#delusions

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 often talk about reality checking and going along with it when helping someone deal with delusions, but I felt as if I didn’t really make it clear to what I meant when I said it.

Recently I saw a post similar to “how to sneakily give your delusional friend a reality check when they told you not to” and honestly, that’ll just make us lose trust for you. Because we can tell when you do that."

schizophrenia spectrum people who are homeless or experience food insecurity are still deserving of care and compassion without judgement

schizophrenia spectrum people who talk out loud to hallucinations and act erratic in public are still deserving of care and compassion without judgement

schizophrenia spectrum people who cannot work or go to school because of their symptoms are still deserving of care and compassion without judgement

schizophrenia spectrum people who struggle with personal hygiene are still deserving of care and compassion without judgement

schizophrenia spectrum people who don’t want to take medication or cannot adhere to a medication regiment are still deserving of care and compassion without judgement

schizophrenia spectrum people who live with their parents as an adult or needs a carer are still deserving of care and compassion without judgement

Based on the @elsa-fogen 's comic "the new V"

I have severe anxiety. The things you can believe when you are going through an acute anxiety attack or panic attack can be so extreme they can be classified as delusions. I've been convinced I poisoned myself, I've been convinced I had rabies, I've been convinced a building was going to burn down, I've been convinced my blood was full of bug eggs that were going to hatch and kill me.

Doctors and family members who have helped me the most were people who took those fears seriously, who examined me no matter how irrational my fear was, and who told me why, based on what they observed, my fears were unlikely to be true.

Instead of "you can't possibly have rabies", it was "the dog is vaccinated, so it can't have rabies, and the skin where it nipped you is not broken."

Instead of "Of course your blood isn't full of bug eggs" it was "bug eggs would have hatched by now" which was so coldly logical it completely snapped me out of my panic.