed to define our own experience of psychosis based on how it actually affects us. like, i don't want to deny that psychosis is often distressing for many of us--but I do think we have the responsibility to evaluate where we've learned about psychosis, what societal messages we've internalized about psychosis, what kinds of knowledge about psychosis do we not have access to, and just actually think in depth about how our biases impact how we communicate about psychosis.

[schizosupport]

Wishing a good day to the people who aren't sure if their experiences count as full-blown psychosis, but who still relate heavily to psychotic experiences.

Psychosis IS a spectrum, and sublinical experiences of a psychotic nature are still often very difficult, distressing and potentially disabling to live with.

It can be very confusing to simultaneously feel like you aren't psychotic bc you never had a full-blown episode, but at the same time most people with anxiety look at you confused when you share the type of things you fear.

Psychosis flavoured anxiety is absolutely a thing - and quasipsychosis is a real thing. Diagnostically, we have clinical high risk for psychosis, schizotypal and more. But whether you relate to any of these specific diagnoses or not, if you have psychosis-adjacent experiences, you are welcome in the schizo and psychosis spec communities.

[self-dx-culture-is]

Self dx schizo-spec culture is being pretty sure you got it genetically even though there's little evidence for it

.