— asterism ;

linktober day 15: sword

also: 20% may never experience any hallucinations at all.

it's really important to mention because not knowing that really hindered me in accepting my diagnosis, and it's likely that there are others out there on the schizophrenia spectrum who may not realise it or accept what they're experiencing (a common thing for people w/ schizophrenia).

i thought that in order to be schizophrenic you needed to constantly hear voices, like my uncle (and like the media often represented), so i kept denying the diagnosis when my psychologist, doctor, and later a psychiatrist, were trying to convince me that it's what i have.

even when i felt like maybe i had accepted it, i was still also really dismissive and in denial because of such a lack of public awareness over how much it really is a spectrum condition.

i experience auditory and visual hallucinations when i'm under stress (and am very sensitive to even the slightest stress too), but overall they are certainly not what i consider my most common symptom.

paranoid delusions, cognitive problems, as well as avolition and what's called the negative symptoms of schizophrenia, are what i experience every day.