#when in reality their “delusions” / “magical thinking” / “hallucinations”

[mlpussy]

your schizo is showing are you doing okay?

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Heey, hope this finds you well! Can you make writing notes about psychoses? I'm really interested about writing about my OC's mental state, thanks!

Writing Notes: Psychosis

Defining "Psychosis"

Psychosis - a collection of symptoms that affect the mind, where there has been some loss of contact with reality. During an episode of psychosis, a person’s thoughts and perceptions are disrupted and they may have difficulty recognizing what is real and what is not.

The 3 Main Symptoms of psychosis are:

hallucinations – where a person hears, sees and, in some cases, feels, smells or tastes things that do not exist outside their mind but can feel very real to the person affected by them; a common hallucination is hearing voices

delusions – where a person has strong beliefs that are not shared by others; a common delusion is someone believing there's a conspiracy to harm them

disordered thinking and speaking - a person's thoughts and ideas come very quickly, which can make their speech fast and confusing

The combination of hallucinations and delusional thinking can cause severe distress and a change in behaviour.

Experiencing the symptoms of psychosis is often referred to as having a psychotic episode.

Psychosis occurs when a person loses contact with reality. The person may:

Have false beliefs about what is taking place, or who one is (delusions)

See or hear things that are not there (hallucinations)

It is an abnormal mental state involving significant problems with reality testing.

Characterized by serious impairments or disruptions in the most fundamental higher brain functions:

perception,

cognition and cognitive processing, and

emotions or affect

as manifested in behavioral phenomena, such as:

delusions,

hallucinations, and

significantly disorganized speech

Psychosis is most likely to occur in young adults and is quite common.

Around 3 out of every 100 young people will experience a psychotic episode.

Most make a full recovery from the experience.

Psychosis can happen to anyone.

An episode of psychosis is treatable, and it is possible to recover.

It is widely accepted that the earlier people get help the better the outcome.

25% of people who develop psychosis will never have another episode, another 50% may have more than one episode but will be able to live normal lives.

Some people who develop psychosis may need ongoing support and treatment throughout their lives.

Historically: psychosis referred to any severe mental disorder that significantly interferes with functioning and ability to perform activities essential to daily living.

First Episode Psychosis

Refers to the first time someone experiences psychotic symptoms or a psychotic episode.

People experiencing a first episode may not understand what is happening.

The symptoms can be highly disturbing and unfamiliar, leaving the person confused and distressed.

Unfortunately, negative myths and stereotypes about mental illness and psychosis in particular are still common in the community.

A psychotic episode occurs in 3 phases. The length of each phase varies from person to person:

Phase 1: Prodome (psychosis syndrome)

The early signs may be vague and hardly noticeable. There may be changes in the way some people describe their feelings, thoughts and perceptions, which may become more difficult over time. Each person’s experience will differ and not everyone will experience all of the following "common signs":

Reduced concentration

Decreased motivation

Depressed mood

Sleep disturbance

Anxiety

Social withdrawal

Suspiciousness

Deterioration in functioning

Withdrawal from family and friends

Odd beliefs/magical thinking

[Magical thinking - the belief that events or the behavior of others can be influenced by one’s thoughts, wishes, or rituals. Magical thinking is typical of children up to 4 or 5 years of age, after which reality thinking begins to predominate.]

Phase 2: Acute

The acute phase is when the symptoms of psychosis begin to emerge.

It is also known as the "critical period."

Clear psychotic symptoms are experienced, such as hallucinations, delusions or confused thinking.

During this phase, the person experiencing psychosis can become extremely distressed by what is happening to them or behave in a manner that is so out of character that family members can become extremely concerned and may start to seek help. Before this stage the individual may have been experiencing a more gradual decline.

Phase 3: Recovery

With effective treatment most people will recover from their first episode of psychosis and may never have another episode.

It is important to remember that psychosis is a treatable condition and if help is sought early, an individual may never suffer another episode.

Initially, some of the symptoms that are apparent in the acute phase may linger in the recovery phase but with appropriate treatment most people successfully recover and return to their normal, everyday lives.

Some Symptoms of Psychosis

A person with psychosis may have any of the following:

Disorganized thought and speech

False beliefs that are not based on reality (delusions), especially unfounded fear or suspicion

Hearing, seeing, or feeling things that are not there (hallucinations)

Thoughts that "jump" between unrelated topics (disordered thinking)

What does psychosis look like? Responding to things, losing track of thoughts, appearing frightened or being very sure of things which don’t seem to be true, some people are more withdrawn, or their personality seems different. Big changes in behaviour and ability to do their usual activities.

Each person who experiences psychosis will have a unique experience and combination of symptoms, which may include:

Hearing, seeing, smelling, feeling or tasting things that other people don’t (sometimes called hallucinations)

Feeling unsafe and that people are working against you, or trying to harm you

Believing that you have special powers or abilities

Noticing patterns or feeling that things have a special significance for you (such as believing a famous song has been written about you or an event in the news has been caused by you)

Finding it hard to follow conversations, getting muddled in your thoughts or when speaking

Feeling that your thoughts have been removed or tampered with, or that someone else is in control of your body

Some people also become quite withdrawn and experience loss of motivation and emotions

When experiencing psychosis, people often struggle with their relationships, daily activities, school or work.

Some people, when told they have psychosis, worry that they might have a long-term mental illness like schizophrenia.

It’s important to know that psychosis can happen for all sorts of different reasons and having an episode doesn’t necessarily mean that you will have another or that you will have a long-term problem.

Psychotic symptoms typically include changes in thinking, mood and behavior. Symptoms vary from person to person and may change over time. Some of the more characteristic symptoms can be grouped into 5 categories:

Confused Thinking: Thoughts become muddled or confused. The person may not make sense when speaking. The person may have difficulty concentrating, following a conversation or remembering things. His or her mind may race or appear to be processing information in slow motion.

False Beliefs: False beliefs, known as delusions, are common. The person can be so convinced of the reality of their delusion that no amount of logical argument can dissuade them. For example, they may believe the police are watching them, or they might think they are receiving special messages from the television, radio or newspaper.

Hallucinations: In psychosis, the person sees, hears, feels, smells or tastes something that is not actually there. For example, they may hear voices which no one else can hear, or see things which aren’t there. Things may taste or smell as if they are bad or even poisoned.

Changed feelings: How someone feels may change for no apparent reason. They may feel strange and cut off from the world. Mood swings are common and they may feel unusually excited or depressed. A person’s emotions feel dampened and they may show less emotion to those around them.

Changed behavior: People with psychosis may behave differently from the way they usually do. They may be extremely active or lethargic. They may laugh inappropriately or become angry or upset without apparent cause. Often, changes in behavior are associated with the symptoms already described above. For example, a person believing they are in danger may call the police. Someone who believes he is Jesus Christ may spend the day preaching in the streets. A person may stop eating because they are concerned that the food is poisoned, or have trouble sleeping because they are scared.

The symptoms of psychosis are often categorized as either “positive” or “negative.”

Positive symptoms are those that add to or distort the person’s normal functioning. They include:

delusions (false beliefs that are firmly held and are out of keeping with the person’s culture)

hallucinations (hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling or feeling something that is not actually there)

disorganized speech, thoughts or behaviour (e.g., switching rapidly between subjects in speaking; finding it hard to concentrate or follow a conversation; being unable to complete everyday tasks).

Negative symptoms involve normal functioning becoming lost or reduced. They may include:

restricted emotional and facial expression

restricted speech and verbal fluency

difficulty with generating ideas or thoughts

reduced ability to begin tasks

reduced socialization and motivation.

Other symptoms may include:

cognitive symptoms, such as difficulties with attention, concentration and memory

mood changes

suicidal thoughts or behaviours

substance abuse

sleep disturbances.

Possible Causes of Psychosis

Medical problems that can cause psychosis include:

Alcohol and certain illegal drugs, both during use and during withdrawal

Brain diseases, such as Parkinson disease and Huntington disease

Brain tumors or cysts

Dementia (including Alzheimer disease)

HIV and other infections that affect the brain

Some prescription drugs, such as steroids and stimulants

Some types of epilepsy

Stroke

Psychosis may also be found in:

Most people with schizophrenia

Some people with bipolar disorder (manic-depressive) or severe depression

Some personality disorders

Assessment

Psychiatric evaluation and testing are used to diagnose the cause of the psychosis. Laboratory testing and brain scans may not be needed, but sometimes can help pinpoint the diagnosis. Tests may include:

Blood tests for abnormal electrolyte and hormone levels

Blood tests for syphilis and other infections

Drug screens

MRI of the brain

Clinician-Rated Dimensions of Psychosis Symptom Severity. The American Psychiatric Association is offering a number of “emerging measures” for further research and clinical evaluation.

These patient assessment measures were developed to be administered at the initial patient interview and to monitor treatment progress.

They should be used in research and evaluation as potentially useful tools to enhance clinical decision-making and not as the sole basis for making a clinical diagnosis.

Treatment

Depends on the cause of the psychosis.

Care in a hospital is often needed to ensure the person's safety.

Antipsychotic drugs, which reduce hallucinations and delusions and improve thinking and behavior, are helpful.

Psychosis can prevent people from functioning normally and caring for themselves.

Left untreated, people can sometimes harm themselves or others.

Prevention depends on the cause. For example, avoiding alcohol prevents psychosis caused by alcohol use.

Coordinated specialty care consists of multiple components:

Individual or group psychotherapy is tailored to a person’s recovery goals. Cognitive and behavioral therapies focus on developing the knowledge and skills necessary to build resilience and cope with aspects of psychosis while maintaining and achieving personal goals.

Family support and education programs teach family members about psychosis as well as coping, communication, and problem-solving skills. Family members who are informed and involved are more prepared to help loved ones through the recovery process.

Medication management (also called pharmacotherapy) means tailoring medication to a person’s specific needs by selecting the appropriate type and dose of medication to help reduce psychosis symptoms. Like all medications, antipsychotic medications have risks and benefits. People should talk with a health care provider about side effects, medication costs, and dosage preferences (daily pill or monthly injection).

Supported employment and education services focus on return to work or school, using the support of a coach to help people achieve their goals.

Case management provides opportunities for people with psychosis to work with a case manager to address practical problems and improve access to needed support services.

How well a person does depends on the cause of the psychosis.

If the cause can be corrected, the outlook is often good. In this case, treatment with antipsychotic medicine may be brief.

Some chronic conditions, such as schizophrenia, may need lifelong treatment with antipsychotic drugs to control symptoms.

Early Intervention

Research has found that early intervention is beneficial for patients and loved ones for the following reasons:

Less treatment resistance and lower risk of relapse

Reduced risk for suicide

Reduced disruptions to work or school attendance

Retention of social skills and support

Decreased need for hospitalization

More rapid recovery and better prognosis

Reduced family disruption and distress

A person will often show changes in their behavior before psychosis develops. Behavioral warning signs for psychosis include:

Suspiciousness, paranoid ideas, or uneasiness with others

Trouble thinking clearly and logically

Withdrawing socially and spending a lot more time alone

Unusual or overly intense ideas, strange feelings, or a lack of feelings

Decline in self-care or personal hygiene

Disruption of sleep, including difficulty falling asleep and reduced sleep time

Difficulty telling reality from fantasy

Confused speech or trouble communicating

Sudden drop in grades or job performance

Alongside these symptoms, a person with psychosis may also experience more general changes in behavior that include:

Emotional disruption

Anxiety

Lack of motivation

Difficulty functioning overall

In some cases, a person experiencing a psychotic episode may behave in confusing and unpredictable ways and may harm themselves or become threatening or violent toward others. The risk of violence and suicide decreases with treatment for psychosis, so it is important to seek help. If you find that you are experiencing these changes in behavior or notice them in a friend or family member and they begin to intensify or do not go away, reach out to a health care provider.

IN TEENS OR YOUNG ADULTS. Before having clear symptoms of psychosis, a teen or young adult often experiences distressing changes in thoughts and emotions. They might:

believe something odd is going on with them, or feel confused about what is real or imaginary

feel singled out, watched, or not fully in control of their thoughts

report changes in perception, such as their eyes or ears playing tricks, hearing jumbled, incomprehensible voices, or seeing shadows or figures in the corners of their eyes

ask for help in trying to make sense of unsettling experiences like these.

Programs specializing in psychosis risk aim to reach out to these individuals.

Recognizing the early signs of psychoses are important in order to get appropriate treatment as early as possible. Early symptoms of psychosis may include, but are not limited to:

odd or bizarre behavior

changes in thinking or speech

decrease in personal hygiene

social withdrawal

preoccupation with a particular topic

marked changes in emotion

Other, more obvious symptoms may include: 

extreme suspicion of others,

paranoia, 

auditory or visual hallucinations,

delusions and odd, irrational beliefs.

Psychosis is often stigmatized and misunderstood, which can get in the way of getting help. But research has shown that three-quarters of people who do get effective help early can experience relief from their symptoms.

For people who show signs of a possible psychosis, sometimes called "attenuated psychosis syndrome," only about one-third go on to develop a full-blown psychosis. However, they usually have symptoms of depression and anxiety, which can benefit from treatment.

Psychosis as a Symptom

A number of mental illnesses can include psychosis as a symptom, including:

Schizophrenia: A person has some psychotic symptoms for at least 6 months, with a significant decline in the ability to function.

Schizophreniform disorder: A person has some psychotic symptoms for more than one month and less than 6 months.

Bipolar disorder: With this type of illness, the symptoms of psychosis relate more to mood disturbance than to thought disturbance.

Schizoaffective disorder: A person will have symptoms of schizophrenia and, at some point in the course of illness, concurrent symptoms of a mood disturbance.

Depression with psychotic features: A person has severe depression and symptoms of psychosis without the mania associated with bipolar disorder.

Drug-induced psychosis: The use of drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine, LSD, amphetamines and alcohol can sometimes cause psychotic symptoms.

Organic psychosis: Sometimes, symptoms of psychosis may appear as a result of a physical illness or a head injury.

Brief psychotic disorder: This type of psychosis usually lasts less than a month. It is sometimes triggered by a major stress in the person's life, such as a death in the family.

Delusional disorder: This type of psychosis consists of very strong, fixed beliefs in things that are not true, without the presence of hallucinations.

Psychotic Disorder - any of a number of severe mental disorders, regardless of etiology, characterized by gross impairment in reality testing. The accuracy of perceptions and thoughts is incorrectly evaluated, and incorrect inferences are made about external reality, even in the face of contrary evidence. Specific symptoms indicative of psychotic disorders are delusions, hallucinations, and markedly disorganized speech, thought, or behavior; individuals may have little or no insight into their symptoms. Some examples of psychotic disorders are schizophrenia, schizophreniform disorder, schizoaffective disorder, delusional disorder, brief psychotic disorder, and psychotic disorders due to a substance (see substance-induced psychotic disorder) or to a medical condition.

How to help someone else experiencing symptoms of psychosis:

Often, family and friends help identify someone who is struggling with psychosis, and suffering from their symptoms, so they're important to getting them in touch with professionals who can help.

Stressful life events, such as going off to college or breaking up with a significant other, can trigger psychosis. Further research is needed into why this is, but a low underlying "stress tolerance" level is often seen.

It's all right to mention to someone that you're worried about them, and open the door to discussing it at that point or later. You can find out if there's an early-psychosis clinic near you, and provide information or offer to contact them.

If you notice signs that they're harming themselves, that's the time to seek immediate help, often by starting with contacting suicide hotline or nearby psychiatric emergency room for advice. People with psychosis have 10 to 15 times the risk of suicidal thoughts or behaviors than others.

Treatment, support and how to help find answers for people struggling with psychosis:

Treatments for people showing potential signs of psychosis mostly focus on talk therapy, also called cognitive behavioral therapy. Family and group therapy are also important, and can be done virtually.

For people who show clear breaks with reality, antipsychotic medication can help greatly. The vast majority of people who receive these medicines experience improvement in their symptoms, but they may also experience side effects, so it's important to work with a trained professional to find the best fit.

Women who experienced postpartum psychosis after having a baby are at high risk of experiencing it again if they have another pregnancy, and should receive special attention during and after pregnancy.

A very small number of people with psychosis may be driven by their paranoia or hallucinations to act strangely in public or try to harm others. If you find yourself having to call the police because of such behaviors, make sure they understand and acknowledge that the person you're calling about has a mental health condition and needs help getting to appropriate care.

Just like many infectious diseases can cause a fever, psychosis is part of many mental health conditions – but what exactly causes it isn't well understood. That's why researchers needs people with psychosis to consider taking part in the studies they're running.

"Psychosis strikes in the years when people are just starting to be truly independent in life, work and school, which can make it especially devastating to the person and the family. The process of brain maturation depends on a lot of things going right inside our brains and if they don't, things can go askew. The longer they go untreated, the higher the chance they may experience damage to the brain and be worse off even when they get treatment." Stephan Taylor M.D., who leads a team at Michigan Medicine that specializes in early care for psychosis

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 ⚜ More: Notes ⚜ Resources PDFs

Writing about Mental Health Conditions

Hi, here are some references. Choose which ones are most appropriate to incorporate in your story. If possible, it would also be valuable if you know person/s who experience psychosis & speaking with them about it (or if you have personal experiences you could draw from). There's a wide range, so narrowing your depiction down to model one specific life story (or borrowing from just a few) could make your writing more realistic. Do go through the sources linked above as well for more details I wasn't able to include here. Hope this helps with your writing!

[3liza]

I'm trying to figure out how to communicate instructions to other people about how I almost completely escaped my crippling adolescent body dysmorphia and anorexia but the thing is I don't really know how it happened. it was like one day I woke up and didn't care that much.

i still had all the central psychological dysfunctions but it was like I had decided to ignore them because I had finally internalized that I was acting crazy and acting crazy, unlike being crazy, is a choice. unless you're experiencing psychosis or delusions. and the body dysmorphia is a form of delusion certainly but it's a form you can still sample against reality and see that it's not matching up. you can't do this with actual hallucinations but you can do it with stuff like obsessive thoughts about how ugly you are and how everyone hates you and how ugly people have no value etc etc. that kind of stuff is observably false and integrating constant reality checking into your obsession loops will derail a lot of the delusional obsession. your brain will fight back with arguments like "it's fine for her to be ugly because of magical reason I made up but it's not fine for me because of another magical reason I made up" but these arguments can also be quickly reality checked into irrelevance even if you still *feel* they are true. you may FEEL that the obsessive delusions are true but you can, to a certain extent, make a decision to KNOW and more importantly to ACT as if they are not.

so the new thought loop could go something like: "I'm so fucking ugly. so what if I'm 'ugly'. it doesn't seem to matter when I look around and reality check my level of ugliness to the success and affection people uglier than I am seem to experience. there just be something else wrong with me. but that doesn't make sense because actually a lot of people do like me and care about me. i have proof of that in the form of messages and memories. I'm so fucking ugly. but I'm looking closely at this unfiltered Getty image in incredibly high resolution of a celebrity on the red carpet. and she has terrible skin. her skin looks just as bad as mine does in the brightly lit bathroom mirror because there are no filters on this brightly lit professional journalist's photograph. that's really interesting. i bet I can see the same level of ugliness in everyone else that I see in the mirror if I really look"

i don't think you can fix yourself to be not crazy. i don't think that's a thing that happens. i think most therapists are useless or MLM subscribers who want to try out their latest hype word MLM technique on your because they paid $3000 to be "certified" in Hidden Dream Cousin Interrogation Biodynamics, which will test 2% better than jingling keys in front of the control group in two papers on PubMed until crumbling to replication crisis in three years.

i think what you can actually do is add additional systems checks to deal with how fucking crazy you are and always will be until you stop being able to fuck up as much with it. like an airlock system basically. i think good therapists are able to show people how to do this and maybe get them meds that tamp down some of the nasty things the craziness constantly causes to happen. but they're so rare I've never actually met one lmao

[sodachalice]

id really like 2 hear more on your thoughts on kin stuff

hmmmhmhm. i wouldnt even know where to start really. i think that almost all kinning is a form of dissociation (not in a disordered way but in the way "Spacing out" is also dissociation, it is a coping mechanism you can choose to engage with that can get out of hand if relied on too heavily) and i think that the reason kinning was so popular in early 2010s tumblr specifically in the way it was is because there was a rise in the type of abusive households that would encourage dissociation (strict rules, neglective parenting, rejection of trauma, trauma from the internet, unrestricted internet access, recession, rise in fascism, lack of third spaces, increased trauma in schools due to gun violence, the popularity of internet grooming and the lack of awareness around that topic, encouraged dissociation due to split internet/in person lives) and i also think that because of these things this has also increased the amount of people who have OSDD/DID/some form of plurality or at least increased the awareness of these disorders enough for people who are experiencing this dissociation to be able to be properly diagnosed. i think that the line between kinning when it is serious and spiritual and these disorders are very blurry and grey.

i think that kinning can tell you a lot about yourself and how you feel about yourself and your position in the world not specifically due to the character in the canon itself but your interpretation of the character and how you specifically feel about them and feel like they symbolize, but i also think that characters are written with specific people and tropes in mind and that many times paying attention to these tropes and threads between characters you kin is more important than the characters themselves. i also think that people could find a lot of freedom and fun in using fictional characters like fursonas and using them to communicate ideas that go beyond canon and are personally symbolic to them especially now in sort of a post-kin internet where a lot of people in my age kinned in their childhood but not as an adult, and i think that could be a good creative outlet for people especially if they spent a lot of time writing fanfiction or making fanart as a child.

i feel like psychological and emotional (and spiritual, but also to be clear, im very much not a spiritual thinker. it doesnt come to me naturally. i usually talk purely psychologically/politically, but im also someone who does have personal beliefs i like to keep to myself) ties disabled and autistic people develop towards fictional characters is something that is insanely important in general just as like a literal societal keystone, i think people forget how media used to be ran and how it was almost always spearhead by autistic people who were obsessed with a specific idea. most mainstream modern "iconic" series come from a source like that. i also think that people don't understand how delusions and hallucinations tend to work, and don't understand how religious delusions and fictional delusions such as kinning can be the same, but they both offer magical/fantastical escapes from reality that allow you to live a split life in a different place that is better or more symbolic or has more closure and clear concise beats to it than reality. abstractly, they fill the same role for a lot of people.

uhhh. i think thats just a lot of listing my beliefs and not really explaning them but i kinda just wanted to play my cards and show off what i think about irg to kinning. i would say its a special interest. like i said growing up my parents were convinced i was an earth angel, and there are a lot of reasons in their past that traumatized them into thinking that way. one thing i always found fascinating was my athiest dad was extremely into fandom, hes a furry himself and very strongly identifies with a small group of characters he obsessively collects. my family all agree that hes autistic, even if he isnt diagnosed. he treated his favorite characters (Spiderman, ash from evil dead, luke from starwars) exactly the same way as my mom treated any of her intense obsessions with imaginary figures (jesus/angels, ghosts, spirits, the government) as a very spiritually psychotic person, and growing up and out of my intense "spiritual" kinning phase when i was living in that household, i realized i was treating it the same exact way as my mom was treating her religious delusions. except the thing is i did it with homestuck characters so i was labeled histrionic and attention seeking instead of like you know. struggling with delusional thinking, which i very much was and is something i struggle with still now. not in a "im on alternia" kind of way but in a "im a fictional character and nothing i do has consequences so i regularly neglect myself" kind of way. i was homeschooled and msot people ive known havent been very kind to me, this has changed but my habits havent. and my i think people sort of overlook my habits bcause instead of looking like something insanely drastic its just sort of like. i kind of just disappear, and its because im thinking Of The Character. and its like a huge problem. and i kind of think its a big problem for a lot of people, but kinning is one of the pieces that goes overlooked in discussions about it because people are embarrassed. well im not. i like my guys and i like my connection with them. so

[strawberyaurabya]

Do you think Belos convinced himself he “saved” Caleb by killing him?

Hello, @raptors-n-foxes!

Knowing his ideology, probably. From the early 1600s, Philip and his brother were raised in what was inferred to be a strict, Puritanical society with little to no regard for kindness towards those who were different from the optimal image of what was right in their religion’s eyes.

Puritans who had began immigration from Britain and other parts of Europe in that time period initially moved to North America (and what was soon to become the colonies) to pursue a more strict and taut practice of their interpretation of the Bible, since they began to view the churches of England as corrupt. So from there, we can already assume that the people of Gravesfield were already very self-righteous and difficult to subject to change. So putting two, vulnerable orphaned brothers in that society would probably lead them to be heavily indoctrinated and influenced, since it’s the only opportunity for survival and a chance at acceptance.

Since Caleb was revealed to be older, he would be less susceptible to conforming in order to be deemed “fit”, and we can see how he eventually overcame such unsavory discrimination when he befriended witches. Philip, being younger, would not. Children with less developed minds are likely to follow in the path of elders that they look up to… Even if their role models aren’t the most optimal ones. And as they grow older, they plunge deeper into the hatred and warped perception of those around them, with a harder chance to get out. Philip Wittebane is a victim of his time period, which later grows up to be a living example of the foolishness and out-dated standards of his time.

So when Caleb left that hole to find sanctum in the Boiling Isles, where he finally found his true home, Philip saw it as an act of betrayal. Not only towards him, but towards their dreams, their town’s ideals, and their future. My personal take of Philip’s thoughts is that he did not believe that his brother, which he had spent his entire life around, would throw their relationship away like that. He would rather believe that Caleb had spent so much time around witches and forbidden magic, that it had taken over his mind and corrupted him. Hence, came the idea of putting him out of his misery. We can see such parallels in King’s Tide (The scene in which he had captured Luz and was trying to convince her to join him in his return to Gravesfield), when Luz had called him a hypocrite; his exact words were…

“I do pity you. These monsters have warped your sense of reality. Perhaps it'd be merciful to put you out of your misery…”

So it’s either his sadism, or Belos is in so much denial that his way is the incorrect way, that he’d rather believe that Caleb and Luz been swept away by dark magic instead. And since he’s had 400 years to mingle upon those thoughts and convince himself he’s in the right, he would believe it. And it’s so twisted, that even hallucinations of his brother have only fed his delusions. In the episode, For the Future, even near his death bed, he replies:

“I tried to save your soul. It's your fault this all happened!”

Which verbally summarizes what his motivation is behind killing his brother. (Maybe he even believes that making grimwalkers of his brother gives him a certain chance at “redemption”; a chance to prove that he doesn’t have to be seduced by the charm of witches and their realm) (Oh, and also… In this clip, the hand that falls off is his right one, leaving him with only his left hand. Which is not only his predominant hand, but also the kind that Puritans were discouraged from using as it was associated with the Devil’s work. Not related to this question, I just thought it would be something interesting to share!)

So, in summary, yes. I do believe that Philip convinced himself that killing Caleb saved him in the long run. This is PART of what makes him evil compared to his older brother. It is his willful refusal to change, to accept the peace between magic and conformity.

[helloagainalice]

⠀         ⠀        𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘢  𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘢  .ᐟ 📰

⸻⠀⠀⠀⠀𝐕𝐎𝐆𝐔𝐄  𝐊𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐀  𝐄𝐗𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐕𝐄  .ᐟ  ALICE  IS  BACK,  a  conversation  about  music  and  mental  health. ⠀  by  hwang  hye-won⠀·⠀may  21  2025.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⸻⠀⠀⠀⠀TW⠀·⠀mentions  of  mental  health  issues. ⠀⠀⠀⠀When  the  first  rumours  of  Alice's  comeback  surfaced,  the  internet  was  intrigued  by  the  possibilities.  Now,  after  releasing  her  single  ‘Disturbia’,  the  artist  talks  to  the  Vogue  Korea  team  about  music,  projects,  the  future  and  mental  health.  It's  the  first  time  Alice  has  given  an  interview  in  years,  making  many  of  the  revelations  impressive  for  the  public,  giving  a  new  look  at  the  facts  and  her  trajectory.

First  of  all,  how  does  it  feel  to  be  back?

⠀⠀⠀⠀Complex,  to  be  honest.  It  was  an  internal  battle  as  to  whether  or  not  I  should  come  back,  but  in  the  end  I  realised  that  I'm  doing  it  for  myself.  I'm  nervous,  but  happy  to  be  able  to  tell  my  story  from  my  point  of  view.  I  think  it's  part  of  a  necessary  process.

And  what  is  this  process?  Healing,  recovering  your  narrative  or  something  else?

⠀⠀⠀⠀A  bit  of  both,  I  believe  they're  intrinsically  linked  within  the  events  which  happened  to  me.  When  my  mental  health  declined,  everything  declined  together  because  nothing  works  when  your  mind  isn't  working  how  it  should  be.  You  might  pretend  to  the  world  everything  is  perfect  and,  in  parts,  even  to  yourself,  but  it's  not  sustainable.  Going  back  now,  my  desire  is  to  heal  the  fear  I  developed  of  expressing  myself  through  art,  heal  the  part  of  my  mind  that  used  to  say  my  art  isn't  necessary  and,  in  the  process,  I'm  also  going  to  recover  my  narrative.  Perhaps  that's  why  it's  such  a  complex  feeling  to  put  into  words,  but  one  I've  been  longing  for  for  some  time.

When  did  you  realise  ‘I'm  ready  to  do  this  again’?

⠀⠀⠀⠀There  wasn't  a  specific  moment,  to  be  honest.  There's  no  magic  light  bulb  of  inspiration  switching  on  at  the  top  of  my  head  [  laughing  ].  During  those  five  years,  I  breathed  art  all  the  time  as  a  form  of  personal  salvation.  I  studied  and  immersed  myself  in  things  which  were  meaningful  to  me  while  treating  and  looking  after  myself.  Suddenly,  in  2023,  I  was  able  to  return  to  my  personal  studio  and  started  playing  with  music  as  if  I  were  an  unsupervised  five-year-old.  I  spent  days  and  weeks  working  on  endless  songs,  concepts  and  other  things  I  wanted  to  do.  As  my  treatment  improved,  some  of  my  work  began  to  sound  more  cohesive  and  expressive.  Finally,  in  2024,  I  started  working  actively  on  my  new  work  and,  bit  by  bit,  it  made  sense  to  me  and  my  team.  It  was  so  natural  that  I  ended  last  year  with  more  than  thirty  songs  ready  for  release.  After  that,  it  was  just  as  natural  to  work  towards  a  release.

About  mental  health,  what  exactly  happened  to  you?  Much  has  been  speculated,  but  nothing  has  been  confirmed.

⠀⠀⠀⠀In  2020  I  was  diagnosed  with  psychotic  depression,  which  is  nothing  more  than  a  severe  depression  causing  you  to  experience  delusions  and  hallucinations.  The  decision  to  refrain  from  commenting  or  confirming  anything  was  precisely  because  I  wasn't  in  an  ideal  state  of  mind  to  deal  with  it,  particularly  because  the  veil  between  reality  was  completely  fragmented.  My  state  was  fragile  and  the  best  option  was  to  really  get  away  from  anything  in  the  media.  I'm  sorry  for  those  who  were  worried  and  kept  in  the  dark  all  those  years,  but  sometimes  we  have  to  make  difficult  decisions  in  order  to  survive.

How  has  it  been  taking  care  of  your  mental  health  over  the  last  five  years?

⠀⠀⠀⠀A  rollercoaster  of  emotions.  I  had  some  very  difficult  moments,  especially  when  I  was  diagnosed,  but  with  time  and  the  right  medical  care,  I  started  to  get  back  to  myself.  In  fact,  psychological  treatment  gave  me  the  opportunity  to  discover  who  I  really  am,  deal  with  my  identity  and  put  my  thoughts  in  order.  I  was  lucky  enough  to  have  a  team  of  very  competent  therapists  and  I  owe  them  a  lot.

Why  do  you  think  that  happened?  Do  you  think  life  in  the  spotlight  had  an  impact?

⠀⠀⠀⠀Why  do  people  get  sick?  I  can't  say,  only  that  it  happens.  Many  people  who  have  never  even  worked  in  entertainment  have  gone  through  the  same  things  as  me,  or  even  worse.  I  believe  there  were  several  things  in  my  life  that  led  to  this  moment,  whether  on  stage  or  off.  You  know,  life  is  a  tangle  of  situations  that  we  can  hardly  unravel.  But  I  do  believe  that  having  started  very  young  and  dealt  with  a  lot  of  things  an  young  girl  wouldn't  know  how  to  handle  had  some  influence,  yes,  but  I  can't  say  that  was  the  only  thing  or  it  was  the  key  factor.

How  have  you  been  feeling?

⠀⠀⠀⠀I've  been  fine.  I'm  still  in  therapy,  leading  a  healthier  life  and,  incredibly,  returning  to  music  has  done  me  a  lot  of  good.

Many  Lux  Entertainment  artists  have  experienced  psychological  problems  in  recent  years.  How  would  you  describe  the  company's  support  in  this  regard?

⠀⠀⠀⠀I  don't  have  much  to  say.  It  all  happened  during  my  hiatus,  and  they  waited  patiently  for  me.  I  think  that's  enough.

Can  we  say  then  Disturbia  is  about  your  hallucinations  and  years  of  psychotic  depression?

⠀⠀⠀⠀Yes  and  no  [  laughing  ].  It  would  be  very  naïve  of  me  to  pretending  that  a  lot  of  the  stuff  I'm  releasing  these  days  doesn't  talk  about  those  dark  times  of  mine,  when  there  were  no  limits  to  my  mind.  But  at  the  same  time,  I  was  very  attached  to  art  and  surrealism  has  this  power  to  talk  about  subjects  in  a  different  way,  almost  dreamlike.  I've  always  loved  it  and  believe  it's  helped  me  a  lot  to  translate  some  of  the  things  I've  never  had  the  courage  to  say  out  loud.  But  if  you  like  to  think  of  it  as  a  hallucination,  I'll  find  it  interesting  too  [  laughing  ].

What  can  we  expect  in  the  future?

⠀⠀⠀⠀That  you'll  get  sick  of  my  face  [  laughing  ].  A  lot  of  music  and  other  projects,  I've  missed  working  and  have  plenty  to  say.  I'm  excited,  even  if  I'm  scared,  and  that's  never  been  able  to  stop  me.  Disturbia  is  just  the  first  chapter  of  a  crazy  journey.

Are  we  talking  about  an  album,  a  tour,  or  something  more  introspective?

⠀⠀⠀⠀You  guys  want  to  know  too  much  [  laughing  ].  This  new  era  will  bring  many  surprises  that  I  can't  reveal  yet,  but  everything  has  been  done  with  a  lot  of  love  and  care.  I  want  you  to  hear  the  truth  from  my  own  voice,  but  what  I  can  say  is  that  the  album  is  indeed  coming.  Many  other  things  too,  I'm  eager  to  show  you  everything,  but  I  have  to  give  it  time.

⸻⠀⠀⠀⠀𝐄𝐗𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐕𝐄  .ᐟ  Alice  revealed  first-hand  to  Vogue  Korea  that  her  next  album,  𝑊𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑎,  will  be  released  on  15  June. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀FAN  RECEPTION  ⠀›⠀ @  alicelanderx  im  sooooo  happy  she's  ok  now  but  imagine  going  through  all  that?  idk  if  i'd  have  half  the  strength  she  had @  madxbyblood  now  all  the  hate  she  received  back  in  2018/2019  takes  on  a  different  weight  bc  it's  quite  possible  that  she  was  already  unwell  and  everyone  was  saying  she  was  just  a  troublemaker  you  fucking  weirdos!!!!!! @  dixturbias  i  can't  wait  to  hear  the  album  and  see  what  else  she's  got  in  store  for  us!!!! @  galaxieslander  just  hope  lux  isn't  taking  advantage  of  alice  once  again  especially  in  such  a  personal  and  important  era  for  her  but  what  can  you  expect  from  this  fucked  up  company  that  only  knows  how  to  ruin  their  artists  lives?  🤷🏻‍♀️ @  galaxyhymn  king,  tiger  and  sunny  sweeties  come  here  we  have  guests  another  lux  artist  whose  mental  health  has  been  ruined  🤗 @  jiahbeloved  why  is  no  one  commenting  on  her  apologising  for  not  having  said  anything  about  her  health?  she  was  healing  and  feeling  guilty  for  not  saying  anything  this  girl  deserves  sooo  much  love  omg

@  sunwonders  her  response  about  lux……….  jesus  that  company  really  have  something  sinister  going  on

[liesmyth]

my locked tomb hot take of the day is that the way Harrow’s symptoms are presented in HtN line up much more closely with religious OCD with poor insight and psychotic features than schizophrenia. She shows almost no signs of paranoia or delusions (G1deon really was trying to kill her! It’s absolutely true that the other houses would swoop in like vultures if they knew her house’s true position! Her sword and psyche were both actually haunted, to the point that Alecto could hitch a ride in her body. She is never shown in the text to hold a belief that is inconsistent with reality, IMO) and her only true psychotic symptom that we see is hallucinations, and she seems to most of the time have some idea that they aren’t real, which indicates a level of self awareness incompatible with schizophrenia. She also doesn’t seem to display many cognitive symptoms like thought block or disorganized speech and thinking. The rest of her behavior is highly obsessive (compulsive praying, wearing face paint even when nobody is around, obsessive studying, needing her food to be arranged on her plate a certain way) and is very in line with someone suffering from religious scrupulosity. As someone who has experienced both OCD and psychosis, and knows how the symptoms can overlap, this is is the hill I will die on.

I don't feel like I can contribute in any meaningful way to your points, so I'll just put this out into the world and say that I appreciate your insights!

Speaking from a #meta perspective: I know that around the time HtN came out, Tamsyn gave interviews talking about her own experiences being hospitalised for mental health reasons and implied that was what she was partly drawing on when writing HtN. I can't remember if she called Harrow schizophrenic or stated that it was her intention to write her as such, and the author is dead anyway. Plus, obviously, the fact that someone's writing was informed by irl experiences doesn't have to mean that said writing is a 1:1 parallel for those experiences, expecially in a sff setting where ghosts exists and in fact there's something that Harrow can see and nobody else can.

TO ME, the fact that people who experience psychotic episodes can recognise themselves in Harrow's internal monologue and experiences is more meaningful than whether Harrow “really” has a given specific disorder or she's just seeing ghosts. The point is that SHE feels a disconnect from reality and that she's delusional and cannot trust anything she remembers or reads. Nobody in-universe is ever going to diagnose her, you know? The series itself doesn't claim to be straight-up representation for any specific named issues — things like Cytherea's cancer or Harrow's mental state are left ambiguous and partly influenced by magic. I think the fact that readers can relate to some symptoms some characters experience is more meaningful than whether these symptoms all point to something that can be diagnosed unambiguously.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me!

[vamp1reheart]

WONDERLAND 02

Hoseok x f!reader

Notices: Explicit sex! Mentions of abuse! Murder! Mental problems! Schizophrenia! Obsessive themes! I tried to have a big focus on psychological horror! Distorted reality! Use of drugs, strong medicines and other doping agents!

Synopsis: You always thought that Wonderland was just a childish delusion, the consequences of a terrible accident. But things change, and maybe Wonderland is more real than you'd like to admit. Especially when an old friend goes out of his way to convince you to stay in the wizarding world.

People have always made a point of reminding me that my head is defective.

Always calling me crazy and saying that I have no right to speak because my head doesn't work.

Apparently they think that because I have mental problems I am dysfunctional.

But I never cared. I know my own capabilities.

But even I can tell when something is out of whack.

When I showed the scribbled letters to Seokjin, he started acting strangely.

Even though he told me that I had written it myself in my moments of panic, he was sweating a lot and seemed more tired than I was.

Before, he would talk to me about the situations in my dreams, trying to make me reflect and justify them, and then he would give me the medicine.

Nothing has changed, except that now he doesn't try to justify and reflect on my dreams, but he still gives me medication.

But it's getting worse and worse.

My hallucinations are stronger, and I can physically feel much more than before.

Clearly the medicine isn't working, but even if I tell Seokjin this he gives me others with the same effect.

But I'm tired.

Tired of all these hallucinations, tired of these crazy dreams and most of all, tired of that man.

He's always in my dreams, no matter where he is, he'll appear at some point.

I'm currently heading towards a drugstore.

I need stronger medicine. My thoughts aren't even the same anymore, nothing around me seems to make any sense.

When I push open the door of the drugstore, a little bell echoes in the empty space. The inside of the drugstore is impressive; its milky-white walls are nothing like the outside of the store, with dirty stone streets and dark corners.

"Can I help you?"

A very pretty girl asks me with a friendly smile, her white clothes match the place. Her smile almost seemed to tell me hope.

"I need your best antipsychotic"

I confess that I was unsure about buying medicine alone, I thought I would need at least permission from Seokjin. But to my surprise, the smiling woman in front of me didn't care and handed me the medicine. Her smile never wavered and her eyes never left mine.

And I thought I was the weird one.

I don't say anything to the woman, I just hand her the money and take the medicine. I try my best to avoid her constant gaze, which has gone from being cozy to being psychotic.

The path to my house is silent, I can't even hear my thoughts, and my steps are automatic.I quickly unlock the door and enter the apartment, relocking all the locks.

I look at the medicine box in my hands, debating whether I should actually take it.

"No..."

There it was. The man's hoarse, stressed voice in my head.

"Don't do that..."

The voice in my head kept saying, getting deeper and more irritated. My vision was starting to blur.

I needed to stop this madness immediately.

And without thinking twice, I run to the bathroom. In the toilet, I vomit even what I hadn't eaten.

My God, am I going to die? That man is going to kill me...

In front of the mirror I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand, and place three antipyretic pills in my hands.

"I'm warning you not to do this honey, you better listen to me..."

The man in my head mutters amid voices and hisses. But as soon as my vision starts to blur again, I put the medicine in my mouth and swallow it, lowering my head I drink the water directly from the tap, feeling the medicine go down my throat.

And like magic, the voice stopped, the hissing stopped, and my vision returned to normal.

Wow, I didn't think it would be effective immediately.

Lifting my head and looking at my face in the bathroom mirror, my dark circles were huge and my tired look was evident.

When suddenly. The bathroom mirror takes on a slightly strange, bluish hue.

But before I can question anything, two arms come out of the mirror, now as liquid as water. The strange hands grab the sides of my head before I can react.

I quickly let go of them, who are still trying to grab me, I take two steps back, still in shock.

When the arms lean on the wall around the mirror and push whatever, or whoever, was inside it out.

Again, that man comes out of the mirror. His torso and head were outside the mirror.

It was him. He was coming out of the mirror in front of me.

When his head lifts, I can see his eyes as dark as night.

He stretches out his arms again and holds my shoulders tightly. "Enough of this, let's go home my love..." He says in a strangely slurred tone, and as fast as I can blink he pulls me towards him, as if I weighed no more than a towel.

I feel nothing, I see nothing. Is this what it's like to be dead? Wait, do dead people think?

Blinking a few times, I start looking again. The slightly orange blue sky, covered by clouds, is the first thing I see. Could it be paradise?

"You look so beautiful in the sunlight." The man's voice is present, and I quickly stand up.

He was beside me, sitting on the floor with his knees bent. He had a warm smile on his face.

"What's up dear? Surprised to see me?" He asks with a smile and bright eyes. I don't answer him, I just sit further away from him and look at the environment around me, trying to figure out where I am.

It was an open field, I could see tall trees in the distance, looking up I realized that we were sitting under a tree that was smaller and thicker than the pine trees that surrounded us. The tree was filled with small, pink flowers that swayed in the light breeze.

"You're still as beautiful as the time you disappeared"

At the sound of his voice, I turn to face his serene face again.

"What are you? What do you want with me?"

"It's a shame you don't remember me, or the times we had together..."

He says with his smile faltering at some point.

"But don't worry, my dear, I won't let them take you away from me anymore."

He stands up, stops in front of me and gently holds the sides of my face.

"What do you mean? You're the one in my head, I'm sure this is just another one of my delusions"

His gaze remains intent on my eyes, he says nothing, not even his expression shows anything that I can identify.

"It doesn't matter what you believe, love. The important thing is that now I have you, and I want to see who will take you from my arms again"

He brings our foreheads together, taking my lips in a long kiss right after. I don't have enough strength to separate him from my body, I just close my eyes tightly, hoping it will end soon.

When he separates our lips, he brings our foreheads together again and gives me a sinister smile.

"See... do your hallucinations kiss you all the time?"

He laughs, as if mocking my attempts to rid myself of my hallucinations.

"So, my dear, answer me. Did the great medicine that you needed so much have the effect that you wanted?"

It was as if all the memories of my therapies with Seokjin, and all the medicine I took, had flashed through my head.

"You did something, didn't you?"

I face him, as I watch him walk away from me and take my hand, leading me somewhere.

"And what can I do? After all, I'm just a hallucination..."

He says in a drawl, with a damn mocking smile. I didn't know where he was taking me, or what he had done. But I needed to find out, and most importantly, I needed to find out how to get out of this place and how to get rid of him.

Enough is enough, he's making me hot-blooded. It's obvious he controls this whole fucking place.

Damn...I have no idea how I'm going to get out of here. After our little chat in the tree he dragged me to some part of the forest, we didn't walk for five minutes before a staircase appeared that led to a house on top of a hill.

How did that shit get there?!

Okay, never mind, I'll find a way out. I can't lie that the first thing that crossed my mind was to beat him until he was as big as my sanity, but what would I do then? He seems to be much stronger than me.

"ladies first..."

He was holding the door of the house open for me to go through, I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't even realize that we had already gone up the stairs. Oh no, I can't go into this house, how am I going to get out of it after?!

With my delay, his face darkens, the smile he had disappears, and I can tell he is getting irritated.

"Get into this damn house s/n... You don't want to see me angry"

I let out a "tsck" with my mouth, and turn my head to the side. I can see his irritated face in my peripheral vision.

Then before I can do anything, he wraps his arms around my waist, and lifts me off the ground as if I weighed nothing.

"What?! Put me down!" I say, punching his back with all my strength, but it has no effect on him.

"I hate having to do this. But not even you will stop me from getting my love back."

What? What was he talking about? I can see the rooms of the house we passed through. The sun was setting, so few rooms had enough light for me to see anything.

Damn. What does he intend to do to me?

I can hear him opening a door, but before I can do anything, he throws me onto a big, soft bed. Of course I don't have time to feel where I am, he climbs on top of me and holds my hands next to my head, leaving his face very close to mine.

"Welcome home... darling"

[homestuckreplay]

Maybe she's schizophrenic or on the schizo-spectrum? Or maybe she has some other disorder with psychosis? The way she explains her visions and stuff does look familiar to how the previously mentioned disorder make people have unexplainable (except for them) visions

that's a really interesting idea! I don't personally know much about schizophrenia or psychosis, so I'm doing a little research right now, and I gotta say the more I read about people's experiences the more I find this convincing. I've learned that in addition to hallucinations and delusions, people with schizophrenia can experience disordered thinking or urgent/scattered/racing thoughts, problems with memory, and behavior that would seem impulsive or haphazard to an observer but makes sense to the person experiencing it - all of which describes Jade.

Jade is a very outwardly happy person, and although this doesn't necessarily mean she's happy deep down, I was curious on if people had any positive experiences with schizophrenia, especially given that some negative parts of disability just come from society not being accommodating. Jade of course doesn't have to deal with things like employment or claiming disability benefits. I learned that many people view their schizophrenia as fully negative and making their lives harder, while other people do find some positive aspects, some of which can be linked to Jade.

some people find that delusions can keep them company and aid in loneliness - this could be Jade's relationship with Grandpa

some people report a strong sense of integrity or being 'kept honest' by delusions, as voices they hear will bully them if they go against their own values - again, Jade hears Grandpa telling her off if she leaves the house without enough guns

imagination and decreased chance of experiencing boredom, being able to retreat into a personal world for entertainment - Jade does this when she consults her reminders and is able to zoom in on John's ogre fight

some people discussed increased creativity, although as with other mental health issues this is controversial - but if there's truth to it, it could describe Jade's highly inventive gadget designs

hallucinations and delusions aren't always negative, they can be encouraging, and 'can feel like sudden wonderful realizations, revelations, or epiphanies' according to one person - this seems to describe Jade's visions

increased compassion, although conversely, a struggle to connect socially with others - Jade displays both of these, she has a lot of care for her friends, but often struggles to understand them or see their true feelings

a deeper understanding of why other people are religious, spiritual, or superstitious, reported by an atheist - there's a tie to gnosticism here and Jade definitely blends hard science with esoteric knowledge

a willingness to question the nature of reality and not just accept information as it's given - ties into Jade's regular breaking the fourth wall, her sylladex skills, and will likely help her out in Sburb

one person describes their experience as 'everything seems like a mystical magical game. everything is a puzzle with some hidden meaning' - this is a rare outlook for people with schizophrenia, but it definitely represents Jade

One person also described characters who have telepathy or see visions of the future or past as 'fictionalized schizophrenia' so other people have made this link too! If anyone else reading this has more knowledge or personal experience with schizophrenia or psychosis and would like to weigh in, that would be amazing, because this all just comes from some basic research!

[saederkrupps]

Hm So. Magic Systems(tm) amiright

The magic is "Astral Magic" so it's all star themed. Because that's sick. Astral energy can just manifest in the material world on its own but it usually needs to be drawn out and it's extremely hazardous to even touch. It's like radioactive? But maybe worse? If you touch Raw Astral, it would eat your entire arm like necrosis within seconds. Being near it is enough to cause physical pain and absolutely mental agony. Hallucinations, delusions, just making everything wack. Because it's the stars!

But also it just is like. Conflicting so hard with reality that reality can't take it. It's Not Suppose To Be There.

So most magic users are Astral Mages and how they're made is they are micro dosed on Astral. It can happen accidentally, like some Astral leaked into the world near your town. And if you, like, survived getting fucked up by a mage you could get infected.

I say infected because what is really happening here is you get Astral sickness. And it mostly kills you in a very slow, painful death. I think I described it in the scholar origin as your insides are being pulled out by an unknown force. And it's very bad on them mentally (Just from the magic itself and the fact that being in physical pain for such a long time would fuck anyone up.) For the people that survive, it can last to up to a month.

As I mentioned in the og post, younger people tend to survive more. Specifically children. Very young children. Many still die from it though. They usually start with kids at the age of 4. It starts being less viable when they hit the teen range. Also: Women tend to survive the mental strain more.

Getting the magic though just fundamentally changes your existence though. You are no longer consistent with reality. A lot of mages have a reputation for being very off putting, hard to get along with, they process information differently, Something is Just Off.

Do u see where i'm going with that, lol.

In addition to children surviving more often, it's also considered better to be infected as a kid because you won't mourn who you used to be as much.

I think some of this is probably heavy handed like Magic Mental Illness Inflicted On You By Someone. But whatever.

Oh also dying during the process also makes a huge mess. Your body disintegrates (as you die) and you can end up like, fucking up reality there for a bit. And your soul is stuck in the inbetween so we have a ghost problem

[seeinginthedark]

This is what I believe in my heart and in my soul . My heart and soul have synced in and the communication line between is clear . Same goes for my subconscious, after rigorous shadow self work. As for my mind , I’ve synced in my left and right brain hemispheres. I did this in 2022. So they are balanced and healthy . I am of sane mind . I won’t be gaslighted anymore by anyone , any man , any institution and not even gaslighted by myself .

Here we go, strap in .

If you’ve been reading my blogs , you will know that I’m on a mission. I have a psychosis but, as I keep reiterating, a psychosis means different things depending what culture your from. In Indigenous cultures(who are more closer to the Earth and nature) a psychosis is a ‘spiritual situation’ . In the western medicine world , it’s a mental illness. People get scared during a psychosis and don’t know how to handle it. I handle it. I don’t get scared or paranoid. I don’t have hallucinations or hear voices . I know the difference between a delusion and a sign , a message from the ancestors .

The videos I made in 2022, contain information that I didn’t understand at the time , suddenly now have become relevant. They were warning me of what to watch out for .

We are in a spiritual situation. A war. An attack on our souls . An ongoing oppression. Being drained of our humanity.

To be turned into something un-natural and mechanic. And we won’t allow this happen.

The ancestors that made it to the afterlife (instead of a reincarnation soul trap ) are building alliances with spirits of this Earth, of nature and of the inner Earth. I’m dead serious about this .

A lot of us today are souls of our ancestors who chose to leave the astral afterlife realm to come here in this modern world . They are Mother Earths army. We are at the front line now . The children of today have been absolutely bombarded with screens, technology and toxic social media . In an effort to neutralise us , make us forget who we are and forget what’s important in life . This wave of children , are born already spiritually activated and awake . They have immense spiritual potency and magic-like abilities. They are our salvation now .

A lot of people however , are getting confused thinking they a star seeds or thinking they were meant to be a different gender . These are trends and narratives that have been articulately planted on purpose for the reason to distract and confuse and cause social division . And self identity issues .

Please, if you have one of these special children , who are from magic bloodlines , please take care of them . Nurture them and their abilities. Do not crush their imagination- as it is one of their magical traits . Please limit the amount of screen time they are having. I know it’s hard and we are all busy trying to get by and have to work and have so many things on our plate but please don’t pacify them with iPads and tablets and phones . It inhibits their development. It inhibits their social skills . It socially programs them.

Get them outside in nature as much as possible . Listen to them. Let them have a voice . Let them express themselves creatively. Treasure them . Love them unconditionally. They are here to change the world. I don’t want to see any of these children grow up and be plugged into a permanent virtual reality . With microchips in their brains . With non -organic robotic add ons . Stuck in the simulation. Their souls recycled back into this system when they die . Their souls need to be free, as all of our souls should be .

We can beat this A.I take -over . Together . United . Strong . Keep your vibes high . Self care. Heal from your trauma. Be the powerful spiritual warrior you were born to be . For Earth. For our souls . This is it.

[theproperweirdo]

Ramblings and analysis [part 1]

Scarlet | The Arcane Shadow

My long time favourite character in AFK Arena since I started playing has been Scarlet ❤️ her backstory is killer and I feel like her design is detailed and enhances her personality even more using these details you really have to look into

To start, her past! Please skip the next two paragraphs if you know her story 👍

Scarlet’s mother (who I’ll call Ms. Laurence for convenience) raised her from a baby to around what I assume was preteen age. Their family carries a maternal “curse” of psychological torment and dark energy. Scarlet’s grandma had previously killed herself during an opera performance, after being driven insane by the voices she heard. Ms. Laurence wanted Scarlet to overcome this curse, and have her become a respectable woman like her own mom. Scarlet? Not so much. And although she loved her very much, Ms. Laurence didn’t get to see Scarlet’s future. She spiralled into insanity as well, and was taken to a mental institution.

Scarlet was taken to the Violet Orphanage afterwards, which could have a very long post on its own. 💀💀 While there, she tried and failed multiple times to escape. She felt like something was off about the strange people and weird tests they did. After having enough of her midnight missions, they started to amp up the tests in intensity and aggression, in either magical or physical ways. During one of these tests she passes out, and in the haze of her consciousness, she receives the last wishes from the spirit of her mother, before coming too. Once she’s awake, she makes her last attempt to escape— by burning the entire orphanage to the ground.

Her past is tragic. She’s stuck with a curse that’s taken both her mom and grandma, then used as a lab rat til she has a mental break. But there’s so much more to analyze! (Wowwww)

Her family’s curse is one described as one of “madness,” that blurs reality and fantasy. In a setting like this, it seems to be some kind of arcane affliction passed from mother to daughter.

However, there’s the obvious subliminal implication of her curse— that it’s a genetic mental illness. Although disorders are not often hereditary, they’re still most commonly seen in an individual when a direct family member has the same one. For Scarlet and her family, this sounds like a long line of women who have schizophrenia. Hearing voices like auditory hallucinations, erratic behaviour, and having extreme delusions, are the most prominent and aggressive symptoms. Scarlet’s grandma took her life after losing the ability to differentiate between real and imaginary. Scarlets mother became overwhelmed by her delusions. Before burning down the orphanage, Scarlet herself begins to hear voices and monsters. Now on her own, she doesn’t want to become what her mother and grandmother did.

She also possibly fights her own hallucinations better because she had to reassure her mother when she was young. She probably never met her grandma though.

As a violent and dangerous curse, it’s effective and seems to stem from some older power. But I think this reflection of mental illness in women is powerful and incredibly well written for a character in a mobile gacha RPG game.

Okay, that’s on her story! Now for an artist’s eye on her design… let’s move top to bottom.

Scarlet’s hair is visually more black with streaks of red highlights. But we know from the description of her mother, along with her 4koma-style comic, that she had a full head of red hair.

The red itself is said to be a sign of the curse in her story. Seeing that the black has come and overtaken it in her recent years, I think it’s meant to represent her own hold on her sanity. Scarlet’s mother still has (I assume) all her hair red when she’s taken away. The black in her hair might be her own control on the chaos magic, and how she’s managed to harness it.

Or, the black came through as an awakening of sorts. It comes in the climax of her grand escape, when she seemingly inherits the destructive power of the curse. If her mother didn’t manage to fully grasp any control over her own magic, maybe she never had the same moment of magic-puberty as scarlet. So maybe this magic changes her both mentally and physically, leaving a few remnants of the red, because even though she’s improving, the curse will never stop its assault on her. Either way, it’s a physical tell of how her magic has changed her.

Her clothes seem to be a personal choice for herself. At six years old, Scarlet rejected any kind of fancy teachings or proper dresses. She was likely just a young girl who had her own preferences and didn’t like the suffocating atmosphere of noble life. But her mother’s most sincere wish for her was to see her grow into a distinguished and elegant lady like her grandmother.

I imagine she had a lot of time to think and reflect on her memories in the Violet Orphanage. Her mother loved her genuinely and dearly, and they were separated in the end because of their shared curse. I imagine she would remember the one thing her mom wanted to see most in her. The dress and corset were probably picked out herself because she wants to fulfill the one thing her mom wanted. :( even though she hates dressing up, she wants to make her mom proud in this way. The makeup and heels are probably for the same reason.

Her armour and signature item are both made of this gold coloured metal, but her shoulder guards got some red by the edges.

The one other character with the same kind of armour is Morrow, the only other in game person who was a victim as the Violet Orphanage (aside from Isabella and Silvina).

They were kept there in different periods of time, but it’s obviously not a coincidence that they’re the only ones who share this design motif.

These are the Signature Item descriptions for both Morrow and Scarlet ⬇️⬇️

Both for controlling dark magic! However, the origin of Scarlet’s item says that it was formed during her destruction of the Violet Orphanage. Also the gold armour is on Morrow’s arms and not his book. Scarlet is the same, she’s got it on her shoulder guard, but not the stabilizer. My theory is that it’s either 1. A material they used in the orphanage to conduct experiments on the kids using dark magic, and they both now use to to chanel their own magic and cast spells. 2. It’s a normal kind of metal, but the red shading comes from use of dark magic. That would explain why both of their armour has it.

Either way, it’s a very cool detail! :) other things I’ve noticed are:

Her attacks have the possibility of hitting allied heros. I interpret it as her magic still being unstable and hard to control. She’s got her sanity and magic under control, but not completely.

There’s no clear distinction between “dark magic” and “hypogean magic” so it’s possible she controls some variation of void realm arcanum, or a hypogean cursed her bloodline and she now channels its energy instead of suffering from it.

She looks considerably older than Isabella. Makes sense considering the timeline, but makes me a lil sad.

Anyways, that’s the end of this long ass post. Hopefully more to come in the future (if I remember)

Til next time 🫣🫣

[ikamigami]

Something kinda sad is that whenever Sun does get angry, or does get power so people can't just push him over anymore, the other characters go "you're dangerous" or "you're like Eclipse" or act like Sun's going to hurt them, when though Sun has never raised a hand against anybody who wasn't a villain and actively trying to kill him, like both Bloodmoons or old Eclipse, the one time he lost control and caused serious damage was...While yes he did put himself in that situation to start with...because he wasn't trained so he wouldn't lose control of his magic and Eclipse was about to kill him with a sword, him losing control was a pure accident that he then learned from as he was much more careful with star power and only ever used these abilities sparingly exclusively on active threats, so I worry that if Sun does get powers that are used more frequently they'd start acting like he's going to bite their heads off, even though Sun never did such a thing even when at his angriest

This is so true, dear anon 😭

It's so sad and really unfair to Sun cause he isn't like that.. he's against murder all the time..

That one time when he went after Eclipse he had psychotic episode and was very detached from reality (at least in my eyes but it's dabatable and I understand if others don't see it like that).. but it was just one time..

Because when he killed Bloodmoon it was in self-defence.. it wasn't out of maliciousness or in cold blood..

Yeah.. I forgot that if Sun had powers especially associated with darkness other characters would be suspicious of him and it would take a toll on Sun's already bad mental state..

This is so sad.. but I think it's intentional.. like I said I think that Sun has depressive psychosis and delusions centered around guilt and unworthiness and believes himself to be evil.. so the way others immediately are suspicious of him when he gets angry and such fuell his delusions more.. and it's a good way to portray this struggle..

Or at least in my eyes it makes sense because of how true it seems for me because I struggle with delusions centered around guilt and unworthiness myself.. 😅

It might turn out to be untrue in canon.. but idk the way Sun blames himself and thinks that he could've done more and feels bad even for deaths of a killer who tormented him and his family.. and hallucinations that he had.. the things that these hallucinations told him.. it all feels relatable..

The way Sun accepts everything that happens to him out of guilt feels very real and relatable to me..

Hence why I wasn't surprised that Sun didn't yell at Old Moon or didn't completely cut Old Moon and New Moon out of his life.. because Sun feels responsible for how both of Moons turned out to be.. he feels responsible because he wasn't enough.. he wasn't good brother.. it's all his fault.. that's why he can't ask for anything better for himself than what he has..

Maybe my interpretation is wrong but look at how people were surprised that Sun didn't yell at Old Moon or that he's still scared..

To me it's not surprising at all because I know how Sun feels.. I understand this feeling.. so even if I'm wrong I'll continue to interpret Sun that he has depressive psychosis and delusions centered around guilt and unworthiness and believes himself to be evil because it fits in my eyes and canon didn't disprove my headcanon at all yet but continue to put Sun through the same shit over and over again.. "he's like Eclipse" "he's angry and he'll snap and kill someone"..

Sorry for this rambling but I don't see many people talking about that Sun is compared to Eclipse a lot or that his anger is seen as bad thing.. many people thinks (or thought) that maybe it means that Sun will turn evil.. but I doubt it (though who knows) so why it's like that then?

This is why I came up with this headcanon ^^

But I completely agree with you, dear anon. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this with me ^^

[drowninginredink]

Hi, it's the anon who headcanons the Chosen as higher needs autistic.

I just wanted to say that I'mactually thankful you educated me on your schizoprenic experience, because I didn't know any of that was even a thing! I'll take that with me going forward.

You're welcome! If you want proper schizo education, let's do it! Actually, a note first, because I'm going to be using the terms psychotic and schizophrenic a lot and you should know the difference. Psychosis is a symptom. It is basically just disconnect from reality, generally meaning delusions and often, but not always, hallucinations. Psychosis can happen because of pregnancy, medical conditions, other mental illnesses, or drugs (both legal/prescribed and illegal). Schizophrenia is chronic psychosis that cannot be attributed to any other cause. All schizophrenics are psychotic; not all psychotics are schizophrenic.

1. I know I already said it in the original post, but do not call 911 on someone in a mental health crisis. I will not share the details of what happens to psychotic people (and let's be clear here; it's almost always Black psychotic people) in police custody. And the "good" scenario is them ending up hospitalized, which really isn't much better. I work in nursing, but I will never, ever work in psychiatric nursing because the way psychotics get treated in psych hospitals? I could not see that every day. I could not be part of that system. And there's no way I'd have any leverage to change that system. Psychotics get forcibly medicated, restrained, treated like weirdos and pariahs by the other patients... And then thrown right back out. Why are there a bunch of homeless schizophrenics? Well obviously it's pretty damn impossible to hold a job when in active psychosis, but also, how are you supposed to keep getting your meds or get any lasting therapy when after you get out of the hospital, you're going right back to living on the streets?

2. If someone says stuff that seems delusional, do not fact check them (unless they explicitly ask you to). It will not work. It will just distress them and make them double down. The correct approach is to very slowly nudge them out of it until they realize for themselves what was a delusion, but that's not your job. That's for their therapist to do. Don't encourage them either, though. If you can change the subject, that's the best approach.

3. There's this image that all psychotics need to be medicated, because obviously therapy wouldn't work because they're completely irrational. Medication actually doesn't help 25% of schizophrenics, and therapy is generally way more effective. The problem with that being that you know who else thinks of psychosis as a "just throw drugs at it" issue? Lots and lots of psych professionals. And a whole bunch also just don't know what to do with us. Or they don't want to deal with us, because it's hard. As someone in the medical field Therapy is super useful, though. The standard approach is CBT for psychosis (which personally I had a terrible time with. DBT ended up being my magic bullet). Fun fact: my old psychiatrist is currently doing a study on controlling voice hearing yourself. Basically, you can stop hearing voices by telling them to shut up and fuck off. I'm unconventional as far as schizophrenia symptoms go, so I never really had much voice hearing, but I did for a brief period of time and that's how I got it to go away. Learning how to reality check yourself is the most effective way to deal with psychosis.

3. a. Back on meds, for me personally, anti psychotics did help with my dissociation, but did nothing for my hallucinations and delusions. I'm not on them anymore. We found that an ADHD med actually worked really well for my dissociation, interestingly enough. Anti psychotics also have awful side effects. Schizophrenia is not fun, but the worst thing I've ever experienced wasn't schizophrenia at all. It was akathisia, which is a side effect of anti psychotics. It's restlessness to the absolute maximum. You can't concentrate, you can't think, you can't sit still, you can't sleep. Your heart feels like it's burning a hole in your chest. It is hell.

4. Schizophrenia is actually neurodevelopmental. Our brains look different than other brains. I know personally, I have always had delusional thought processes. It's just that as a kid, I was fixating on, say, the fact that I just could not leave this party right now or that for some reason it was a huge deal that the teacher didn't call on me. So no one thought it was delusions. But now that I've been overtly delusional? The thought process is exactly the same. It's like you're wearing blinders. The world flattens out to 2D and you just can't see the truth. And then when you do realize it, you feel like an absolute idiot for letting it go on for so long. That's true now, and it was true when I was freaking out about dance recitals as a kid.

5. Let's talk about the absolute worst psychotic symptom you've never heard of: disorganized thinking. It's what it sounds like. It's like your brain and thoughts are a deck of cards that are constantly being shuffled. You lose your train of thought. You forget what it is you're doing. I know when my disorganized thinking was a lot worse (those ADHD meds have also helped a ton with that, thank God) I would just get trapped scrolling my phone because I couldn't keep a train of thought for long enough to decide to do something else. Or rather, I'd decide to do something, and then forget about it before I could, over and over. For people who aren't me, it will also manifest as disorganized speech, where you know what you're saying in your head but complete gibberish comes out of your mouth instead. A thing people do not talk about enough is how much schizophrenia absolutely destroys your ability to think. Between disorganized thinking and dissociation (and God, my dissociation is terrible... And this is with it medicated down to levels where I can actually function) sometimes my brain is just absolutely useless to me.

That's probably enough for now? I could keep going for hours, but I think that's a lot of really good information. Truly give me an inch and I'll run a mile

[yorkiegregg]

Life is just.. interesting.

I don’t know what’s happening exactly, but I think it is mainly just to deal with me hitting that peak age-phase where - for most - Schizophrenia develops. And therefore my Psychosis has gotten to a very explicit, recognizable type of high. I think I’ve always had some flavor of Psychotic-related symptoms - but I think if it were to be compared it’d be related to things like Psychosis in mood disorders and in Schizotypal. And I used to have the mood symptoms that INDICATED Psychosis, and whilst I did always experience hallucinations & magical thinking/later delusions to some degree they were never really intertwined as heavily as they are now. Which then leads to my point of how my Psychosis has gotten worse in a much more tremendous manner.

It’s hard to word things and it’s even harder to be coherent, but like… right when I hit the big 16 I immediately seemed to feel different in a way that I’ve never completely felt before. I’ve felt different for Autism reasonings my whole life sure, but when I’ve hit this age I realized that my differences had an emphasis on how my reality, my life, is completely different and seemingly broken to only myself. Of course Autism can and will give off this same experience, but with Autism not being a psychotic disorder (or anything with psychotic features) it never delved into being FUNDAMENTALLY different. I realized at 16 that I am different because no one will ever live like me and has lived like me because my reality ascends possibility. Autism = yeah I’m different but there’s still people like me, Psychosis = what I am is not even real, and by nature’s standard I was never supposed to be here. That’s how I’d describe this feeling.

It’s just… my whole life I’ve felt wrong, and now that my Psychosis has shifted into full gear and that, if this even makes any sense: my Schizophrenia has gone into “full developmental stage”… it has left me with a feeling of just being in a completely different room, no, a completely different building than everyone else I’ve ever met or been around. It’s just such a weird feeling to recognize this to some extent and to feel it all.

[nikshahxai]

5-HT2 Receptors in Psychosis, Hallucinations, and Antipsychotic Mechanisms by Nik Shah

Psychosis, a mental condition characterized by distorted thinking, hallucinations, and loss of touch with reality, is a major symptom of several psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and severe depression. One of the key players in the pathophysiology of psychosis is the serotonin (5-HT) system, particularly the 5-HT2 receptor family. This group of receptors, which includes the 5-HT2A, 5-HT2B, and 5-HT2C subtypes, has a crucial role in regulating mood, cognition, perception, and behavior. Dysfunction in these receptors can lead to the development of psychotic symptoms, such as hallucinations and delusions.

Understanding how the 5-HT2 receptors influence psychosis and the mechanisms through which antipsychotic drugs target these receptors is essential for developing more effective treatments for psychotic disorders. In this article, we will explore the role of 5-HT2 receptors in psychosis, hallucinations, and antipsychotic mechanisms. Additionally, we will highlight insights from Nik Shah, a leading expert in serotonin research, whose work has significantly contributed to our understanding of the 5-HT2 receptor system and its therapeutic implications.

The Role of 5-HT2 Receptors in Psychosis

The 5-HT2 receptor family is a group of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that play a key role in the modulation of serotonin signaling in the brain. The 5-HT2A receptor, in particular, has been extensively studied for its involvement in the regulation of mood, cognition, and perception. Dysregulation of serotonin signaling through the 5-HT2A receptor has been implicated in a variety of psychiatric disorders, including psychosis.

In Mastering Serotonin: C₁₀H₁₂N₂O, Nik Shah explores the chemical properties of serotonin and its interaction with the 5-HT2 receptor family, particularly the 5-HT2A receptor. Shah emphasizes that serotonin's activation of the 5-HT2A receptor plays a significant role in emotional regulation, sensory perception, and cognition. Abnormalities in the function of this receptor are linked to hallucinations, delusions, and other symptoms of psychosis.

The 5-HT2A receptor is densely concentrated in the cerebral cortex, which is involved in higher cognitive functions such as thinking, planning, and perceiving reality. When serotonin binds to the 5-HT2A receptor, it triggers signaling cascades that influence neuronal activity, neurotransmitter release, and synaptic plasticity. Dysregulation in the activation of the 5-HT2A receptor can result in alterations in sensory perception, leading to hallucinations—a hallmark symptom of psychotic disorders.

Hallucinations and the 5-HT2A Receptor

Hallucinations, particularly visual and auditory, are a core symptom of psychosis and are thought to be mediated by alterations in serotonin signaling. The 5-HT2A receptor has a direct role in modulating sensory processing, which is crucial for the perception of reality. When serotonin binds to the 5-HT2A receptor, it affects sensory perception and can lead to the distortion of reality, resulting in hallucinations.

Hallucinogenic drugs like LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) and psilocybin (the active compound in magic mushrooms) exert their effects primarily through the activation of the 5-HT2A receptor. These substances induce vivid hallucinations, altered thinking, and sensory distortions by overstimulating the 5-HT2A receptor. While these substances have therapeutic potential in certain contexts (e.g., for the treatment of depression), their ability to induce hallucinations underscores the importance of the 5-HT2A receptor in mediating perceptual disturbances associated with psychosis.

In Serotonin: From 5-HTP to Happiness, Nik Shah explains how serotonin is synthesized from the amino acid tryptophan and its subsequent effects on brain function, including its role in mood regulation and perception. Shah’s research sheds light on how the overstimulation or dysfunction of the 5-HT2A receptor can lead to the distortion of sensory input and contribute to the development of hallucinations.

Antipsychotic Mechanisms: Targeting 5-HT2 Receptors

Given the critical role of the 5-HT2A receptor in psychosis and hallucinations, it is not surprising that antipsychotic medications often target this receptor to alleviate symptoms. Antipsychotic drugs are primarily classified into two categories: typical (first-generation) and atypical (second-generation) antipsychotics. Atypical antipsychotics are known to have a more favorable side effect profile and are widely used in the treatment of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.

Nik Shah discusses the mechanisms by which serotonin receptor agonists and antagonists influence serotonin signaling in Serotonin Receptor Agonist: Mastering Mood Regulation and Cognitive Performance. Shah highlights that many atypical antipsychotics act as antagonists at the 5-HT2A receptor, which helps reduce the hyperactivity of serotonin in certain brain regions. By blocking the 5-HT2A receptor, these drugs help restore the balance of serotonin signaling, preventing the overstimulation of sensory processing pathways and thereby alleviating hallucinations and other symptoms of psychosis.

The Role of 5-HT2C Receptors in Antipsychotic Drug Action

In addition to the 5-HT2A receptor, the 5-HT2C receptor also plays a significant role in the effectiveness of antipsychotic medications. The 5-HT2C receptor is involved in regulating serotonin levels in the brain, particularly in the hypothalamus, which controls appetite and satiety. Antipsychotic drugs that target the 5-HT2C receptor can help modulate serotonin signaling to reduce the side effects associated with other treatments.

Atypical antipsychotics often act as antagonists at the 5-HT2C receptor, which helps to regulate serotonin levels and reduce side effects like weight gain and metabolic disturbances. In Mastering L-Dopa and Tryptophan: Unlocking Dopamine and Serotonin Pathways for Mental Health and Performance, Nik Shah explores how the balance of serotonin and dopamine is crucial for regulating mood, cognition, and behavior. Shah discusses how the modulation of serotonin receptors, including 5-HT2C, can enhance the therapeutic efficacy of antipsychotic medications while minimizing adverse effects.

The Development of Novel Antipsychotic Drugs Targeting 5-HT2 Receptors

The growing understanding of the 5-HT2 receptor family’s role in psychosis has paved the way for the development of novel antipsychotic drugs that target these receptors more selectively. Traditional antipsychotic drugs often have significant side effects, including sedation, weight gain, and extrapyramidal symptoms (movement disorders). Newer antipsychotic medications that specifically target 5-HT2A and 5-HT2C receptors hold promise for improving the efficacy and safety of psychotic disorder treatments.

In Serotonin Receptor Antagonist: Serotonin Blockers, Nik Shah provides an overview of how serotonin receptor antagonists can be utilized in treating conditions associated with serotonin dysfunction, including schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. By blocking the overactivation of serotonin receptors like 5-HT2A, these drugs help reduce symptoms of psychosis without causing the significant side effects seen with older medications.

Future Directions in 5-HT2 Receptor Research

The potential for 5-HT2 receptor modulation in the treatment of psychosis and other psychiatric disorders is vast. Ongoing research continues to explore new ways to target these receptors, not only to alleviate the core symptoms of psychosis but also to improve cognitive function and quality of life for individuals affected by these conditions. Nik Shah's research into serotonin signaling, including his work on serotonin pathways and receptor modulation, continues to provide valuable insights into the development of more effective and targeted therapies.

In Neuroscience Mastered: Harnessing Neuroplasticity, Serotonin, and Cognitive Advancement, Nik Shah discusses the broader implications of serotonin receptor modulation for improving cognitive function and promoting neuroplasticity. By understanding how the 5-HT2 receptors influence not only mood and behavior but also cognition, researchers can develop therapies that address a wide range of psychiatric and neurological disorders.

Conclusion: Enhancing Psychotic Disorder Treatments Through 5-HT2 Receptor Modulation

The 5-HT2 receptor family plays a critical role in the regulation of mood, cognition, and behavior, and dysfunction in these receptors is a major contributor to the development of psychosis and hallucinations. By targeting the 5-HT2A and 5-HT2C receptors, antipsychotic medications can help restore serotonin balance, alleviate symptoms of psychosis, and improve overall mental health. Through the work of Nik Shah, our understanding of serotonin receptor modulation continues to grow, offering hope for more effective and targeted treatments for psychotic disorders.

As research into serotonin signaling and the role of the 5-HT2 receptors continues to evolve, we can expect new therapies that more precisely modulate these pathways, improving the quality of life for individuals with psychiatric conditions and enhancing the overall outcomes of psychotic disorder treatments.

Explore More

Life Sciences & Health

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The Role of Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase in Vascular Health

What Is Soluble Guanylyl Cyclase? A Detailed Overview

Serotonin: Unraveling the Complex Web of Neurotransmission

The Crucial Role of Glutamate in Brain Health and Function

Oxytocin and Its Link to Neuropsychiatric Disorders

The Role of 5-HT2 Receptors in Psychosis and Mental Health

Contributing Authors

Nanthaphon Yingyongsuk, Sean Shah, Gulab Mirchandani, Darshan Shah, Rushil Shah, Kranti Shah, John DeMinico, Rajeev Chabria, Francis Wesley, Sony Shah, Dilip Mirchandani, Nattanai Yingyongsuk, Subun Yingyongsuk, Theeraphat Yingyongsuk, and Saksid Yingyongsuk

References

Websites

Shah, N. (2025). Mental Health and Wellness. Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@nikshahxai/nik-shahs-integrated-blueprint-for-neurochemical-and-emotional-mastery-unlocking-dopamine-b53f3cf467c4

Shah, N. (2025). Mental Health and Well-being. Wix Studio. Retrieved from https://nikshahxai.wixstudio.com/nikhil/nik-shah-mental-health-and-well-being-wix-studio

Books

Shah, S. (2025). The King of the Universe: Divine Majesty and Sovereignty. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_King_of_the_Universe/VyTw0AEACAAJ?hl=en. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_King_of_the_Universe/VyTw0AEACAAJ?hl=en

Shah, S. (2025). The King of the Universe: Divine Majesty and Sovereignty. AbeBooks. Retrieved from https://www.abebooks.com/9798340357199/King-Universe-Divine-Majesty-Cosmic/plp

Shah, S. (2025). The King of the Universe: Divine Majesty and Sovereignty. AbeBooks. Retrieved from https://www.abebooks.com/9798340357199/King-Universe-Paperback-Nikhil-Pankaj/plp