#psychotic positive symptoms

[psychotic-system-culture-is]

Psychotic System Culture is...

Seeing a post about negative symptoms of psychosis and having a few too many things make more sense

((Also, fuck our psychiatrist for saying we weren't experiencing "actual" psychosis. We have positive and negative symptoms, increasingly frequent and worsening episodes, and it's not us mistaking anxiety/ptsd/cdd symptoms. Like, sorry we can double book-keep, didn't realize there was only one way to have psychosis /sarcasm.))

[boydyke]

little schizophrenic thing you don't rlly think about unless you Are schizophrenic / otherwise psychotic. when I hear people but don't immediately see them (or the source of the sound) I sorta stand awkwardly for a moment looking around, just because it's a mere possibility that it wasn't real. (it's usually real in my case, but yknow) I'm not sure how others interpret it when they see me though

[theethlezprincez]

how do people not feel so fucking embarrassed and dumb asf when you ask a person with a psychotic disorder or any type of psychotic or hallucination issue what they are hallucinating? like be actually so fr

people underestimate how personal that question actually is.

if the person experiencing it wants to tell you and talk about it with you it’s different but don’t ask only because you know they have it.

if you do that gfy 🥰

it pisses me of so bad like it’s NONE of you’re goddamn business

[hauntedselves]

could you explain the difference between delusions and paranoia ? i feel like they sorta meld into eachother as some point no ?

they do, especially persecutory delusions. but they're two different things - delusions can have no element of paranoia at all, and paranoia is not always a delusion.

delusions are strongly held beliefs that aren't true for our shared reality. these can be paranoid, but they don't have to be. examples of delusions:

bizarre delusions: beliefs that are, well, bizarre, and impossible. an example is cotard's delusion (the belief that you are dead)

non-bizarre delusions: beliefs that could theoretically be possible, such as being monitored by the FBI

mood-congruent delusions: beliefs that align with moods (usually depression or mania). an example is a person in a manic state believing they're literally unable to be harmed

mood-incongruent / mood-neutral delusions: beliefs that don't have anything to do with moods. an example is believing that your cat is a robot

paranoia is basically extreme anxiety that's been blown out of proportion. paranoia can reach delusional levels but can also be more of a low intensity type experience. examples of paranoia:

not wanting to give out personal information in case it's used against you (not delusional)

believing that your doctor is trying to get you institutionalised despite no evidence for it (delusional)

the delusion mentioned above about being stalked by the FBI would more than likely have heavy paranoia associated with it

a woman walking down the street at night being paranoid she'll get attacked could be either not delusional, or elevate to delusional levels (for example, she thinks she's being followed with the express intent to attack her, despite no one actually following her). it could also be a completely legitimate, not-paranoid fear (especially if she's had past experiences of being attacked)

both are part of psychosis, but paranoia doesn't always occur alongside psychosis (a person can have paranoia without psychosis and psychosis without paranoia), while delusions are always psychotic.

[stabyou]

anyone else's moods fluctuate such an insane amount that you basically shape shift into different people with different ideals and worldviews + personalities or do i have some other shit going on

[alixisherebutringagain]

I've been throw into a pit of endless boredom and lack of motivation. I am empty, I am a desert, I am grey. There's no wind. There's no temperature. There's nothing but sand and sand, grey sand, unforgiving sand.

I used to feel like that during my depression, though the boredom was way less strong.

I'm realising it might be negative symptoms. After all, almost all my positive ones are gone. Am I falling ? Does that make sense ?

Is there anything I can do against this emptiness ?

I can't even go to work. I can't build up the motivation, the strength. I know I dislike this feeling but that's all.

Everything is tern and grey.

[robocops-a-christ-allegory]

I did see Somebody Else on twitter mention peacemaker as canonically having bipolar disorder once and I was like "What? When?!" before I remembered Bridgette saying hes in a "manic phase" when hes doing Peacemaker stuff like 5 times so to clarify I dont think that person was wrong or anything but I do need to do a quick aside to mention again how Kupperberg Peacemaker was probably written by Paul Kupperberg picking out whatever symptoms he thought were the most dramatic from the DSM. I need to do this everytime I get a little too angry about the current state of things.

[scalpelsister]

i start intensive outpatient therapy on tuesday and i could not be more upset lmao. i know its going to be good for me overall but i cant think of something i want to do less than that sjshdhdh. ALSO it runs all the way up until my birthday with my birthday being my last day (unless i get discharged early) which is just.... no good.

[psychotic-system-culture-is]

Psychotic System Culture is...

Thinking "Huh... we haven't been anxious or had an episode in the past few days; we've been at home feeling safe! The mental illness must have gone away-" and accidentally invoking an internal

several people are typing...

(/reference, silly)

Translator Note : We are currently experiencing positive symptoms in the form of two (known) delusions. The mental illness has NOT gone away.

[waywardtyrantpirate]

I just applied to jobs even tho I took 34 drinks which is a bad number. My stomach hurt now ha ha. I'm also off my meds bc I can't afford them an I went through a whole pjhse the past days thinking everyone hates me an that I've gone down the wrong path. Nope, just turns out I'm off my meds.

[thecouncil-aac]

<3

Council use AAC for psychosis symptoms (cognitive decline associated with disjointed/disorganized thoughts/speech, ect)

We are also autistic, but is not reason for use AAC, unlike many many in community

Some times feel... strange? Not the fault of other in community, just slight lonely? Because not share same experience :

New AAC user, not lifelong

Psychosis, not autism

Support needs unknown

Episodic instead 24/7

Appreciate positivity post <3

Know online aac community strongly dominated (is this right word?) by those who use for reason related autism, like us.

So, shout-out and much love to the aac users who use aac for reason unrelated to autism. Who maybe feel left out in many conversation about aac.

For those with other disabilities that affect speech. And for those who use for other reasons. Hope voices are heard in aac community.

[theethlezprincez]

when i was in the mental hospital i 100% experienced catatonia.

i found out by the fact that i like doing research and the medical professionals never brought it up.

it 100% ruined my family around me and i feel so bad.

it’s so insane to me that they never brought that up and i’m sorry if i sound weird saying this but still

i’ve been struggling with daily psychotic symptoms and they NEVER FUCKING NEVER thought about sending me to the psychosis team and the first time they thought about it was in FUCKING JUNE.

i stopped taking my meds and their to dumb to even realize that💀and i’ve stumbled over my words so many times lol

they’re so fucking ignorant jesus christ

the only thing they see is the number on the scale lol bffr

[dragons-and-yellow-roses]

I forgot that medicines have side effects :(

[schizopositivity]

Friendly reminder that antipsychotics don't cure schizophrenia. They don't even treat schizophrenia fully. They only treat the psychotic symptoms aka the positive symptoms. (And lots of people on antipsychotics don't have all their psychotic symptoms disappear, sometimes it only helps a little bit). Meanwhile our negative and cognitive symptoms cannot be treated fully (or at all depending on the person) with medication, and they greatly affect our lives and tend to get more severe as we age. So please don't assume that a schizophrenic person on antipsychotics is basically not mentally ill anymore cause there's a shit ton more we have to deal with on a daily basis, even if our psychosis is treated and no longer affecting us.

[schizosupport]

Do you know of any books that show psychotic characters in a positive light?

Feeling a bit alone and want to read stuff that doesn’t treat my illness like it’s something subhumans have.

I’ll read anything. Realistic fiction, fantasy, sci-fi, novels, short stories, comic books, etc.

Hey there! I have not been reading as much as I want to for a very long time, so I haven't read most of these myself, but here are some I've come across.

"Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman is the only one on this list that I've actually read. It follows a young guy with developing schizophrenia before and during his first hospitalization. I personally quite liked it. The author has a schizophrenic son who allegedly helped him a lot with the book.

"Freaks like us" by Susan Vaught is a book that I started reading, but had to stop because it was stressful. It's a thriller/mystery where the main character is a teenager with schizophrenia. When his best friend goes missing he becomes a suspect primarily due to ableism and he tries to help solve the case. I've been assured by others that it does have a happy ending, if somewhat bittersweet.

"The book of Form and Emptiness" by Ruth Ozeki follows a young teenager who is having psychotic symptoms after the death of his father, and some other mentally struggling characters as they support one another. Judging from what I've read about it, this book is at least somewhat critical of psychiatry and I believe that it may be a theme that the main character is overmedicated, with questions about what's normal and what's abnormal, etc. I haven't read it but it sounds interesting to me.

There's also a fantasy science series called "The locked Tomb", where the second book is "Harrow the Ninth" where the main character has been confirmed by the author to be dealing with schizophrenia (though this concept isn't recognized in the same manner in the world the story takes place in). It's a sequel to a book called Gideon the Ninth, the main character of the second book is schizophrenic, and they may also have a role in the first book without being the main character. (Edited with a correction from the comments)

"I never promised you a Rose Garden" is a classic from 1977 by Joanne Greenberg (pen name Hannah Green). It is a semi-autobiographical account of a teenage girl's three-year battle with schizophrenia. "Deborah Blau, bright and artistically talented, has created a world, the Kingdom of Yr, as a form of defense from a confusing, frightening reality. " The story takes place in a mental hospital in the 1950s so without having read it, I imagine it might involve some disturbing stuff.

If anyone knows of others, or can speak for or against the books that I have mentioned, please don't hesitate to chime in!

[loving-n0t-heyting]

the fda has approved a new drug for treatment of schizophrenia, going by the brand name cobenfy (xanomeline and tropsium chloride)

its mechanism of action is completely different from the dopamine blockers usually used to treat psychosis, meaning it may present less of a danger of the cognitive impairment much feared among those at risk of being put on antipsychotics (tho ive not seen numbers on that, and numbers can be unreliable about cognitive symptoms for obvious rsns of self-obscuring). certainly it seems to induce extrapyramidal symptoms like akathisia at much lower rates, and is better tolerated among test subjects. it also promises to reduce "negative" psychotic symptoms (low motivation, social withdrawal, etc) as well as "positive" (hallucinations, delusions, etc), a major stumbling block for traditional antipsychotic medications. here is the lancet article from the developers from early this year

a healthy degree of scepticism is always warranted about such things, ofc. but there is much here that is very promising