I’ve seen many, many posts online now about people explaining what they wished others knew about clinical anxiety or depression, and I just watched a video where a deaf person explained things they wished hearing people understood but I’ve never seen one for psychotic disorders.
It got me thinking. What do you wish other people understood about your disorder?
A few thoughts of mine
-Telling someone with psychosis what they are experiencing isn’t real doesn’t make it any less terrifying or unpleasant, even if the person is lucky enough to be aware it is their psychosis
-Making fun of beliefs is incredibly offensive, even if something seems an obvious delusion to others it can be incredibly serious to whoever has those beliefs (Still remember the first psychiatrist I ever saw, I was attempting to explain to her my experiences of talking with entities telepathically and asked if she knew what telepathy was, she laughed and said no but maybe the CIA would-I was absolutely fuming)
-Respect that people with psychosis struggle with experiencing a reality that is completely their own, it can be extremely alienating as well as confusing to discern which reality is the real one. People without psychotic disorders generally do not understand the sheer difficulty of rejecting the psychotic reality when it presents with tons of evidence that it is true to the person who is experiencing it.
Anyways I could go on but those are some main points for me
I wish normal people could understand that I’m not stupid for being scatterbrained. It’s hard to focus when you’ve got voices talking in your head at you 24/7 and still having to focus on what everyone around you is trying to tell you
I wish they could understand that it takes more than a positive attitude to deal with the screams of your family members being slowly tortured all night long. I mean, a positive attitude is important, but it’s not enough on its own.
I wish people understood that it is a brain chemistry thing. Meds can help but that isn’t (often) a cure-all. I agree with Anna that I wish they understood that false beliefs are very real to the person that has them and be respectful of that. I have been VERY lucky that people, for the most part, (except one D-Bag Pdoc) have been kind, respectful and understanding that my delusion is very real to me.
That it’s not linear…it comes and goes, sometimes a lot, other times a little.
and My IQ doesn’t dip below zero, nor am I deaf, so stop talking so darn loud and slow, that just draws unwanted attention to an already bad situation.
It helps to use not so many words though…and also, don’t give me a choice if I don’t really have one.
I only read the above post. It’s like not having arms but people want you to lift weights. It happens. It happened to me all life. What a misery. Beaten, threatened, insulted etc…
I wish people could understand that schizophrenia is generally no more shocking/terrifying/dangerous than ASD. Certainly it may be for the person diagnosed, but not for society. I wish sz got the same compassion and support as ASD does. (The two disorders are akin to each other after all)
It’s harder than it looks to be schizophrenic. And 90% of the things that are easy for them and that they take for granted are nearly impossible for us. We are people . We have real feelings which get hurt, we are just like you. We are people with a disease that is not our fault, but first and foremost, we are people.