I want to add to the post I just reblogged about delusions and how to help people with them, but op was specifically schizophrenic, and the last time I tried to share a related story on a post like that, a different OP got extremely angry that I didn't have an identical disorder to them and accused me of derailing, so I'm making a new post.

I have severe anxiety. The things you can believe when you are going through an acute anxiety attack or panic attack can be so extreme they can be classified as delusions. I've been convinced I poisoned myself, I've been convinced I had rabies, I've been convinced a building was going to burn down, I've been convinced my blood was full of bug eggs that were going to hatch and kill me.

Doctors and family members who have helped me the most were people who took those fears seriously, who examined me no matter how irrational my fear was, and who told me why, based on what they observed, my fears were unlikely to be true.

Instead of "you can't possibly have rabies", it was "the dog is vaccinated, so it can't have rabies, and the skin where it nipped you is not broken."

Instead of "Of course your blood isn't full of bug eggs" it was "bug eggs would have hatched by now" which was so coldly logical it completely snapped me out of my panic.

Instead of "I'm sure you didn't poison yourself", the doctor looked at the bug spray and the ingredients and listened to how I used it and said "based on your exposure, you haven't been poisoned".

Autistics deserve time to recharge from social situations

Spoonies deserve time to recharge from social situations

Anxious people deserve time to recharge from social situations

Does anyone need time to recharge from social situations? Give them their time. We need it

Professors, bosses and parents will see you having a panic attack and really just be like "Could we maybe not do this on a weekday? It's really easier for everyone if you save your mental breakdowns for the weekend."

going grocery shopping by yourself is a form of torture

“You’re too available, you’re too giving, too understanding and too trusting. Your good heart makes you a target for those who deceive, take, envy, gossip and lie.”

It’s not about limiting your kindness, it’s about having strict boundaries and setting them when needed and being loyal to your boundaries.

Toxic and abusive people will see you being loyal to your boundaries as disrespect to them, as being unkind to them. You’re not being unkind or insensitive, you’re loving yourself loudly and confidently as you should.

Autism & Anxiety

Mrs Speechie P

Watching my adult acquaintances have the same uncomfortable realizations I had at 12-ish because of my anxiety disorder:

idk who needs to hear this but you *can* relate to someone’s struggles with a specific disorder without having said disorders

it’s honestly one of my biggest frustrations when you’re venting about a disorder you have or see people talking about it online and then you see people chime in “omg I didn’t think I had this but I relate to this so I have it!” and i don’t mean those people who have genuine concerns about having a specific disorder. (fyi, if you have genuine concerns regarding a specific disorder you may have, this isn’t about you!! it’s perfectly valid to stumble upon a disorder you didn’t know existed that explains your situation perfectly and have questions about it <3)

i’ll use this as an example but if someone is currently struggling through cancer and they vent to you about extreme exhaustion and fatigue, most people wouldn’t be like “omg I feel exhausted and fatigued too!! i must have cancer!” but would probably say something along the lines of “ive struggled through exhaustion and fatigue myself due to other reasons so i can understand what you’re going through and how you feel.” it’s okay to have questions about disorders and want to know more to maybe better situations you’re going through/ are in but just seeing one thing you relate to and claiming a whole disorder because of it can be very damaging to the people who have said disorders.

as someone with a cluster b personality disorder, there’s already so much stigma around them and that’s excluding all my other disorders/ problems. i’ve seen people who have no idea what BPD is, relate to a small portion of it, claim it as something they have with no research into it or professional advice, and then unknowingly play into stereotypes or spread more stigma about it. there’s so much more to a disorder than one or two things you see someone posting about. there’s also a lot of other things someone could have that also change how disorders present themselves in different people.

a person can have disorder A and vent about it but what you don’t know is that they also have disorder B, C, D, and E. although their main post is about disorder A, disorder C, D and E can also be big factors in it without you knowing. you might be relating more to the disorder C and E aspect of it over the “main” disorder A part of it than you really realize.

the purpose of me saying all this is not to be hateful, “gatekeep”, discourage people who genuinely have concerns, want to participate in genuine conversations about these topics, or for any other malicious reason. im just coming at this as a person to who’s genuinely really exhausted. it’s already so hard living with certain disorders and then you see people online who glorify, romanticize, or even fetishize certain disorders while cause harm to those people who genuinely suffer from it.

i stumbled upon someone’s post on a different platform and her whole shtick was “i have BPD but I’m uber normal abt it and not bat shit insane like literally everyone else who has it + having FPs is totally amazing and not super draining and exhausting” and it was honestly heartbreaking. her whole reasoning for having bpd was that she got obsessive over people she was in love with so therefore it was her FPs and got depressed if they didn’t spend time with her.

if you’re genuinely curious and have real concerns, please do your hardest to research it and/ or seek professional advice if possible. don’t put others who have the disorder down when they don’t meet or work with your agenda. thank you.

my anxiety is crippling, in those words exactly. and if that's a problem, well, you can fucking die mad about it.

the line between "mental" and "physical" illness isn't a line at all. my anxiety and POTS both cause heart palpitations, tachycardia, high blood pressure, light-headedness, hyperventilation, panic, fatigue, brian fog, and more. both of them disable me, physically and mentally!

why is only one of those allowed to be crippling? why on earth would i let ableism and sanism decide what i call my own illness? get real.

This post exempts you from any and all “If you don’t ___ this, ____ will happen.” You are hereby immune to it all. You are now protected! Be free!

Just because you can push yourself through the hard stressful painful thing, it doesn't always mean you should have to.

It's okay to rest. It's okay to look out for yourself. It's okay to give yourself the attention and boundaries you need.

Because you shouldn't have to push yourself until exhaustion, and you shouldn't have to suffer just because other people think you should.

You are important. You have value. You deserve good things.

Please believe me; you deserve good things.

they tell you to reach out for help, then people just get mad at you when you do.

i think i am. i am imagining all my loved ones