Schizophrenia and Ableism

Feminist and cat lover extraordinaire.

[sz-and-ableism]

I don't know why some days I feel some symptoms more than others. The hallucinations died down a bit the past few days and it's been easier to focus on what I've been needing to get done but the anhedonia seems worse. Hard to tell. Either way, I just want to go back to how I was before this sprung up again.

[bpd-dylan-hall-deactivated20190]

reading a paper on quality of life among 45-to-70-year-olds with Down syndrome:

“Individuals expressed a desire to be allowed to go to bed when they wanted to.”

[queenshulamit-deactivated201602]

:(

[chavisory]

Imagine.

[fullyarticulatedgoldskeleton]

I lived in a room and board that failed the burrito test. (”If you’re not allowed to get up in the middle of the night to microwave a burrito, you live in an institution.”) No one stopped me from going to bed, but they did tell me I had to have my lights out by 10, and that I had to be out of the house by 10 the next morning. When I complained to my outpatient program that I needed more help than I was getting, they threatened me with board and care, where my cell phone would be taken away and I would lose contact with the outside world. My case manager sounded so damn smug, like he had caught me out, when he said, “if you’re really as helpless as you say, then you need to be in a board and care.” Like my only options were struggling to do things I couldn’t do, or surrendering my life to an institution.

When I tried to talk about these things with other people, they always rationalized it away. (I told my dad once that my caseworker was reading my e-mails as I wrote them, demonstrating extreme disrespect for my privacy, and he said, “Well, she’s probably making sure you don’t use the internet to goof off.” I was 22 years old.)

 People tend to mock the idea that telling an adult when to go to bed, when to eat, etc., is a human rights violation, even though they would find it outrageous and absurd if anyone came into their lives to do the same thing to them.

And this is what people seem to think when they tell disabled activists we’re just not disabled enough to understand that some people really do need to be locked up and deprived of all autonomy.

[sz-and-ableism]

I’m considering getting on abilify before school starts up. I’d hate to make a B in a class just because the auditory hallucinations started acting up again. It’s been going on constantly for the past 2 months… I just want a break.

[sz-and-ableism]

People that have had schizophrenia for many years often times learn how to predict a sudden relapse, also referred to as an acute or psychotic phase. Many know to seek out help, if it's available. We do actually have that degree of awareness. They could be fairly "normal" in between these phases but it doesn't take away from the fact that they have schizophrenia. So yeah, don't be surprised when their diagnosis isn't immediately apparent. We aren't usually having symptoms 24/7 outside of acute phases.

[sz-and-ableism]

me: takes one step into a dark place

my brain: theyre gonna kill you !!! theyre gonna kill you !!! theyre gonna-

me: can you like....do that somewhere else?

[space-elves-deactivated20180813]

Hallucinations

• relax - voices are often caused by stress, so try to focus on your breathing.

• distract yourself - focus on a task or watch tv.

• ask your voices a question, that you dont know the answer to - if they dont know the answer the voices must be coming from within you.

• background sounds - people have reported that listening to music or having the tv on sort of drowns the voices.

• talk back to your voices - ask them to leave and say no if they order you to do things, remind yourself who’s in control.

• know your triggers - it may help to keep a diary of when the voices are more active.

• medication - modern anti-psychotics are 80-90% effective in revieling voices and will often make them disappear.

Delusions

• distraction - same with hallucinations.

• give them facts - checking facts and statistics may help

• talk about them - in my case, the more i talked about my thoughts, the more unrealistic they seemed. That may not happen to everyone, but it is helpful to talk about them.

• know your trigggers - same with hallucinations.

• medication - same with hallucinations.

Don’t

• dont isolate yourself - this is common among people with schizophrenia, but talking about what youre experiencing, or at least see a friend, is helpful

• dont do drugs - it might feel like it helps, but its only temporary. In the long run street drugs may make your symptoms worse and put you on a higher risk of relapse.

[cptsdbaby]

[thetrippytrip]

This is disgustingly ableist. Disabled people have worth, their labor has value, they’re working just like everyone else so they should get paid as much as everyone else. Why are we debating this??? It’s common sense!

[butterflyinthewell]

It’s funny how people say self diagnosis is bad while in the same breath they try to armchair “un-diagnose” a person they never met.

[nerdy-by-design]

Blatant ableism is unworthy of intersectional feminism. Mental health should be an important women’s issue.

-Depressive disorders account for close to 41.9% of the disability from neuropsychiatric disorders among women.

-An estimated 80% of 50 million people affected by violent conflicts, civil wars, disasters, and displacement are women and children.

-Lifetime prevalence rate of violence against women ranges from 16% to 50%. At least one in five women suffer rape or attempted rape in their lifetime. The high prevalence of sexual violence to which women are exposed and the correspondingly high rate of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) following such violence, renders women the largest single group of people affected by this disorder.

-Depression, anxiety, psychological distress, sexual violence, domestic violence and escalating rates of substance use affect women to a greater extent than men across different countries and different settings.

-Pressures created by their multiple roles, gender discrimination and associated factors of poverty, hunger, malnutrition, overwork, domestic violence and sexual abuse, combine to account for women’s poor mental health.

-The disability associated with mental illness falls most heavily on those who experience three or more comorbid disorders. Again, women predominate.

Despite all this only 2 in every 5 people experiencing a mood, anxiety or substance use disorder seek assistance in the year of the onset of the disorder. When women dare to disclose their problems, many health workers tend to have gender biases which lead them to either over-treat or under-treat women.

(source: WHO)

[hmsindecision]

Hey all–I have seen this post making the rounds lately, rightfully criticizing that this is by no means an actual orientation. But I think that this one is particularly horrifying.

People with intellectual disabilities are disproportionately victims of sexual abuse and assault. Some studies have put the rate of sexual abuse for those with intellectual disabilities as high as 90%. Consent laws often do not appropriately cover those who cannot give informed and meaningful consent.

The connection to this post is hardly a stretch–the root of the word they have created is “moron”, a word closely tied to American eugenics, that denotes mental disability. It was often also tied to forced female sterilization by the state.

I know that this post comes across as laughable at first, but this is truly a serious and troubling thing. Someone “identifying” as someone who might prey on the disabled is deeply worrying, although it might not be as easy to point out as some of the others.

Consider some of these facts about the intersection of disability and sexual abuse from Disability Justice:

-83% of women with disabilities will be sexually assaulted in their lives. -Just 3% of sexual abuses involving people with developmental disabilities are ever reported. -50% of girls who are deaf have been sexually abused compared to 25% of girls who are hearing; 54% of boys who are deaf have been sexually abused in comparison to 10% of boys who are hearing. -Women with a disability are far more likely to have a history of undesired sex with an intimate partner – 19.7% vs. 8.2%. -Approximately 80% of women and 30% of men with developmental disabilities have been sexually assaulted – half of these women have been assaulted more than 10 times.

It isn’t just gay people they’re hurting with this appropriation and obsession with sexual labeling.

[grumpyoldnurse]

This is important to point out.  I used to work at a pediatric long term care facility.  All of the girls were started on birth control when they reached menarche, just as a matter of course.  A new nurse I was orienting was horrified when she realised that all these non-verbal, wheel-chair bound young women were on hormonal birth control.  I pointed out that the alternative was worse.  She had to go sit in the staff room by herself for a bit.

[hmsindecision]

Take Charge!

 Take Charge!: A reproductive health guide for women with disabilities (click to download)

The Empowered Fe Fes, a Chicago Women’s Disability support and activism group, put together this amazing guide to women’s health care as a disabled woman. It features sections on self-advocacy, reproductive justice, gynecological procedures like pap smears and mammograms, violence and abuse, mental health, and information on resources and when to contact the ADA. 

[rottenbutrecovering]

People are boycotting A Dog’s Purpose because of one video made by PETA (a VERY problematic organisation) that is taken completely out of context, and that can be shown to be non-animal abusive by 1 minute of research.

But HUNDREDS of mentally ill people- specifically those with DID- are asking for people to boycott Split because it is upholding the stigma against them that literally leads to their MURDER and ABUSE yet people refuse to not see it because it’s “scary” or whatever abelist bullshit excuse they use.

Conclusion: NTs care more about DOGS than they do about neurodivergent PEOPLE, and noone is shocked.

[factualfeminist]

Just a friendly little PSA about mental health.

This list is based on what I have learned from college and personal experience both at work and at home.

1. If severe mental health issues run in your family, you have a genetic predisposition for it.

2. If you know you might develop a mental illness or already have one- stay AWAY from drugs and alcohol. They exacerbate mental health symptoms and heavy drug (including alcohol) use can actually trigger psychosis and other symptoms. 

3. If you suffer from addiction as well as mental illness and want help, seek out dual treatment centers or organizations such as Double Trouble or a similar program.

4. It is okay for a medication to not work. Move on to the next one. 

5.  You do not have to take medications if you don’t want to. Don’t listen to anyone who says you must take your meds. Unless you were forcibly committed, you have the legal right to say no.

6. You are not deviant. There are 2.6 million people with schizophrenia in the USA alone. You are not alone. 

7. There are roughly 40 million people with various personality disorders as well. And 1 in 4 adults has a mental illness.

8. Stress is a huge contributing factor to mental illness. Try to keep your stress levels down. I once met a brilliant woman with two Master’s degrees become psychotic and had to move into my program because she worked 70 hour weeks and refused to rest. Her mind broke. 

9. Self-care is so so so important see point 8.

10. See point 9.

[lindsayslohan]

“At times, being bipolar can be an all-consuming challenge, requiring a lot of stamina and even more courage, so if you’re living with this illness and functioning at all, it’s something to be proud of, not ashamed of.”

― Carrie Fisher, Wishful Drinking.    

[jeongguksoveralls]

can we stop tagging 3edgy5me monochromatic horror movie gifs and black and white goat skulls as schizophrenia?

I know mainstream media has portrayed us as the neighborhood psychos who are going to be the serial killer in your lifes movie but trust me you’re not doing anyone any favors by trying to adapt your ~aesthetic~ to this warped idea of what you think schizophrenia is. 

My illness is not a fashion choice and it sure as hell isn’t some bottle of nyquil cheap goth aesthetic. if you wanna know what schizophrenia is fucking take the time to talk to someone who actually goes through it. Don’t fucking sit there with your gross rob zombie movie stills and tell me you understand anything about what we go through because you’ve seen some movie with an inaccurate portrayal of mental illness for the fear factor.

fuck off with all that nonsense.

[heroes-get-made-deactivated2022]

It’s okay to be angry that you have mental illness. It’s okay to be upset. It’s okay to feel like you got a raw deal. It’s okay to be frustrated. And it’s okay to hate it and everything about it. The pills, the therapy, the symptoms, the reactions, and all that time lost–it’s okay to be angry.