#this is even true of psychosis like studies have suggested that hallucinations are mostly just

[scripttorture]

You've said on this blog before that for something to count as sensory deprivation, 4 or more (I think) major senses have to be removed. Is there a word for torture where only one is removed? E.G., a solitary confinement cell in pitch darkness, so that a non-blind character loses access to sight. And how would that complicate the normally documented effects of solitary confinement?

Generally most sources or interviews describe the specific conditions they’re talking about rather then apply a specific word. I tend to lump it in with poor prison conditions and neglect, making sure to specify exactly what was going on. I don’t think there is a specific word.

 This sort of thing definitely happens. Other variants I’ve heard of include designing prison uniforms as all-covering in order to limit a person’s sense of touch and making prisoners wear ear protectors to limit hearing/communication.

 I haven’t seen any systematic studies on this in the way I have for solitary confinement. My impression is that pitch black cells in particular were more common historically then they are now.

 This stuff does still happen but it’s a lot rarer then it used to be. Because of that I’m not entirely sure if a systematic study would be possible. I’m not sure if you’d find the numbers necessary for it.

 Pitch black cells in particular are very well documented historically. But historical sources tend to be poorer sources for long term effects on survivors. (By which I mean most historical sources on torture I’ve read just… don’t contain any information in that regard. I’m not sure there was much interest in follow up on what happened to people.)

 So we are in ‘educated guess’ territory. I’m putting this together based on what information there is on solitary and a small number historic interviews with people who were kept in darkness.

 Generally I’d expect it to mean an earlier on-set of symptoms and more severe symptoms manifesting earlier. I say this because in general that seems to be the effect of poor prison conditions when someone is kept in solitary confinement.

 I’ve seen a couple of reports tentatively linking worsening eyesight in solitary to poor prison conditions but I don’t know enough about the eye to say whether a complete lack of lighting would have this effect. And that applies to a lot of the variations I’ve described: I’m not a doctor so I’m not sure what limiting some of these senses over a long period does in a physical sense. Psychologically it’s an added stress which makes solitary more harmful. But there could be a lot of physical damage in these scenarios that I just… don’t know enough about the human body to unpack.

 That’s one of the difficulties with rarer tortures; it can be hard to figure out what the physical damage would be and why.

 My instinct, based mostly on my own experience with lab safety gear, is that how a sense is restricted will make a difference in terms of the lasting effects. For instance using my example of limiting hearing: if you wear ear plugs every day all day your ears will hurt*. A lot. And I think you would eventually start to see lasting damage to the ears and hearing.

 In contrast ear defenders don’t hurt the inside of the ear. But they are heavier and can get caught on things, which can lead to pain in the neck and shoulders.

 Similarly with the example of gloves, depending on the material you can see some pretty major skin irritation with constant use. My hands currently resemble a shedding lizard and this is a low-glove use week. That could cause knock on effects (infections for example).

 So I think there could be different physical symptoms depending on how the character’s vision is restricted. No light is different to very low light and both are different to blindfolds or bags over the head.

 Get a clear idea of exactly what is happening in your story and how. Consult Scriptmedic's archives. And think through whether there are any knock on problems or practical issues associated with the method. For instance if this character can't see they're going to be more likely to trip (at least at first) and they're going to have more difficulty navigating their cell.

 This could lead to more bruises, scrapes and cuts. It might also mean it takes them longer to eat their meals and it would probably make it more difficult for them to keep their cell clean. (Imagine dropping one cherry tomato in the kitchen and picture how difficult it would be to find it without stepping on it if you're blind.)

 Those effects apply to every method that takes away a character's sight. But a hood over the head for long periods can also restrict breathing. Think about whether a particular method has those sorts of individual knock on effects.

 Circling back to the psychological effects, this is basically an added risk factor in a solitary confinement scenario. This typically looks like symptoms manifesting earlier and becoming more severe more quickly.

 Based on the few historical sources I've seen over the years feelings of helplessness seem particularly prominent, whether the victims were in solitary or not. I can't say from any of the sources I've seen whether any other symptoms are 'more likely'. It's difficult to tell from what's there. I've seen a few people today theorise that lack of stimulation (ie dark cell conditions, lack of sound etc) could make hallucinations and psychosis in solitary more likely. I think that's possible, we know that true sensory deprivation causes hallucinations (sometimes very quickly), but I also don't think we have enough evidence to say for sure.

 Overall if you want to write something like this I’d suggest looking up resources to do with coping with disability. Because effectively what you’re talking about is rendering a character (temporarily) disabled and throwing them in solitary at the same time. Learning how to navigate it and processing it, I think it would probably be a similar process for your character. They're going to have to learn to live with the limitations that have been placed on them, even if they are temporary.

 Coming to terms with disability can be a long, emotional, stressful process. Having it happen in captivity, without support or access to other disabled people, that would make it more stressful and more difficult. Depression in the months after becoming disabled is relatively common. For a lot of people it's also temporary, a depressive episode rather then something that will last a life time.

 All of this would mix with the stresses and psychological damage of solitary itself.

 Take a look at the masterpost. Read through Shalev's sourcebook which you can find linked in the sources page for the masterpost.

 Decide what symptoms you're interested in and what kind of severity level you're comfortable with writing. Remember that with poor prison conditions this character will be showing more symptoms earlier and they'll reach a more serious stage more quickly. Work backwards from that to figure out how long they could reasonably be confined.

 If the time frame doesn't fit you're story (you are looking at some pretty serious long term effects after a few weeks) then consider changing the scenario. You could make the cell conditions better and not have anything limiting the character's senses. You could also have the character share their cell periodically, giving a scenario where the character isn’t in solitary for the entire time they’re imprisoned.

 They’d still have lasting symptoms. They’d still be going through a really awful experience. But it would help you to realistically mitigate some of the damage.

 I hope that helps. :)

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Disclaimer

*Making large batches of liquid drug formulations, or the liquid base that a drug is mixed into, requires some very noisy equipment. Better facilities tend to supply fitted ear protectors but ear plugs are still very common. And if you’re making 50 litres of a formula every day for a week… it has an effect.

[imnotcrazyidontthink]

I am so grateful to have artist + mental health activist Kate Elizabeth share her story on the blog today. Her story has really touched me and I hope it can do the same for you - Leon Else

Hello, I’m Kate Elisabeth. I’m a non-binary pansexual, which is a fancy way of saying I’m hella queer. I’m also an illustrator who fancies cartoons, and I’m also a mental health activist!

My experience with mental health goes a little deeper than just receiving a diagnosis and treatment. 

When I was 12 years old I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called Hashimotos, where my immune system attacks my thyroid. I now need to take hormone replacements to make up for what my thyroid is lacking. After the diagnosis my parents assumed all of my apparent mental stress was a direct correlation to my autoimmune disease, rather than it being a separate Illness that needed its own attention. While it is true that Hashimotos can cause psychosis, the psychosis goes away once the thyroid is being treated. Mine stayed with me, like an unwanted roommate. 

I grew up in a dysfunctional household filled with marital issues and my parents having their own suppressed trauma and stress. My dad worked hard, and had worked hard his whole life. He depended on my mom to be able to take care of us when he was at work. She often did, and often did it quite well. But I think there were things she was unprepared to deal with, and she struggled to communicate this to her partner. 

My earliest memory of anxiety is when I was 6 years old, and I was unable to write a handful of thank you notes addressed to the students in my class. I remember feeling paralyzed by this sense of responsibility and I was so afraid of writing the wrong words. After all, I was 6 years old and didn’t have much experience writing anything at all. To be fair, my parents were unable to recognize this as anxiety because I don’t think they recognized their own for many, many years. Instead of asking me why I was stressed out, my mother criticized my inability to write the notes myself. She ended up doing it for me, and that was the first time I remember feeling like I had failed, and like I didn’t measure up. Moments like those throughout my childhood would have a direct correlation to the severe anxiety and depression that would develop later on.

 I remember I started hallucinating in fourth grade, and it would happen frequently when I was around 13. In fourth grade I remember visually hallucinating malformations on people’s faces or their body parts. I was probably 10 at this time and had no idea how to explain this to someone, so I went to the nurses office and told them I felt sick. I did that a lot during school, looking for reasons to go home sick so I could avoid seeing or hearing anything I didn’t want to see or hear.

 I began to isolate myself from family and friends as the years went on, and my parents attributed this to teen angst. I felt myself disconnecting from the world around me and I eventually lost my sense of self. By the time I was 16 I was on my third year of highschool and failing, while just doing the bare minimum to advance. I had no desire or will to live, and developed anorexia and other suicidal behaviors. 

When I was 17, I saw a psychiatrist and told him about my visual and auditory hallucinations, and he explained that I have schizophrenia, which is a grossly misunderstood form of psychosis. Unfortunately, his treatment methods got me nowhere, and I was briefly dependent on adderall. My parents stopped taking me to therapy, and I actually can’t say for sure what their reasons for that may have been, since there was always a persistent lack of communication.

 I graduated high school with mostly Ds, because my teachers all knew I was struggling and not receiving adequate treatment. It seemed like everyone besides my parents could realize that I needed intensive care and help.

During middle school, and into my junior year of high school, my main motivation for getting out of bed was artwork. I became known to everyone as the artist and that was the only facet of my identity. I would go to therapy for a few years on and off, but it was always me complaining about my parents, so no real progress on my mental health was made. I was under the impression that life was an illusion, and I had no way of being absolutely sure that the people around me were even real. Schizophrenia changes your perception of reality, and can cause delusional states of mind. It dulls your ability to feel strong emotions, and it can cause severe detachment from your sense of self. I legitimately felt like I was empty, and I couldn’t possibly imagine a brighter future.

 I became increasingly paranoid that people were lying to me about everything, and I had trust issues. I would spend weeks isolating myself in my room, accumulating piles of dirty dishes, trash, dirty clothes, etc. I was essentially living in my own misery. My mom often helped me clean my room, but became frustrated that I couldn’t keep it clean, There were times where she tried to not make me feel guilty, but I felt the guilt anyway. I remember always feeling like I had no control over anything.

When I was 18, I was raped repeatedly for two months by someone who I assumed I could trust. I was unable to leave my situation out of fear, denial, coercion, manipulation, and gaslighting. I started to smoke marijuana heavily during that time as a means of escapism. I was only able to leave that situation because he hit me over the head with a pair of drum sticks, and he was arrested and charged with domestic violence. 

I now have a restraining order against him. I also have a tattoo on my chest that he gave me without my consent, because I was under the influence of drugs. I remember standing in front of a mirror shirtless, then I remember being on a table getting tattooed. I don’t remember agreeing to getting anything tattooed. When it was over I tried to justify it and convince myself that I wanted this to happen. He treated me like a carnival prize that he had won, and he would objectify me to anyone who encountered us. He would tell me to take off my shirt and show people the tattoo that he gave me. I felt like a billboard for his own twisted personal brand of self aggrandizement. 

My mental health at the time was poor, even without the effects of drugs. I felt like what was happening to me was meant to happen as a means of punishment for not cleaning my room, not doing better in school, or whatever reason I could think of to explain cause of the abuse. I smoked weed every day for a year and a half to cope with everything. I’m 20 years old now, and I’ll be 21 on October 13th. It has taken me two and a half years to fully accept that it wasn’t my fault, and that blaming myself isn’t the answer. I couldn’t even talk about the sexual assault verbally without breaking down in tears until earlier this year.

That experience made me realize that life is not a delusion. Additionally, that I am in fact vulnerable to the same dangers as everyone else. I am not exempt from experiencing the impact of other people’s decisions.

This all made me reflect on my own life and the decisions I was making, as well as the people in my life. It has given me the motivation to take control over my college education, my career, and my art. I still suffer daily from all of my health issues, mental or otherwise, and the trauma of what I lived through. Although, what is different now is that I have a self awareness that could only have been gained from walking through Hell and coming out the other end alive. I also had to make a decision: I could either run away from my problems and ignore them, or I could actually get to know myself and figure out how to overcome these obstacles. 

This is a constant choice that I make every day. I can’t erase what happened to me, I can’t magically make my Hashimotos disappear, and I can’t cure my schizophrenia, but I can make the decision to try and live my best life despite it all. I strongly encourage all of you to do the same thing. I’m in school majoring in psychology now, and I am going to become a doctor in the field of psychiatry. I’m also still making art and I often enjoy it and find great pleasure in it. Having a creative outlet is so fundamental for your mental health. There’s an entire field of study for it, and it’s called art therapy.

If you’re depressed, have anxiety, OCD, or a broken leg, just know that positive things can and will happen when you make the conscious decision to help yourself. People will only understand that their depression or anxiety or mental illness can receive treatment if we educate and spread awareness. Suicide is an increasing epidemic because people are afraid to ask for help or talk about their feelings.

I encourage every one of you to understand the significance of mental health and why it’s morally ethical to assist those who need our help. If someone you know is suffering from depression or mental illness, or they’ve experienced a traumatic event, reach out to them and suggest they seek professional help and treatment.

There is hope, it gets better, and you are not alone.

Kate Elizabeth xo

[ellaenchanting]

Good evening. I've talked to 3 psychotherapists and nobody was able to give me an answer due to lack of experience and knowledge. Since you're a deeply integrated part of the hypno community on tumblr and in rl and since you seem to have lots of hypno experience, I was wondering if you have a piece of advice for someone who wants to try out hypnosis but has had a psychosis before. I "just" want to know if it's safe for me to do or whether I should rather stay away from it.

Hi!

So first of all, I’m going to make clear that this is my Kinky Hypnosis Blog and am going to be giving opinions/sharing ideas as a Kinky Hypnosis Blog Owner. I’m not acting here in any sort of professional mental health capacity- so please take that into account when considering my feedback.

 I did a quick stroll through some research yesterday and was actually a little surprised at what I saw. When I was first learning/reading about hypnotherapy, I remember seeing constant warnings against hypnotizing people with tendencies towards psychosis (and especially people diagnosed with schizophrenia) because hypnosis was seen as inherently dangerous for this population. I was expecting to see tons of modern, research-based warnings cautioning people away.

I did not really see warnings about hypnosis being dangerous for people with psychosis.  Instead, I  saw recommendations not to use it with psychotic patients because  hypnotherapy so far seems to be an ineffective treatment tool for psychosis (particularly for schizophrenia). I know there  are researchers out there right now still working on ways to utilize hypnosis for  treatment in this population,  but so far their results have not been good enough to make it a recommended tool. Results haven’t been catastrophic or dangerous, notably, just non-promising for the effectiveness of hypnosis as treatment.  

The American Society for Clinical Hypnosis (which is the big non-layperson hypnotherapy group in the States) DOES recommend against hypnotizing people experiencing psychosis- but explicitly more because patients experiencing psychosis  tend to have shorter attention spans. It’s less a “this is dangerous” warning than a “this may not work or be beneficial”. 

I can think of a few other places where the notion that you shouldn’t hypnotize people with psychosis came from. There was a famous case in the 90s of Paul McKenna hypnotizing a man in a stage show who started showing psychotic symptoms a few days later. The court ruled in favor or Mr. McKenna- backed by testimony by   the British Society of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis and other experts that stage hypnosis could not cause schizophrenia. Still- since this all was happening roughly around the time I was first really starting to learn hypnosis, this might have impacted why I heard so much of “don’t hypnotize schizophrenics”. This warning also appears in a few clinical articles but- mostly very very old ones and not ones that really represent current thought.

There are some seemingly strong links between what delusions and hallucinations look like in hypnosis vs. in regular psychosis. Hypnotic suggestion especially can kind of  mimic the thought processes that naturally go into delusional thinking by encouraging magical thinking/looser associations. There’s also been a vibrant field of study in the past several years using hypnosis to simulate certain psychotic delusions- erotomania, Capgras syndrome, mirror misidentification, delusions of possession etc.- as well as conversion disorder and then do a brain scan of the hypnotized person. This is done as an exploratory way to guess at how delusions are produced in the brain during psychosis (because it is often much easier to give a hypnotized person a brain scan than a person experiencing psychosis). So- at least some researchers feel like the suggested delusions and close enough to organic delusions to research one for clues in the other.  There has also been some suggestions that the decrease in reality monitoring in someone who is hypnotized and hallucinating/experiencing effects and someone experiencing psychosis and hallucinating  may come from the same neurological place (both show decreased activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex- which seems to help with reality monitoring amongst lots of other things). So- neurologically hypnosis and psychosis may look pretty similar. That doesn’t mean there’s any sort of causative relationship at all or that one will spark the other but- they may not be entirely dissimilar mental states.

So- let’s talk practical. 

No one knows the mental long term effects of frequent hypnosis. There have been no studies on the long-term effects of doing kinky hypnosis on anyone, much less people who have experienced psychosis previously. Longitudinal non-kinky hypnosis research on subjects doesn’t help because 1. it’s rare 2. it’s not usually looking at psychological effects of doing hypnosis 3. those subjects are hypnotized WAY less frequently than kinky subjects are. 

Who knows what the mental health effects of long term frequently hypnosis are? Or of doing kinky hypnosis? When I walk around cons people seem mostly OK?

You indicate above that you’ve experienced psychosis before but it doesn’t seem to be a current or a long-term part of your mental health picture. I’m curious about what “psychosis” means in this situation and what contributed to it. Also how long ago this episode was and how long the psychotic symptoms lasted. Was it in the middle of a manic episode*? Did you have brief psychotic disorder? Was it drug induced? Did it  happen because of physical illness? 

 I’m curious because if your psychosis was pretty state-specific (during mania or depression, drug-induced, caused by extreme lack of sleep/food) it is less likely to pop up in situations where those conditions are not the same. So, for example, if you experienced paranoia when you were manic but haven’t experienced it again, you are unlikely to slip into paranoia again randomly when you aren’t manic*.  

I’m also curious if you had just a psychotic symptom and that’s it. Many people (potentially even most people) have or will experience some kind of perceptual hallucination in their life for some reason- but that doesn’t mean they were clinically psychotic or mentally ill. (If this is the case, you may have less to worry about?)

I’m having difficulty justifying telling you “Hey, you’ve had a psychotic episode before so you should never do hypnosis” based on information I’ve found. I would also have difficulty justifying the stance of “I’m not seeing a specific warning in the clinical literature so- go knock yourself out! Do all of the hypnosis!” I think I’m  going to default to Risk Aware Consensual Kink. Know that  you are doing a potentially risky thing and be cautious.  Talk lots with your partner about your history and what you are experiencing every time you do hypnosis. Monitor yourself before and afterwards- check in with how you feel. You likely want to go slooooow with doing new things with lots of check ins. Be willing to stop if you’re feeling off or like you are having negative mental health effects.

There may be different risks based on what activities you’re pursuing with hypnosis. What are you looking to get out of your experience? If it’s an induction with relaxation and maybe some sexy orgasm suggestions, that seems like it might not be so risky. It would probably behoove you to stay from suggestions that replicate the specific psychosis you experiences- so if you have heard voices you may stay away from a suggestion where you her your hypnotist’s voice in your head at all times. If you tend towards paranoia specifically, you likely want to stay away from a LOT of the mind control-flavored stuff that’s pretty prevalent in hypnokink. If your psychosis was tied to a particular state- like mania or depression- you should probably stop doing hypnosis for a bit if you notice yourself going into that state again until you become more regulated. Pay attention to yourself.

You could also not take the risk. Hypnosis is always a somewhat risky activity- for all of us, not just you- and it’s perfectly fair to not want to take that risk for a variety of legitimate reasons. You are probably less at risk of harm from hypnosis than the folks with dissociative disorders or DID- and I see those folks around the community and seemingly doing OK**. So it’s all about what risk are you comfortable with and how willing are you/your partner to communicate and self-monitor during exploration.

Thank you for this question anon! I hope I answered it in a way that makes sense and works for you. :)

Interesting article on hypnotizability and mania in bipolar I/II here btw: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5679347/

*Unless you’re dealing with schizoaffective disorder- but it doesn’t sound like you are.

**I think? Y’all- take care of yourself if you tend to be dissociative, ok? That’s especially true if you have a trauma history. It’s OK to stop if things get to be too much.