Just so we’re all clear: psychosis is a relatively common human experience. Psychosis is a state of mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not. Anyone can experience psychosis given the right conditions, such as: lack of sleep, stress, sustance abuse, falling asleep/waking up, recent death of a loved one, etc.
Being psychotic is when you have a mental health condition that causes ongoing episodes of psychosis. If you hallucinate once or twice then you are not psychotic. Everyone experiences psychosis differently, you don’t have to hallucinate to be psychotic you can also experience delusions. Some psychotic people are constantly experiencing psychosis, some have random episodes, some have specific triggers, some have psychosis when experiencing negative emotions or other mental illness symptoms. Some psychotic people know when they are hallucinating/experiencing delusions, some do not, some have a mixture of believing their symptoms are real or not. Not all psychotic people are schizophrenic, psychosis can occur in lots of different mental illnesses like bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, schizotypical personality disorder, schizoid personality disorder, paranoid personality disorder, PTSD, depression and many more. You likely know a psychotic person, you interact with psychotic people everyday. We are not some vague other, we are your friends, your family, your classmates, your teachers, your coworkers, the cashier at the grocery store, the repairman fixing your car, the receptionist answering your phone calls. You often can’t tell someone’s psychotic by looking at them. All psychotic people deserve to be taken seriously.
Psychotic people have a very different experience than yours, in more ways than you’d think. Please listen to us and take our experiences seriously. We experience a unique type of ableism in all aspects of life. Never ever call the police on a psychotic person. Never ever get angry at someone expressing their symptoms or try to force them to see reality from your perspective. Never ever deny someone their basic autonomy due to their psychosis. We are still humans deserving of respect.
& Never ever call emergency health services on a psychotic person unless (1) the psychotic person told you to do so while they were capable of making that call ad (2) you know for a fact with 100% certainty that those health services will never bring the cops with them, never institutionalize the person and never force medication on them.
Just because someone is psychotic doesn’t mean they are a criminal or have any intention of hurting anyone.
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ifesbob 