#actuallyschizotypal

hey gamers I made a tumblr gc for psychotics, like or reblog this post to be invited

@doecries promo? spare promo, ma'am?

https://discord.gg/g2MdH9p

Here’s a really cool discord server i run, it’s open to anyone who experiences psychosis, we’ve got lots of cool stuff including channels for LGBTQ+ people, people of color, selfies, and food prep. We’re also working on our blog psychosis-spectrum.tumblr.com (Still in early stages of construction) and organizing a weekly online movie night (With frequent random movie sessions during the week).

Text: psychotic people are not the problem behind mass shootings

Psychosis isn’t responsible for mass shootings—evil people are. Stop blaming a marginalized disability for a criminal problem.

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Text: there is systematic discrimination against psychotic people in the healthcare system

Psychotic people are discriminated against in the healthcare system. First thing that comes to mind is the lack of outpatient treatment options, the centers that were meant to treat de institutionalized psychotic patients in the late 20th century turned those patients away and treated non-psychotic patients instead. Few outpatient therapists working private practice know how to treat psychotic patients. Psychotic patients are often brutalized in mental wards, something many of us are intimately familiar with.

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Very sinisterly, having a diagnosis like schizophrenia or BPD can lead to your death through medical discrimination. Patients with psychotic disorders are likely to be denied organ transplants, which is in fact illegal but happens anyway (for example, see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1127379/). One must wonder how else healthcare neglect shortens our lifespans? There is rampant discrimination against psychotic people in healthcare, and it must stop.

Text: being delusional/paranoid is not the same things as lying

When you’re delusional or paranoid, you believe things that aren’t true. This can sometimes lead you to saying things aren’t true, but this isn’t the same thing as purposefully lying. A delusion or paranoia is a complex biological state created by a person’s neurology that is outside of their control, and the beliefs a person holds while under the influence of these mental states seem real. Any false information a person conveys during delusion or paranoia was not done so on purpose, so they should not be treated like they purposely mislead. Please, be understanding that delusions and paranoia can happen, and try not to judge.

Text: disability from psychosis isn’t laziness

Your impairment from your psychotic disorder is valid. Disability from psychosis is real and must be respected. Demand accommodation. Demand to be treated like a human being.

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Text: schizophrenia is not a character defect

You’re not a bad person for having schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is the result of faulty neurology, not faulty moral character. We are not lazy, violent, or in any way lesser because of our disorder. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Text: psychotic people are worth the effort to treat

Psychotic disorders are harder to recover from than many other mental disorders, and part of that is due to a lack of treatment options. But part of the reasons there is a lack of treatment options is because psychotic disorders are viewed as harder to treat. It’s a never ending cycle. They’ll give us medications, which help many people certainly, but many psychotic people need therapy to see real improvement, I know I did. But there is no standard therapy for psychotic disorders, and many therapists are at a loss for as what to do with us. We need a standard schizophrenia/psychosis therapy like CBT/DBT/ACT, but in the meantime we need more therapists to be willing to try expanding their knowledge bases and therapy schools to include a greater breadth of illnesses in their curriculums.

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Text: respect psychotic people’s treatment decisions

Our treatment decisions are between us and our doctors/therapists. We might choose to seek input from you, but ultimately, an adult psychotic person’s treatment decisions are between them and their treatment team. Respect the choices made by a psychotic person in regard to medication and medication type, and therapy. It’s not an outsider’s place to comment, especially unprompted.

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Text: respect psychotic people’s mental and psychical limitations

Our limitations are not for you to test. While what a psychotic person may be able to do on the day-to-day might vary, their capabilities are for them to decide, not you, the outside observer. I’m my experience, I can go from okay to not okay very quickly when people push me, and I need people to respect me when I say “no”. People don’t like to do that, because they view it as “unfair”—well tough. Respecting and accommodating disabled people isn’t special treatment, it’s basic decency. My schizophrenia causes severe impairment at time and I need special consideration, and I’m going to demand it.

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Text: visible psychosis isn’t “ugly” or “weird”

Sometimes we have visible psychosis symptoms, like involuntary facial movements or talking to ourselves. These symptoms are looked down upon by the rest of society, but there is nothing wrong with these symptoms. Unobtrusive but obvious psychosis is not inherently harmful, and is not something to be ashamed of. You are not something to be ashamed of.

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Text: you don’t have to apologize for your symptoms

I sometimes find myself apologizing for my psychotic symptoms, and I’m trying to stop. There is nothing to apologize for. Psychosis is a medical disability, and as such we are entitled to accommodation. We have a right to have our needs met, as human beings and as citizens. Don’t apologize for being psychotic, we are not a proble

When I was in inpatient, no one had any idea how to handle a person with psychosis and trauma. I was just treated like I was being purposefully “difficult”, and nothing was done to help me cope with conditions I was in.

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I don’t consider giving me klonopin for a panic attack when it was prescribed to me for conversion disorder a proper treatment for a PTSD episode. Giving me medication when I wasn’t supposed to be taking in order to shut me up it isn’t proper care.

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Or the other hospital, sending me to my room and telling me to do breathing exercises when I was clearly on the edge of a breakdown from isolation, that wasn’t helpful either. Ignoring a patient’s needs isn’t treatment, and quite frankly I wish I could get my insurance’s money back, because I didn’t get much in the way of medical care.

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Creating stressful situations by messing up medications and not giving me prescribed pain medication on time, serving me food I had told them repeatedly I was allergic too, screaming at me, emotional abuse by staff, and other mistreatments are not conducive for anyone’s recovery. let alone a person with a complex trauma history. Hospitals can and should do better, but they have to want to.

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Text: psychotic people are not “broken”

We are whole as we are

Text: Maine isn’t “cute”—it’s a serious illness

Mania isn’t an aesthetic. “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” isn’t a thing. Mania is a serious medical condition that can require hospitalization, and in the form of mixed episodes it can lead to people taking their own lives. Mania is a common cause of severe psychotic episodes, Bipolar 1/ schizoaffective are no joke and must be taken seriously. Don’t diminish the severity of mania, please. ⠀

Text: psychotic people have the right to complain about abusive doctors

Sorry for the late uploads today, I am not feeling well and have been asleep most of the day!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

If you’ve been mistreated by a doctor or medical staff, you have the right to complain. You don’t have to stay silent just because they might be more educated than you are, or are older than you. You have a right to respectful medical care, and if you haven’t been given it you have a right to say so. Leave the negative review if you want, really. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

If the mistreatment goes beyond disrespect to abuse, you are not doing anything wrong by alerting the medical boards. You have a right to be protected from malicious doctors, even with a psychotic disorder. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Text: psychotic people’s pain matters

Our suffering matters. We should not have to be left in pain. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Text: psychosis doesn’t make you a bad person

A medical condition does not make you a bad person. Medical conditions are amoral states of being. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Text: psychotic people deserve to feel good about themselves

A lot of us struggle with self esteem issues, I believe some as a side effect from our illnesses but also from the stigma and mistreatment we face. We deserve to feel good about ourselves as much as anyone else, there is no reason we should not. We are not burdens and we are not lesser, psychotic people have equal worth to non-psychotics and we will always matter.

Respect! Schizophrenic! People! ✊✊✊✊✊✊✊✊✊✊

Text: don’t blame psychosis for acts of evil

Psychosis doesn’t make a person evil. There’s a reason it’s difficult to plead not guilt by reason of insanity. Evil does exist, and people should stop trying to pretend it doesn’t by blaming the nebulous specter of “mental health” whenever there’s a horrific crime committed.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

The only major crime committed by a psychotic person that I can think of in recent memory is the Colorado theater shooting. One crime, one mass shooting out of how many hundreds? That’s not statistically significant, that’s a blip on the radar.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

We are not made evil by our psychosis. Psychosis is not a character flaw. Psychotic people are not the stuff of horror movies.

Text: psychotic people deserve hope

Why don’t psychotic people have higher recovery rates? I want to know. Our recovery rates haven’t changed much since the late 1800s, and that really bothers me. Are treatments truly that ineffective? Why hasn’t more work gone into finding effective treatments for schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders (I think I know why)? Why is there no standardized therapy for psychosis yet? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

These are all major issues. The lack of research into schizophrenia and psychosis is disturbing. We need research into more effective drugs, drugs that won’t sedate us out of life and cause neurological damage. We need therapy designed for us. We need hope. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀