#lots of people wait until they're undeniably in crisis mode before getting help

[lizard-business]

I hope that, rather than scare you, this fosters compassion for those experiencing mental health challenges (and for yourself when/if YOU experience those challenges).

I work with people who have experienced or are still experiencing some form of psychosis every day. It can be triggered by a lot of things, usually in combination: trauma (old or new), environment, personal or family history of mental illness, upsetting events, relationship difficulties, financial difficulties, etc.

A lot of folks I work with landed in the hospital after what I'd call A Series of Unfortunate Events, where their brain responded in a not-so-helpful way to several super shitty life events in a row. Substance use is another super common trigger - everyone reacts differently to stuff on a physiological level, & ongoing substance use or abuse often increases one's risk. I've worked with lots of folks who had never had any kind of mental health crisis before & felt that they were completely "normal" prior to whatever triggered their episode. They had jobs, kids, hobbies, etc. But the truth is, it doesn't always take that much. Brains are weird & they're doing their best to keep us alive, but we're extremely complex creatures & sometimes our brains' attempts to make sense of the world or help us navigate it cause more problems than they solve. It's important to be aware that we're all susceptible to this kind of thing & that those who are in the midst of it are just ordinary people deserving of respect just like you. We all need help sometimes.

99% of "mysterious disappearances" esp of people in their 20s who start acting weird for 48 hours and then vanish are not mysterious, thats just when a lot of reality-obliterating mental illness tends to kick in and it's pretty easy to get a short circuit in your brain that makes you go family guy death pose in joshua tree national park. it's not any less tragic, it's just a documented phenomenon and not particularly predictable. its a big reason the medical advice is for people with a family history of schizophrenia to completely avoid weed and psychedelics. "people just go crazy sometimes" is a principle of human health that used to be a lot more accepted prior to the american midcentury and to a certain extent thats a healthier way to conceptualize and prepare for the risk, as opposed to the modern assertion that anyone acting weird is dangerous and broken forever.