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[timothyleary]

I was sitting in the group room at my intensive outpatient program. I had just finished recounting an incident where I believed a security officer had been following me, but the person with me at the time had disagreed and said we weren’t being followed. 

The head psychologist said “Your goal this week should be letting in alternative theories to your paranoia. It isn’t likely anyone is following you.” I said “What do you mean? How can I trust someone else’s perspective over my own, especially when that someone is white?” Another person spoke up, suggested increasing my anti-psychotics.

I looked around the room at the other patients and the professionals in group with me. I was the only Black person there. 

I’m mentally ill, and sometimes I’m paranoid, and sometimes I’m delusional. 

I’m Black, and I’m more likely to be followed around by security, or have negative interactions with the police. The racism in this world is real, and it can affect me.

I’m mentally ill, and sometimes I have persecutory delusions, and there wasn’t any drugs in my orange juice or bugs living in my arms even though I was convinced there were.

I’m Black, and I’m mentally ill. And that intersection has never been acknowledged online or in therapy. That intersection makes us more vulnerable to abuse, domestic violence, and police brutality. 

Black schizo-spec people face challenges that others don’t. We are more likely to be be labeled as dangerous and violent and be disbelieved when we share about how racism has impacted our lives, among many other things. That makes it harder for me to trust others- not to mention that difficulty trusting others is a symptom.

Was I being followed that day? I wish I had an answer, but I don’t know. Maybe I was, maybe I wasn’t. But that isn’t the point. 

A simple search will tell you that schizophrenia is more readily diagnosed in Black patients than in white (source), and some say it is overdiagnosed.

But where are the positivity posts for Black people with stigmatizing disorders?

 Where is the positivity for the Black schizo-spec people trying to figure out what level of fear and suspicion towards the police is reasonable and what is a symptom? Where is the positivity for Black schizo-spec people who have everything blamed on their diagnosis while their other mental health problems get ignored? Where’s the positivity for Black schizo-spec people who distrust the medical professionals they deal with, who have ugly symptoms, who are pigeonholed as dangerous?

We have died because we are Black and schizo-spec. Remember those of us who have been murdered.

Keith Vidal

Dontre Hamilton

Khaleel Thompson

Darren Rainey

Jason Harrison

Deborah Danner

And? Don’t forget to include us in your activism while we are living. 

(ok to rb)

[timothyleary]

nobody ever praises me or pats me on the head or feeds me small treats despite my consistent excellence in the field of not purposefully ripping cabinet doors off their hinges to fulfill some sort of maladaptive destructive urge

[timothyleary]

[timothyleary]

7 reasons adults should have stuffed animals too

1. STUFFED ANIMALS BRING A SENSE OF SECURITY

Stuffed animals offer a sense of security during times of change. These are referred to as “comfort objects,” or “transitional objects,” and they can help us feel a greater sense of security when moving from one life stage to another, or even from one job or one house to another. That sense of security is important when things are in flux, helping us navigate change more successfully.

2. STUFFED ANIMALS HELP EASE LONELINESS

The modern world can feel lonely and alienating for adults, even when we’re surrounded by people. While stuffed animals cannot completely replace the social role that other humans play in our lives, they can help ease feelings of loneliness and alienation, helping us cope with the interconnected and lonely modern world.

3. STUFFED ANIMALS IMPROVE MENTAL HEALTH

Live animals have been gaining visibility as a therapeutic tool, but did you know that stuffed animals can help in a lot of the same ways that live animals do? According to one study, stuffed animals helped patients with disorganized attachment styles form secure attachments and even rebuild impaired attachment bonds. Being able to build secure emotional attachments can help people live richer, happier lives. According to Dr. Aniko Dunn, stuffed animals are “... recommended in psychotherapy and for people suffering from PTSD, bipolar and other mental disorders.” 

4. STUFFED ANIMALS CAN HELP US GRIEVE

Stuffed animals can represent a connection to a loved one that has passed, giving us a path through the grieving process and easing the feeling of loss that accompanies the death of someone close to us. 

5. STUFFED ANIMALS HELP US HEAL FROM TRAUMA

Stuffed animals are used in some kinds of therapy! Stuffed animals can be useful in some kinds of “re-parenting,” in which a trauma survivor learns to care for and love the stuffed animal (and eventually themselves) to recover from traumatic experiences in childhood. This can increase happiness and self-esteem in the trauma sufferer, and decrease feelings of self-loathing. According to Rose M. Barlow, Professor of Psychology at Boise State University, “Animals, live or stuffed, can aid therapy for both children and adults by providing a way to experience and express emotions, a feeling of unconditional support, and grounding.” She extends this to those who are healing from trauma resulting from childhood neglect or abuse.

6. STUFFED ANIMALS REMIND US OF CHILDHOOD

Nostalgia is a psychological state of “pleasant remembering.” While memories of the past can be troubling, those that feel nostalgic typically make us happier, and result in better self-esteem. Pleasant memories of the past can make us feel more connected to our families and friends, and can provide a sense of continuity to a life that may seem chaotic.

7. STUFFED ANIMALS REDUCE STRESS

We know from various studies that interacting with animals reduces stress. In fact, something as simple as petting a companion animal, like a dog or cat, causes measurable reduction in levels of cortisol, a stress hormone. Cortisol can cause a number of physiological problems, including weight gain and increasing the likelihood of coronary disease. But did you know that touching a soft stuffed animal can have similar cortisol reducing effects? Touching stuffed animals helps to relieve stress, keeping us happier and healthier. In fact, stuffed animals specifically for stress and anxiety exist! Weighted stuffed animals and aromatherapeutic stuffed animals are designed to help relieve stress, giving a double dose of comfort from your stuffed pals.

(We often think that stuffed animals are just for children, but if you can get them to admit it, many adults have stuffed animals too! A 2018 study shows that 43% of adults have a special stuffed friend.)

Source: https://bunniesbythebay.com/blogs/how-to-delight/7-reasons-adults-should-have-stuffed-animals-too

[timothyleary]

isn't it insane though how schizophrenic people are viewed as violent and dangerous by the majority of society when in reality schizophrenic people are nearly 14 times more likely to be on the receiving end of violence than to be the perpetrators...

[timothyleary]

for my fellow psychotics who struggle with thinking someone is in their house, a method I’ve found that really works are these guys:

i put them on my front door and anytime it opens they ring. that way if i think someone has broken in or i see someone who isn’t there i can think back to if the bells have rung, and if they haven’t i can assure myself it’s not real. obviously it’s not fool proof, like if you are prone to auditory hallucinations, but it has really helped me calm down in time to avoid major psychotic breaks. it’s a real lifesaver

nonpsychotics encouraged to rb

[timothyleary]

No amount of activism will be enough if you replace “Conservative” with “Narcissistic personality disorder”

You’re afraid that conservatism is a choice and find comfort that NPD is not.

You think your opponents have a disease and that makes you content, because you think you’ll never be like them.

[timothyleary]

Jonah Peretti, one of the original founders of BuzzFeed, wrote a paper that foretold the site’s entire business model, and the business model of much of the internet. In 1996, as an undergrad at UC Santa Cruz, Peretti submitted a journal article titled Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Contemporary Visual Culture and The Acceleration of Identity Formation and Dissolution.

In the paper, Peretti wrote that capitalism would need to create an ever-growing number of micro-identities for people to fit themselves into, so that those identities could be commodified and marketed to.

wow

[timothyleary]

So I made a TikTok about aspd

[timothyleary]

I find it funny how often people on this website complain about someone misusing the word trigger, only to turn around and misuse it in an entirely different way by claiming that triggers only cause PTSD flashbacks.

[timothyleary]

i relate to patrick bateman not because i hate women or gay people or whatever but because i too can sit on my ass and do fuck all every day and my internal monologue will be like "i'm deranged. i'm inhuman. i'm a twisted fucking cycle path

[timothyleary]

phrases that portend evil

[timothyleary]

2021:

2021:

2018:

2016:

2012:

2010:

I haven’t pissed people off lately by reminding them that ALL types of physical punishment of kids has been proven beyond ANY reasonable doubt to have only negative long term outcomes.

So let me scream it from the hilltops:

Stop hitting kids. End of sentence.

If you think, “but I was hit and I turned out just fine” let me pre-reply: NO YOU DID NOT. You think hitting a child is ok, how the fuck does that qualify as “fine”?????? From one abuse survivor to another: please start healing yourself.

[timothyleary]

i think the debate about mental illness and violence kinda looks over the fact that psychiatry can, in fact, decide anything it wants is “mental illness” and if they say violent behavior can be a symptom of mental illness then… it is. these diagnoses are far from scientific and like, they already focus on criminal conviction as a sign of aspd which should be concerning since the types of crimes that are usually prosecuted are usually primarily associated with marginalization and poverty. the answer to the question “can mental illness cause violent behavior” should be “maybe, but there is no inherent validity to any of these diagnoses–people have brains and behaviors, and psychiatry assigns them labels based on behaviors observed to be commonly comorbid. the line between “normal brain, normal behavior” and “abnormal brain, abnormal behavior” is entirely socially constructed. the question we should ask: who does it benefit, and who does it hurt, if violence can be (and it already is) a symptom of mental illness.”

[timothyleary]

psychosis isn't real i'm just better at the 5 senses than most people

[timothyleary]

I think being born with no empathy but having cognitive empathy can be compared to being born without the notion of what fear is.

People who are born without the capacity of feeling fear wouldn't be afraid of someone holding a knife against their neck, they don't know what the sensation of fear is. But even though they can't feel fear, they can recognize that that is a threatening situation. They can't feel fear as a motivation to run or to do something about it, but rationally they know that they should run or do something about it.

It's the same with empathy. I might not be able to actually feel what you feel, but rationally i can understand it, and i can choose to be a good person if i want to, cause even though i cannot feel, i can think, and i can make my decisions rationally.

[timothyleary]

If there was some rune that could ward away mental illness, I would dedicate my life to finding that rune. If there was a crystal for every chronic illness, I would be a geologist.

The most insidious part about the alternative medicine end of new-age magic is how it makes the Practicioner blame themselves. Every scitzoeffective episode is proof that they "didn't make their wards correctly" or "forgot to cleanse the crystals." It leaves genuinely ill people sick and afraid and ashamed.

It's hard, I think, to tell people that their mundane problems require mundane solutions. Magic is like music, it is ephemeral and strange and wonderful, but music can't heal broken bones.