#schizophrenia

[shamebats]

Post by @ sassyandlassiedoamerica, she/her for both human & dog.

[liamstorm]

no neurodivergent infighting here

[grub-muncher]

This comic only mentions different hallucinations based on sensory modality (which sense it impacts) but there are other ways to categorise hallucinations such as the theme of the hallucination or the severity of the hallucination

Hallucinations don’t only affect schizospec people and can happen to people without a psychotic disorder or any mental illness/condition

[comikbook]

schizophrenic people are constantly made to be a joke or a quirky edgy meme in recent years and it actually makes me insane. psychosis as a word has become watered down last year there was people “schizoposting” people joke about hallucinating or unreality because they think its funny and god forbid an actual schizophrenic person posts about their experiences because then you get people dming you with scary images and cryptic text to try to induce psychosis like that cant fucking kill someone i hate all of you people

[positivelyqueer]

If you're someone who struggles with interoception (knowing/understanding what your body is feeling):

if there's a task, especially a recurring one, that you find difficult to do and that you keep avoiding, check whether you're in pain or physical discomfort.

For a long time I would avoid doing tasks like showering because they nebulously made me feel 'bad' or i just instinctively felt like avoiding them. It wasn't until I got a shower chair that I realised standing to shower was causing me pain. My bodymind knew that on some level but didn't tell the conscious me.

Similarly with sensory aversions (things you don't like). Before I got kitchen gloves, I did the dishes but it took me a long time and I never wanted to. Afterward, it got a lot easier to motivate myself.

"But how can you not know you're in pain/uncomfortabke?" Extremely easily if your brain is wired a specific way or if you were taught, intentionally or not, to downplay your own experiences or distance yourself from your body.

There's no shame in struggling with these things. hope y'all are having nice days and you're able to do something today that makes it a little easier.

[co-fronting]

Something that always bothers me in mental health spaces is the fear of relating too much to each-other across the lines of different disorders. Too many times I've met people who are not dissociative systems, but have dissociative experiences (such as from BPD), and they trip over themselves saying "no no, I mean, I don't REALLY understand what you go through, my thing is totally different," and it makes me a little upset. Disorders are just clusters of symptoms packaged together in a certain way, that's why the names and criteria often change across DSM and ICD editions, and viewing them as entirely exclusive clubs where only they could possibly understand anything about each other isn't a particularly healthy way of seeing it. The lines between disorder labels are blurrier than you think. You are not being a bad person or overstepping for relating to symptoms of a disorder, or people with a disorder, without having their specific label. Very rarely (if ever, frankly) is there a symptom that can only occur in one disorder, or even one type of disorder. Psychosis can occur in countless circumstances. Dissociation and identity compartmentalization can occur in countless circumstances. It's better to focus more on your specific symptoms and building community with your fellow neurodivergent people, using the resources that help you regardless of if they were specifically made for your diagnosis, over worrying about whether or not you're "allowed" to relate to something or experience something similarly to someone else.

[schizopositivity]

Every person that I know, that I have opened up about my schizophrenia to, has shared that they have had at least one psychotic experience in their life.

Whether that was that they have psychotic features as a part of their bipolar disorder, depression or PTSD. Or that they have seen a shadow of a person out of the corner of their eye, or a delusion that some entity is after them. Even if it was just a single instance of hearing a voice that wasn't real that stuck with them.

It seems like when I break the barrier of stigma and silence, people feel comfortable enough to share their own experiences and I love that.

Psychotic experiences are extremely common. Anecdotally, it seems that everyone has had at least one hallucination, delusion or instance of paranoia in their life. And I wish everyone was able to talk about these experiences, and how they've affected them without fear of shame or panic from the people around them. This is a normal thing that brains do for whatever reason. It shouldn't be seen as bad unless it negatively affects someone, and then you should listen with care and see if the person needs help in any way.

That's why acceptance for those of us with disorders like schizophrenia is so important. If you can hear a schizophrenic person out, and not treat us like we are dangerous or scary. See as equal human beings that happen to have these experiences. Only then will the pathway for everyone to share their experiences with psychosis be open and normalized.

I think it's fascinating that human brains can create experiences out of thin air. I think it's so cool that everyone can relate to me in even a small way. Imagine how many interesting conversations and connections we could all be having about this if we destigmatized psychosis and schizophrenia.