#pseriouslyschizophrenic

[schizosolutions]

GOD i wish schizospecs could do literally any unmasking without risking going to a ward or worse. i feel like the only place i can actually express what my reality is like is online, and even then there's always the risk of someone trying to aggravate my symptoms.

[schizosupport]

Psychosis and Schizo Spec Flag Time!

My dear friends of the community! For a community in which so many of us have been called a freak at some point in life, we've had a distinct lack of a coherent freak flag to fly!

Well, no more. There's a new flag in town, and she's a beauty!

The flag is preceded by a number of other flags. @psychotic-pisces collected a number of them, and proposed yet more, here, and there have been other versions and attempts through the years. There can be many flags, and no flag is more right than another, but we did feel that our community might be in need of a simple yet recognisable flag, that would still be rich with symbolism. This is our proposal!

I shall refrain from waxing poetic about the elements of the flag, but the references are as follows:

The symbol used in this flag was proposed by @actuallyschizophrenic here, and has seen fair use in the psychotic and schizo spec communities around these parts.

The colour stripes in the background match the current flag most commonly used for disability pride.

The background is purple, because 70% of all previous proposed flags were purple, suggesting a cultural connection to the colour in our community.

The symbol sits upon a waxing silver-lavender moon, referencing not only tales of lunacy, but also the dichotomous nature of our illnesses, negative/positive symptoms and more.

Finally, the moon acts as a prism on the stripes, creating a disjointed feeling, that we associate with psychosis and disorganization, among other things.

The flag doesn't have a name, I think anyone in the community can call it what feels right. Schizotypy flag, psychosis flag, lunacy flag - you name it! I call it the lunacy flag, but I have provenly bad taste, so call it what feels right!

This flag was a collaborative effort in a community discord for schizo spec folk and psychotic people. There's no way I could have arrived at this design on my lonesome, and I'm forever grateful to our loving, creative, smart and awesome communities!!

Special thanks to a very cool, kind and talented person who goes by 'Orange' in the server, who created the vector file of the finalized flag, which can be found (on Google drive via tumblr) here!

And a userbox template bc why not..

Let's go fly our freak flag! 🧠🔥🎉

(License CCO 1.0 Universal - this flag can be used anywhere, credit is nice but it's not a requirement!)

Other formats, color annotated version and image description under the cut

Long format:

Square:

Version of the flag with names of each colour for accessibility:

Image ID of flag: A rectangular flag. The background is purple, and in the middle there's a circle. The circle looks like the moon, with one side in darkness. The moon is dark grey and light silver-grey lavender. On the moon is a symbol commonly associated with psychosis and the schizo spectrum in white. A beam of stripes cross behind the moon from each corner. The stripes are light green, light blue, light grey, yellow and light red. They are similar to the stripes on the disability flag. The beam shifts position behind the moon, so it is parallel above and below the moon, but not directly connected. End ID.

[ghostlyschizophrenic]

u know those whole “people with schizophrenia are actually in another plane and can see ghosts?” yeah id like to take the ghost now please. take away all the symptoms and give me a ghost please.

[jenniferleecopping]

short little comic doodle about psychosis and insomnia xxx

[pplatonic]

doctors will literally have THAT terrible of a handwriting and when a schizophrenic bitch shows up they're like "wow their writing is so bad it's like a sign of motor abnormalities and nervous system deficits or whatever"

[holyholyholey]

I had a psych intake last week.

Schizophrenia - yep still got it

W

Adhd - Probs got it

EH

OCD - Totally thought I didn't have it anymore - immediately prescribed meds for it

L

Seriously, apparently it's not a typical brain thing to obsess over things like I do. I am very upset about this as I no longer have (obvious) compulsions like I did as a kid.

My last psychs all missed this and she asked the screening questions and then asked more detailed questions and I was like "oh yeah I totally do that" without realizing it was going to be OCD and not schizophrenia symptoms.

[sick-in-the-stomach]

Day 4 of no latuda

[schizofreaknia]

i do not believe in god. not in that he doesn't exist, but in that he doesnt love us. he is real and he hates us. he is an almighty and we are his unloved bastards.

[schizosolutions]

please dont "reality check" strangers. it can be helpful and grounding if its a close friend and youve discussed it beforehand, but you could seriously hurt someone trying to "snap them out of it". psychosis doesnt work like a tv show.

[schizosupport]

The topic of medication for psychosis can be a truly loaded one, and I understand how people on either side of the debate feel strongly on the question, to the point where it can be a difficult thing to have a conversation about. Especially online in a public space, where nuance and delivery often gets lost.

My quick and dirty take is that autonomy is extremely important, both from an ethical point of view, and a psychological one.

People should get to make their own damn choices about medication, and no one gets to shame us for it, whether we choose to take antipsychotics or not. Everyone's situation is individual, and there are no one size fits all "right" answers.

There is information and there is even misinformation. And I'm passionate about people having access to all the facts, so they are able to make an informed choice.

Too often I find that trained psychiatrists themselves don't have access to all the facts, and I don't really believe that "the doctor always knows best".

I think that forcing medication on people in willful ignorance of the patient's discomfort, is violence. And I think the harm of this violent act outweighs any benefits the medication could have otherwise carried.

A lot of us have complicated emotions around drugs. Maybe it was forced on us, maybe it ruined something, or maybe it saved something. Maybe it was helpful but at a point it became a heavy weight we didn't know how to put down. I struggled for 7 years, every single day (except when i lost the battle) to make myself swallow my meds. No one forced me. It still felt like an act of violence against myself. I also still believe that it was the right thing for myself at the time. For the past half a year i have not been on any antipsychotic. I have complicated emotions on it, but right now that is right for me. I am prioritizing other parts of my life experience over parts of my mental stability. Personally, I only get to do this because at 31 years of age, my life is now so stable, and my support network so strong, that I get to make that choice for myself and still be the happiest I can be.

In any case, I want to make it clear that this blog is a safe space for psychotic people regardless of whether we choose medication or not. You don't owe anyone an explanation. And no one owes you an explanation. We can and should freely share information and experiences, but we should aim to do so without judgement and without claiming "wrong and right" individual conclusions.

[schizoaffectively]

Might document some of my reoccurring hallucinations and delusions in a little masterpost. It'll help me organize it, plus others can share their experiences too.

[vergess]

Hey fellow psychos of tumblr, quick question about content warnings (CWs) and math posts:

If you happen to know any other tags/blogs about psychosis that I could put this in/send this to, let me know? I'd like to get as many results as possible before I go around requesting a CW. I remember how nasty people got about Goncharov lol

[rxttenfish]

it is kind of wild to see that post of how much people will just immediately mistrust strangers and assume the worst out of anyone they won't know for me personally, because

well, im schizophrenic. i know im paranoid. i often get intense paranoid thoughts about people walking by me in a parking lot or mistrusting someone in the same public space as me, or even just automatically assuming "theyre going to kill me" if my family is driving and they take a turn they havent done before.

and i guess the difference is that i automatically label these as paranoid thoughts. i have to work to bring myself down from them, reassure myself that theyre just people as much as i am, and arent doing anything unusual that im not also doing in the same place. its just another person. me automatically leaping to them trying to hurt me isnt going to be productive, and will only make me more of a danger to them, so i need to just relax.

and its very bizarre, i guess, to see all these apsychotic people just bold-faced admit to being constantly paranoid of anyone else existing around them, and to think that this is normal and fine and good and isnt making them the dangerous one in that situation. i guess its just another example of why, if youre schizophrenic, youre constantly expected to be far better than any other apsychotic person in your life, and if you arent, then youre treated as inhuman and uniquely dangerous and deserving of violence and mistreatment.

[wheelie-sick]

I feel so embarrassed about some of the things I said and did while in psychosis. I've been coming out of an episode for a couple of months and it's so upsetting to look back and process it all because I just get so embarrassed by my delusional self.

this wasnt from my most recent episode, this was from 2021 but still

I'm just processing that I really did, in fact, tell many people in my life that I'm psychic and can talk to ghosts (I am not! I can't!) ...... and also that I was talking to the Norse gods and that they had chosen me, and also that it was my destiny to bring lost souls on Earth to the afterlife and just. now that I look back at it all it feels so obviously untrue?

I used to go around to roadkill and perform different blessings on them so that they could pass into the afterlife because I believed that was my job. all of the traffic saw me (thank god because I would not be here if they didn't) and this was when I lived in a small town so everyone knew who I was. they. all. know. and they probably remember because when you see teenager standing in the middle of the fucking road doing witchcraft on a dead squirrel you don't forget that!!

I just wish I could go back and undo it and make myself no longer psychotic because all of these memories make me want to turn invisible. I don't mind people online hearing about it but the people I know in my real life?? the people I interact with daily??? it makes me want to shrivel up like a raisin

and they all pretend that they don't know about my schizophrenia. everyone pretends that they believe the abilify is for "anxiety." that or they all have come up with some absolutely wild ways to explain it all away.

it's just so frustrating. it often feels like psychosis takes away my autonomy. I didn't get a choice in doing those embarrassing things I never stood a chance at not having embarrassing memories.

!! I have religious psychosis. your religious beliefs might be true but my beliefs were delusions. do not try to talk to me about your religion at all !!

[dogcrate]

not to Personal Problems post but anyone w/ schizophrenia or related disorder, do you experience the self doubt of "if i was actually [insert schizospec disorder] then i would have to be worse off than i am now" or the whole "i know this looks like [schizospec disorder] from the outside but i know my internal experience and it doesnt feel like [schizospec] to me"

and if you do, how do you work about getting over it?

[schizophrenicbulbasaur]

we should talk more about the overlap between schizophrenia and autism

signed, someone who has both