#reality variance

[IMAGE ID: a screenshot of an anonymous question sent to tumblr user @juice-wings . the ask reads: "This is probably a dumb question, but what's the difference between physical alterhumanity and zoanthrope? I mean, at what point it's considered as psychotic? What makes it psychotic? Isn't this two the same thing, but one of them is like a medical term with prejudice?]

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i will try my best to answer this point by point, from my perspective as someone who is physically therian/nonhuman and a zoanthrope, self-ids as neither delusional nor nondelusional, and is part of a physical plurality:

what's the difference between physical alterhumanity and zoanthrope?

(i'm going to assume you mean physical therianthropy in specific for focus' sake)

the difference, in my opinion, is in your personal proximity to forced medicalization against your experiences of transformations and animality.

firstly, being physically therian means identifying yourself as a nonhuman animal on a physical level, to do with your physical body. the definition in its vagueness includes all physical experiences that have to do with internal or external biology, such as organs, hormone cycles, visible bodily features, ability or disability, genetics, etc.

more relevantly, the broadness of this definition includes experiences that originate from any cause--whether or not that cause is labeled "delusional/disordered" by normative human standards (orthohumanity--as opposed to alterhumanity), or oneself.

physical transformations or shifts can also be included under physical therian experiences, but not all physical therians physically transform or shift--and on the flipside, not all who physically transform or shift identify as physically nonhuman or therian.

(physical shifters, in specific, are their own culture, but they have contributed greatly to the formation of the early were/nonhuman communities that later gave rise to the modern therian/nonhuman communities. physical shifters may also have their shifting affected by delusions or disorders, but physical shifting is not solely caused by delusions or disorders.)

in contrast, being a clinical zoanthrope means that others have medically persecuted you / would medically persecute you as "delusional" for specifically experiencing uncontrollable transformations and animality. for example, the first time we (as a plurality) half-morphed as Stag's deer, we couldn't control our body. regardless of whether or not we had intent to harm others, being out of control while transformed went too far against orthohumanity's standards of "order", and thus was labeled "disordered", and that label of "disordered" was used as manufactured consent to coercively commit and overmedicate us.

how medically persecuted is medically persecuted "enough"? well, i don't judge legitimacy by making up a "pecking order" of trauma. in my opinion, if you relate, on any daily-life-impacting level, to the following experiences:

your legal, medical, and/or bodily autonomy have been negatively impacted as a direct cause of the wrong people seeing your uncontrolled transformations and animality AND/OR

you're hiding your transformations and animality out of probable fear of the above happening, but physically struggle to contain it even for your safety

then you may be a clinical zoanthrope.

besides the forced medicalization, the commonality between all zoanthropes is experiencing 1) transformations, 2) animality, and 3) loss of human(ized) self-control.

we transform, whether it's human-to-animal or animal-to-human or animal-to-animal. and we experience animality that can be in sync with a true self, or animality that can conflict against a true self. and we experience these bodily changes and animal turns to such a degree that we lose the self-control that humanity and humanization expects of us.

(i'm not sure if i've encountered a zoanthrope who doesn't consider themself transformed in some way, but navigating orthohuman perceptions would leastwise have them using transformation as a "cover story" of sorts. i'd welcome them the same anyhow!)

altogether, the experiences overlap, but physical therianthropy is an umbrella self-identifier that can label any physically animal-bodied experiences of any cause, while clinical zoanthropy is a specific reclamation related to being medically persecuted as "delusional" for experiencing uncontrollable transformations and animality in particular.

additionally, physical therians as a whole tend to feel their animal form reflects their true self. some zoanthropes may also experience this synchronicity, but other zoanthropes may not.

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I mean, at what point it's considered as psychotic? What makes it psychotic?

(i'm going to assume you mean what's considered "delusional" in specific, as "psychotic" denotes a broader range of symptoms than just "delusionality")

according to the DSM-V (pg. 4 of the in-linked PDF), "delusion" denotes a belief that is

fixed and held fast even when contradicting evidence is presented to the believer

"implausible" and "incomprehensible" to others in the same (sub)culture the believer lives in, due to the belief being "bizarre" AND/OR the belief being without (sub)culturally-"valid" evidence

the DSM-V's section on "delusion" also gives examples of beliefs that may be distressing, but doesn't state that delusions in general are inherently distressing--because they aren't. a belief considered "false" by others can certainly impact you and others around you negatively, but it can also affect you in more neutral or even positive ways.

even though personal distress is the most common cause for someone to receive medical attention, personal distress is not necessary for somebody to be deemed "delusional" in a clinical sense. in fact, the diagnostic criteria for "delusional disorder" is only that 1) a delusion is present for one month or more, and 2) there are no symptoms of other psychotic disorders we could attribute it to.

from my point of view as someone who self-ids as neither delusional or nondelusional, this makes the label of "delusion" somewhat subjective--even when the label's given by clinicians "objectively".

this is because the label of "delusional" marks a break from "consensus reality"--that is, what is assumed to be in existence for everyone. but what is "consensus reality" varies by (sub)culture, time, and place. for example, in progressive spaces, transgender people have been more and more accepted as part of consensus reality over time; but in conservative spaces, transgender people defy their idea of "reality" and are therefore labeled "delusional / mentally ill / insane" relative to that. and while the science and sociology supporting trans people’s existence is considered “valid” in the culture of progressive spaces, in conservative spaces they are “invalid” relative to their “alternative facts”.

thus, in my opinion, the point where "strong belief" becomes "delusion" is relative to 1) what is accepted as consensus reality by the institutions in your (sub)culture, time, and place and 2) how much your belief contradicts those institutions' definition of "consensus reality" and "valid evidence".

and the subjectivity in differentiating these points means to me, it's just as legit to accept the label of "delusion" from others as it is to self-identify as "delusional" as it is to reject labels of delusionality altogether.

that's why my definition of clinical zoanthropy is not that we're "delusional" in and of ourselves, but that we are persecuted as "delusional"--because not all of us consider ourselves in "delusion" for our beliefs, some of us actively reject defining ourselves by relation to consensus reality because of the oppressive institutions that socially construct it.

to sum it up, there is no universal objective measure of "what's considered delusion" because there is no universal objective measure of "consensus reality" vs "break" from that reality. the most effective way to determine if you're "delusional" is simply if you, personally, feel like you can communicate and understand your needs and experiences best through choosing to frame them as "delusion".

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TL;DR--

physical therianthropy is a self-identifier for any physically animal-bodied experience in the human world, originating from any cause, "delusional" or not

clinical zoanthropy is a specific reclamation for being medically persecuted as "delusional" (esp. with systemic loss of autonomy)

this persecution is on account of zoanthropes experiencing transformations, animality, and loss of what self-control orthohumans expect

physical therians' and some zoanthropes' animal forms are reflective of a true self, but some zoanthropes also experience an animal form as conflicting / nonrepresenting of a true self

beliefs are clinicalized as "delusions" if they are fixed against contradicting evidence, and are also "bizarre" to the surrounding (sub)culture AND/OR lacking in (sub)culturally-"valid" evidence--personal distress is not necessary for diagnosis.

what is part of consensus reality, and what is defined as "valid" evidence, is relative to the belief-holder's (sub)culture, time, and place. this makes "delusion" also subjective and relative of a label.

you may accept others calling you "delusional", choose to call yourself "delusional", OR reject labels of delusionality based on what you, personally, determine works best for communicating and understanding your own needs and experiences

i want to say <it’s just how it is trying to linearize and box up any disembodied nonlinear/singular/binary thing as life and life-“times”! you can’t live in too many different realities and timelines at once cuz life itself is only known in the human world as a point on a linear timeline leading to death!

<and thus it is reflected in the human tongue forced on me that i can only describe one event per one life per time, even when a temporal shift puts us in two waking lives at once, like i’ve known, like you’ve known, don’t you understand ? it just has to all stay clearly separate>

but i also know reality has to split for me cause i will to won’t tell. and even though he wants me to, we sworn to never tell anything about the inside we don’t both want to tell to outside people, and he holds to that even when it angers him. because i know he knows we can’t get got again.

it’s not like he doesn’t have other ways to get me to tell what i oughta say though.

and it’s not like i can fault him for bending to his survival instincts when i’m breaking to mine in the same body and mind.

is this? decentralization? or mutual tyranny? willfully? or just how we’re wired? or just how we’re wired to use our wills?

every living and afterliving thing has to eat something and when we’re too apart the both of us go so hungry we get senseless.

he’s angry that it took someone saying something for me to tell and even then i didn’t tell it outright. rly… i didn’t tell more than what they needed to know to feel okay with leaving us alone.

just telling that much made me feel like throwing up… even though it turned out okay. but i still need to lay in the dark now. overstimulated. throwing up words instead

my nerves feel frying again. possession shakes… don’t want to come out for dinner