#negative symptoms lol

[odball]

ok so! coping with schizophrenia/schizoaffective on low dose/no antipsychotics (I do use mood stabilizers still) info under the cut

1. process your emotions as they come!! (you've gotta figure out how you process best, journalling, visual art, talking things over with someone you trust, exercise, nature walks, yoga, writing poetry, whatever works best for you!) by as they come I mean: literally ASAP!! don't let it have time to marinate and get lost in your subconscious without properly addressing it! something that helps this is really paying attention to where and how you feel emotions (example: I feel guilt and anxiety like a ball in my chest, when I notice I feel it I know I gotta talk to someone ASAP!)

2. OK you're recognizing something you hear/see might not be there think about what stressful events have occurred recently, how does it relate? is there a common trigger (feeling, memory, situation, even a passing thought that occurred before the experience!) try to write down the contributing factors and what the experience was if you have the time! (writing in your phones notes app can quickly work!) acknowledge the experience: i saw this, it made me feel this. next try to redirect your thinking to something else! (I'll explain what I mean by this in 3)

3. OK so the experience happened, but I don't know why? acknowledge it, acknowledge what things it made you feel! now think of something unrelated that doesnt evoke a strong emotional reaction from you, redirecting thinking allows me to not ruminate and not increase emotions related to the experience which just makes me personally spiral!

4. you have better insight!!! congrats and if u dont have better insight we will talk,abour redirecting less intense experiences!!! now you can treat the mild experiences you may still have akin to intrusive thoughts! once again, acknowledge, redirect! or, if you're able to, you might be able to just redirect and not use the mental energy to acknowledge them every time when you're confident!

5. if you struggle with going outside due to paranoia, try to focus more on your feet and listen to some music or talk on the phone! I know personally the less I focus on my surroundings on bad days the less my surroundings seem looming and threatening, also if you're afraid of other people and have the confidence: offering a smile when you pass by someone helps me feel less afraid of others and from all the bs I learned in DBT "wide smile open hands" DOES work, open body language and smiles do make me feel more at ease in public!

6. STIM!! my main one in public is closing my hands tight then opening them, sadly some stims are stigmatized but if you feel comfortable it does make it easier to be out of safe spaces!

7. delusions, this gets tricky! for me, it's not about "changing the belief" because let's be honest, it's basically impossible! what helps me, in, the beginning: was "ok so there's two possibilities, 1. your belief is factual, 2. it's not factual" you want to operate your decisions and actions under meeting in the middle, and not doing anything extreme! (example: "my neighbour's are always talking about me and it distresses me": ok! maybe say hi and ask them how they're doing next time you see them, maybe it could improve their view of you! and if not, you're building a little connection with someone you live near!) (example 2: I am being targeted: "I should maybe tell someone I'm feeling anxious (for whatever reason you feel comfortable sharing) and tell someone to keep in touch with me!" it does not confirm that you actually are being targeted but sets up a safety net which can help with the pain of being persecuted without feeling believed) also recommend looking into double bookkeeping!!

[wynn-ing]

I have always felt like my 'body', my 'mind/brain' and my 'me' are separate things... Like, not separate people or anything but absolutely separate things. Sometimes they work in harmony and I am just the sum of my parts like everyone else, but often they grate against each other and I find myself stuck between these disparate facets that refuse to fully cooperate. Does anyone else get that??

Like... if I had to put it in a metaphor, let's say I'm the king. My body is the castle, my mind is my advisor who I rely on to aid my reign, and my subconscious is my wife who only visits me at night, or occasionally sends me cryptic letters during the day. Sometimes I can't access my halls of artworks or my library or office because my body, the castle, has some sort of issue with the doors being stuck. At other times, my mind, the advisor, stands in the doorway, blocking my path, and lying to me that an incident occured and I cannot pass for my own safety. My advisor whispers cruel things to me as well, intrusive or impulsive thoughts, but I can't do anything about it because I know that I could never rule without it. The castle is in disrepair, but my advisor won't allow me to speak to the ones I need to speak to in order to fix it, because it's dangerous, or they may disrespect me, or I've worked too hard and simply must rest, or because there are more pressing matters that require my attention. Sometimes I find poison in my drink. Sometimes the castle gates refuse to open, and I cannot allow guests or supplies into my halls. Sometimes my wife gently sings me to sleep, and other times she attempts to smother me with a pillow, and laughs about it afterwards as if she never meant a thing by it. I try to be a wise and just king despite everything, and to foster goodwill with other kingdoms, other people. I do my best, but only sometimes does it go as it should, and I often have to actively fight against my castle and my advisor to even send letters outside of the castle.

Feels kinda like that. Can anyone relate I genuinely don't know if anyone else feels the same way... I know human experience is unique and all but like... I got told off for talking like my mind and body were separate to 'me' once a loooong time ago and that sense of isolation has been stewing ever since, and while my friends who knew about that at the time have assured me that it's not "wrong" to be that way, and I am so grateful and full of love, none of them had the same sort of experience, y'know? So I'm just testing the waters a bit now that I'm older and more confident in myself to just see if anyone's the same as me, or similar to me

[befuddled-calico-whump]

my fever's finally going down 😭

with luck I'll have the energy to write or draw sometime today

[indiegame]

blargh

[rulesforthedance]

Man if I didn't have to spend all my time pooping, I would be such an effective person. I could do so much stuff.

[ljussangen]

I can't believe how much our son has grown recently.

[cumcov3redangel]

Yay! Lavender day on cumcov3redangel!

Yes! Today was lavender/purple day on cumcov3redangel’s blog! Tune in tomorrow for black day!

[ragingtwilight]

BRUH

EVERYTIME I feel like im starting to feel better my body just turns around and flips me off

mf sends me off w a shove down the stairs, nausea, sweating/tremors, headache, confusion, dizziness, it pantsed me, it stole my lunch money, it gave me a swirlie, i cant fuckin win

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[pussymasterdooku]

ohhhhh i hate being sick

[orcelito]

So I was chatting with my fellow very mentally ill queer coworker friend about mental illness (as we do) and I mentioned how I was realizing that my wildly manic depressive response to grief wasn't... normal...

& they were like 'oh my god Yeah I've been suspecting you're bipolar for a While now' bc apparently I get in... modes... where my pupils are Huge and I'm talking a mile a minute and doing 4 things at once and even my Posture is different

And then I'll come in the next day like all the life's been sucked out of me.

& she mentioned there's type 1 and type 2, 1 being the longterm episodes & 2 being them alternating on a day to day basis. And I'm just like... damng... I sure do seem to have that 2 thing...

Apparently it's not normal to alternate between manic and depressive states! Who knew!

[anti-transphobia]

Forever annoyed that "don't speak over marginalized people", the notion that marginalized people are already spoken over, and their oppressors need to actually listen and learn before speaking about complicated topics and need to do so in support of not OVER them, so quickly turned into "I'm not x so I can't speak on x issues". Like the "don't speak on this if you're not this" started out so well meaning because it was about people needing to actually take the time to learn before talking about issues they didn't previously understand! Now it's just an excuse for people to never learn about the issues minorities face or to actually stand up for them in any meaningful way

[allylikethecat]

Maybe that end of the NA SATVB sickfic will be coming sooner than I planned- I feel like I am currently doing a lot of first hand research 💀🤧

[foxmulderautism]

autism is so funny today i briefly had a messy break up with my wham hyperfixation because i saw a small out of context thing that upset me after intentionally going out of my way to look for something that could upset me only to decide after hours of deliberation that it did not actually upset me and didn’t even matter because i was just being silly looking to dramatise something to bother me 👍 as part of my unmasking goal of 2024 i am going to be open about the weird and nonsensical autism symptoms that i cycle through on the daily 👍 anyway now we’re back together and im streaming wham rap enjoy what you do 👍

[sighing-and-all]

i thjnk im going to explode

[lokis-wager]

ADHD really is just like 'Fuck your sense of time. Fuck your ability to do anything you really want to do. Fuck your ability to focus. In return you get to have a fucked-up circadian rhythm, and feel your feelings better than everybody else. So as the frustration and anger at your own inability to do anything rises, you get to feel it even more acutely, and all your support network is asleep so you can't talk to anyone about it.'