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.
