#loved ones with psychosis

[schizopositivity]

It's interesting that when the topic of schizophrenia or psychosis is brought up (especially on the internet), people who don't have it are so often willing to dole out the personal information of someone who does have it. It's usually a family member of the person talking. And these people seem to have no problem revealing this person's most sensitive and embarrassing information.

I understand you are trying to find connection in some way. And you have a loved one with schizophrenia/psychosis so you feel that you should chime in. But tbh I don't want to hear about a stranger's most vulnerable moments. And I don't think the person who experienced it would be happy to hear that their family member/neighbor/etc is just spreading that around online. And it rarely adds anything helpful to the discussion, just an anecdotal story that is typically used to generalize an entire group of people.

So if you know/knew someone with schizophrenia or psychosis and you want to tell their story for them, please consider these things: Would they be alright with me sharing this publicly? Does this add anything meaningful to the discussion? Am I speaking over people who have experienced schizophrenia or psychosis themselves? Am I using this as a justification to generalize a group of people?

[brethilach]

"ohh thorin trusts Bilbo above his own family and kin because he just loves him sooo much because I think romantic love is superior to any other form of love" or maybe it was he was experiencing a severe episode of paranoid psychosis and he implicitly trusted Bilbo because he was the only person in the Company who didn't have any preexisting, longstanding loyalities to him (as a King or brother-in-arms or Family or otherwise) and followed him purely out his own desire to and he saw Bilbo stay by his side even after his contract had ended even though he knew how much he wanted to go home (and had every reason to at that point). maybe it was because he knew Bilbo would had nothing to gain by betraying him (re: no birthright to the crown, no desire for riches or property, etc). Maybe he believed he could confide into Bilbo because he felt like he wasn't responsible for his safety in the same way he felt responsible for his nephews or his kin (as their King), and he no longer need to mantain any sort of formalities or barriers with him (because Thorin is not. his. King).

sorry I just refuse to believe Thorin doesn't love his nephews as much as he loves Bilbo (someone who he'd only known for 6~ months at that point) and I think there's a lot of better ways to explain his behavior here

[luck-of-the-drawings]

so REVENGE, HUH? or justice, if that makes you feel better. it tastes the same when cooked just right. 'I REALLY WANTED A BROTHER.' such a shame to burn a bridge you so desperately wanted to keep, especially when it wasnt even you who started the fire. especially when you hope that not a single fragment of that bridge ever washes ashore.[MAY IT ROT FAR FROM MY SIGHTS] an unfortunate loss! atleast he has his friends.

[harmonybarmy]

Ben coming back to the cabin to see yet another cannibalistic ritual

[sysmedsaresexist]

Reminder about how to care for someone experiencing delusions

Reality checking

Will talking about someone's delusions make them sicker?

Don't try to convince them it's not real

From the outside, it seems obvious that what the person is seeing, hearing, or thinking isn't real. You might think that if only you can convince them it's a delusion, everything will go back to normal.

But when someone is experiencing a psychotic episode, their delusions become fixed. This means that the person has absolutely no doubt that what they think, feel, see, or hear is real.

How Do I Cope With My Loved One's Delusions?

Avoid Challenging Delusions

Simply telling your loved one that they are wrong is not helpful. Delusions feel very real to the person experiencing them, and by simply dismissing them or challenging them you can make him or her retreat and withdraw.

Caring for a person experiencing delusions (PDF, careful on phone)

Do not maintain that what the person is thinking is wrong. Instead, show that you respect his or her point of view regardless of whether you agree, and give your own understanding or impression of the situation. Listen quietly until there is no further need to discuss the delusion.

Psychosis: Responding to a Loved One in the Face of Uncertainty

It's not uncommon, in fact, for delusions to be somewhat "elastic," shifting and expanding in response to newly presented information. This elasticity may occur when persons experiencing delusions are "confronted with counterfactual evidence ...[ in which case they] do not simply disregard the information. Rather, they may make further erroneous extrapolations and even incorporate the contradictory information into their belief"

For this reason, disputing the rationality of a loved one's delusions isn't likely to have the intended outcome.

Delusions

If someone you know is having delusions, remember that they will seem very real to that person. It is best not to argue with them, try to persuade them with evidence, or to laugh at them. You can help by showing them love and support, helping them to recognise what triggers their delusions, and encouraging them to seek treatment.

Hallucinations and Delusions: How to Respond (PDF, careful on phone)

The immediate goal of your response should be to help the person focus on reality rather than the hallucination. Do not pretend you also experience the hallucination, but do not try to convince the person that the hallucination does not exist: it does exist to them. Ask questions such as: “Are you hearing voices other than mine? What are they telling you? What do you see/feel/taste/smell?” Tell the person: “I don’t hear the voices (see what you see, etc.), but I believe that you do.”

Do not attack delusions or try to argue or convince the person that the thoughts are wrong or not real. Nor should you indicate that you believe in the delusion; instead explain “I believe you are telling me this is as you see it.” Do not smile or shake your head when the person speaks – this may lead to misunderstanding.

How can I communicate with someone experiencing psychosis?

When supporting someone experiencing psychosis you should:

- talk clearly and use short sentences, in a calm and non-threatening voice

- be empathetic with how the person feels about their beliefs and experiences

- validate the person’s own experience of frustration or distress, as well as the positives of their experience

- listen to the way that the person explains and understands their experiences

- not state any judgements about the content of the person’s beliefs and experiences

- not argue, confront or challenge someone about their beliefs or experiences

- accept if they don't want to talk to you, but be available if they change their mind

- treat the person with respect

- be mindful that the person may be fearful of what they are experiencing.

Bipolar Disorder Delusions

When someone is having delusions, your instinct may be to reason with them or challenge the false belief. But the more you try to talk them out of it, the more difficult it will become to dissuade them.

How do psychiatrists address delusions in first meetings in acute care? A qualitative study

Questioning the patients’ beliefs can lead to disagreement which might hinder establishing a positive therapeutic relationship.

The most frequent approach to address delusional beliefs was an attempt to elicit the content of the delusions. This was usually done in the form of simple questions. The questions aimed to understand the patient’s beliefs and encourage the patient to disclose their experience, without, however, challenging their beliefs.

[howlsofbloodhounds]

The way people are complaining that jinx isn’t the same character this season because she’s “sane” (aka not actively having an episode of psychosis, even though she literally did experience a hallucination when seeing vi with the enforcers), is strange.

also I find it strange that people talk about jinx and powder as if they’re separate people. they aren’t. jinx is powder, grown up and traumatized and mentally ill. like i completely understand that jinx likely struggles to realize this, because extremes are often the stable of bpd and she shows all the signs, and well—a personality disorder is a personality disorder.

but no jinx did not kill powder and taint her memory. powder is not gone. jinx can not exist without powder, and vice versa—because they are eachother. that’s what vi needs to realize and accept as well—her sister is not gone.

her sister just grew up and changed and is traumatized and mentally ill. it’s impossible for jinx to kill powder, or for powder to “come back,” the exact same she was. vi could never have powder back because the powder vi remembers was a scared, helpless little girl who depended on her for almost everything. powder was never going to remain that way forever—not if she wanted to survive.

powder has grown up and changed without her. that was always going to happen, it happens to everyone. if nothing happened as it did, their family was still alive, vi was never thrown in jail and powder never taken in by silco; powder still would’ve changed, somehow, someway. She’d likely still just be going by powder rather than jinx.

[lesbiantrish]

i think i could heal if people were more crazy about spydoc. btw

[creativesplat]

Have a Dimitri because juggling hyper fixations is almost all I do now.

[widowshill]

— But it's almost midnight. — Oh, that's the point! At the stroke of twelve, he turns into Dracula. C'mon, Vicki – he won't bite.

pose ref.

[cowchickenbeefpork]

*bashes my head in*

Gotham (2014-2019) ll The Art Teacher by Rufus Wainwright

[coldresolve]

Moneymakers, pt.xliv // Interlude

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The house is breathing. There’s no other way to describe it.

An inhale. The room expands rapidly. The walls disappear from view, as does the ceiling, and the floor on which he lies. Conrad feels like he’s falling. Not just suspended; falling, with all the associated panic, the flailing limbs, the flickering sense of orientation. Lights flash around him, and sounds spring from constantly moving sources, a voice that talks to him from below, then above, then below, then above…

Then he’s conscious. It’s the equilibrium, the second between inhale and exhale, where the air moves in neither direction. Dizzy, he raises a heavy head to peer down the length of his body, the fabric over his chest stained red and grey. His eyes seek for meaning and find it, albeit briefly, in the scene unfolding at his side. One foreign hand holds his elbow steady, while another grasps his palm, like a handshake, and slowly lowers the wrist outwards at an angle from the rest of his body. The colors pulse against his retina. His shoulder slides into place.

An exhale. Like water seeping between the fingers of a tightening fist, the air is suddenly pushed out of the room. Humid, smothering. It’s not just that he can’t breathe; it’s the way the room closes in on him, a crushing weight that encroaches on his body, relentless. Conrad is trapped in the lung of a sighing giant, pressed between its ribs and the contracting diaphragm. Concrete doesn’t care much for the plight of the living. Its texture is rough against his skin, and the pain is amplified by the heat of the friction it causes. It hurts so bad. It hurts. The words bubble from his lips. He’s pretty sure they’re not real words, but that doesn’t seem to matter, they leave him just the same. Burst in the air, silently, gone.

There are two facets to it; one is the heaving, the bending of the plasterboard, dipping down towards him, deep beats of pressure, before it retracts once again, and he is free. Another is the texture. Subtle clusters of color and light which pulsate to the rhythm of his heartbeat, writhing like a colony of ants, grainy against his tongue. He can taste the ceiling in some instances, sharp and bitter, coppery.

“You have to lie still.”

Lie still. Still. You have to lie still. You have to lie.

Sharp exhale. Falling concrete slams the air out of his lungs, mounting an incomprehensible weight on his being. The house’s guts churn around him, stone grinding against stone. Arms pinned to his chest by a grip that doesn’t budge, no matter how hard he pushes against it. Red shrieks, and the looming silhouette of his murderer.

Time stands still in the moment where the tension finally breaks again. The sting is drawn out, whining in the aftermath of the crash. He misses against the light, but it vanishes. Seventeen years ago, late at night, they stopped at an inn somewhere along the I-95; Conrad pretended to be asleep. Yellowstone never stuck, but no force on earth could take that memory from him, of being carried through a maze of unfamiliar corridors, rocking along with the steps of his dad, watching the wallpaper drift by through the careful slits of his eyes. An aching cheek is tucked against wool in the thoughtless pursuit of a heartbeat. A heavier core, longer limbs, strange gravity.

He reaches out, blindly –

His hand meets nothing but air.

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[schizopositivity]

Nobody ever bothers looking anything up about schizophrenia, even people with schizophrenic loved ones. I'm having a bad day of it today and my husband doesn't know what to do despite me begging for months for him to do research, because reading about this thing that affects every aspect of my life until the day I die is just "so stressful" to him. And I can't fix myself because I can't think. If I get additional medical trauma from being thrown in a psych ward, I... I guess I'll die. He already can't help me when I'm a little fuzzy. I'm so scared. He keeps saying he cares but I've been begging for months. I don't even know how to look up what could help. I don't even know how to look up what I'm experiencing right now. I can't help but think if he knew, he could help. But he just outright refuses.

I'm really sorry you're going through this. I think your husband should absolutely listen to you and do some research. Having schizophrenia is always more stressful and harder for the person experiencing it than the people around them. It would honestly be bare minimum for someone who claims to care about you to do some research into something you have to live with every day. There are so many resources out there for the loved one of people with schizophrenia, more than for the people with schizophrenia themselves. And I firmly believe it shouldn't be the responsibility of the person suffering to teach people around them how to help or even just care. He isn't the one experiencing it, he has the ability to do his own research, there is no excuse for him not to.

You deserve to be cared for and listened to. Having schizophrenia and having bad days because of it isn't your fault at all. You have every right to be upset. I wish I could do more to help, my dms are always open and you can talk to me if you want to.

[brethilach]

I'm kinda scared to post this but it feels really bad being an actual schizophrenic person and looking at how people treat Thorin and talk about his "goldsickness" as if it's a moral failing. It hurts especially when people say or imply that his (psychosis-induced) actions wouldn't or shouldn't be forgiven by any of his family, friends, or his people and he wouldn't be accepted as King even if/when they discovered he only acted the way he did because he was just... y'know. mentally ill. Temporarily, at that! Because it was caused by a factor that can be permanently removed (the Arkenstone, I mean. It's painfully clear that the Arkenstone was the cause of it in the movies' canon)

"Oh, maybe his SICKNESS was caused by a magic jewel that is clearly cursed somehow, but it was still HIS fault that he was INSANE (never mind that he was actively delusional and hallucinating). He still loved and trusted Bilbo in the throes of his MADNESS, so it MUST have been a true reflection of his SELFISH DESIRE and GREED." This is how some of you sound.

It's even worse when people do the same thing to Frodo (even though both the book and movies depict him having delusions and hallucinations/visions akin to hallucinations, on top of all the other horrific things happening to him). "haha Frodo almost dies a dozen times and everyone else does all the heavy lifting just for him to STILL fail at the end. Sam was the TRUE hero of the story because Frodo was a useless whiny sad-sack and would have accomplished NOTHING without him" fuck you fuck you fuck you

I don't know where else to go with this. It just makes me question how some of you would treat me if you met me or knew what I experience on a day to day basis. It feels bad

[seaweedstarshine]

RIP Krakoa 🌹 I can’t lie I’ve been kinda behind since midway through Fall of X I’m gonna catch up before my first SDCC this summer but I hear Vulcan didn’t see much action anyway. Anyway my hand slipped and I found myself looking into the eyes of my canonically psychotic son the best Summers brother who’s never done anything wrong in his entire life, (he’s done lotsa wrong things but I love him more for it)

[gatzbright]

“you are my sun, my moon, and all my stars” — e.e. cummings

[sincerely-sofie]

Re: your mental health comic - I hope, if any of those characters are based on real hallucinations youve had, that you don't have them anymore. You're a good person who doesn't deserve to be talked to like that.

(Referencing this or this post, I’m not sure which)

Thank you so much for your kind words! The characters in those works are representations of actual hallucinations I’ve experienced. They were real nasty pieces of work, but I haven’t actually hallucinated one in a severe enough manner to talk to them in about… Shoot. Hang on, I need to think… 5-ish years now? I think? And the last time I did, I heard a brief sentence before I took some heavy-duty meds that knocked me out and took care of the hallucination by the time I woke up. I’ve gone through a lot of growth between now and then, and I’m now in a place where the only lasting legacy those losers have had is making me very good at abstract descriptions + personifications and self-reflection. Their cruel words are fuzzy and vague things that I barely remember.

Heck, I went through some old notes to remember some nicknames I gave them, and it was a blast from the past that I actually laughed at! They actually called me “less than worthless” to the point I internalized and verbalized it many times? Wow. That’s pretty cringe, guys. You spent your entire lives bullying a teenager. Cool. Now I love myself and forgot that was ever a mantra I recited at all times in my head.

I once had a project I was working on where I made a fictionalized autobiography set in a fantasy world starring a self-insert and these jokers. It was going to be a kind of field guide to hallucinations I experienced. I stopped working on it after a while because it was too painful for me to develop, as it was meant to dig deep into the pain and struggles I went through on a daily basis… and now I’m looking back at it and considering making it a humorous story about how ridiculous my hallucinations were— at least the ones with consistent personalities. Comedy equals tragedy plus time, truly.

I might end up posting some of the more solemn journal comics I made about these chuckleheads... It'd be weird to dig up my significantly older work, but I think it would do me some good and maybe be enjoyable / educational for others!