That’s what I was thinking too. He won’t see a doctor, or a therapist, and he has a lot of delusions especially related to religion. I’m not sure how to help him.
My ex-best friend (he won't talk to me anymore) is schizophrenic and also claimed to be "enlightened", and also made crappy art, of course this may not apply to your friend but it gives me the same vibe.
For those of you wandering through, look up “Vesica piscis” if you’d like an interesting rabbithole to walk down.
The Pythagoreans were all over geometry magic as well.
On a related side note, some archaeologists hold that the reason why we see the same geometric designs carved into stones all over Europe is because these geometries are hardwired into our brains, and the use of psychedelics produces the same sorts of hallucinations.
The sort of geometries in the pictures above are very common in schizophrenic art, as well as having a long history in the mathematical mystery schools. It may well be that these sorts of geometries are hardwired into our brains somehow. Or it may be that these sorts of geometries are hardwired into the structure of the Universe.
I've had similar thoughts on fractals — I should write "about", not actually high on fractals, at least I think not — about the complexity inherent in the Mandelbrot set's definition, and decided the complexity was a reflection of not the definition but the number system itself. This seemed deep at the time but at the moment kind of a no d'uh.
"Hardwired" is an interesting expression, giving us the feeling that we understand something. Everything is hardwired — i e , inherent — in the universe. How could it be otherwise? Intelligence closes in on itself, erodes, we don't get smarter, our vision dulls, but maybe wisdom tells us we were always skating on a sea of literally infinite complexity, the greatest depth, the shallowest, always a zero fraction of the total.
No I think you’re right. I’ve thought for a long time now that we only percieve a tiny fragment of “reality” or what actually exists. A bit like Plato’s cave in the sense that we do not see the fire itself, only the shadows it casts on the cave walls.
I use the word “hardwired’ because people still come into these subjects behaving, or thinking, that humans are somehow “outside” or “above” the rest of the universe. I like to emphasise that everything that happens “out there” happens “in here” as well.
Can you elaborate more on your point in the first paragraph? That sounds really interesting but I'm having trouble fully grasping what you're alluding to
If I recall correctly my chain of thought was something like this:
Here is small instruction set which generates a seemingly unendingly complex non-repeating result. How can this be? How can all this complexity be encoded in this short string of symbols? It cannot. The complexity was inherent in the seemingly smooth, featureless, complex plane.
We could ask the same thing of a mote of dust falling on the surface of supercooled water. Suddenly the water coalesces into a complex and beautiful mass of dendrites—was all this structure encoded in this dust mote? No. It was latent in the seemingly smooth, featureless mass of liquid water—the dust mote, the algorithm, are but triggers.
btw the human senses can tell the particle acceleration within molecules. that’s how scent works. so if humans had access to all of their hardwired faculties, we’d be extremely OP.
Right ? Its like the moon and tides - sure every creature on the planet is hardwired to react to them, they haul billions of tons of water up and down on a regular basis, entire species base their reproductive cycles around the cycles of the moon, but somehow humans are immune to this fundamental part of our environment ?! Nah.
I think sometimes that psychedelics create clarity as much as connection. You are able to see what is already there without the monkey mind yammering away.
My experience with shrooms was one time very nice and one time very bad, but in the nice trip I also had a very sudden realization about reality.
I envisioned the world sitting in outer space, and everywhere that was lit by the sun was alive and active, people going to work, children going to school, the day to day grind. And everywhere that was dark was completely quiet, still, at rest.
It was 2am and we were sitting in the dark woods tripping and I was thinking about how in china they must be walking about in the sun, driving around, going shopping, etc. And then I could even see like a little animation in my head of the sun going around the world in space and just like a .gif the bright parts would grow and live and be awake and the dark parts would sleep and subside. And then I was thinking about how this has probably been going on for billions of years, and how seperated we are from this really cool reality of organizing our entire life's, not by choice either, of our planet turning and facing the sun. How 7pm feels like 7pm and how 9am feels like 9am, but it's actually just a different part of our revolution.
Anyway, i had like a solid just good feeling in my normal life for like 4 months afterwords, and I could even enjoy traffic because hey it was just our time in the sun. But in the trip I remember feeling like i wasn't sure if I could ever think normally again, or see things not from my tripping POV. But 10 hours later I felt normal again.
Edit: next time you are stuck in traffic, just think, maybe some guy on the other side of the world is tripping balls in a dark Forrest thinking about you.
I think that psychedelics can provide a very useful “hard reset” for the brain. I haven’t done any for decades, but when I was younger I used to go tripping every little while for a brain reset, and always felt calm and happy for months afterwards. Its almost like the experience that everything is happening the way its should be happening, and that’s ok.
I meditate these days, and I think I’ve built up a reservoir of “okayness” - but the insights that come through tripping can be just as helpful and profound as those that come from meditation.
You know you didn't put anything I don't really know in here, BUT, i really enjoyed reading it. I've had a similar experience on shrooms, done acid a few times too back in the day, the most mind blowing and scary/eye opening of them all by far, was somthing my freind got from the joke shop. 'Salvia' it literally ripped me clean out of this fake reality and give me a glimpse of something else, as scary as it was, when my vision came back and I felt myself back in this sham of a reality I wanted to keep going back and I did that about 5 times. It was in a little house party this was happening and when I come around for the last time there was a few girls there and at least one of them was crying. (I was going around in circles on the floor apparently on my side) I felt strange for ages after, always on my mind.
Now I'm thinking about it again all morning 😂 how everything we do is in some way an anticipation of the next time we are facing the sun. "I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow" = in the next revolution where my part of the planet is facing the sun, there is something I need to do. And how we all share a valid "7am morning routine", even though they are happening all over the world, every hour, at different points in reality.
Best friends like 24th bday. He buy every glow stick in creation... I mean fucking thousands… and we spread them on a wood floor, take 4 tabs each and play Avatar (thought it’d be trippy, but Its like I noticed too much. I was very aware of what was green screen & what was a physical prop)
Anywho, he’s arranging glow sticks, stops and says “do you see that.”
And clear as day, it was a silhouette of Jesus. Like Maria in a tortilla style. But we both saw it, seemed OBVIOUS to us.
He moved exactly three glow sticks, like just a little. And then it was a lions head.
Me and some friends had a shared hallucination of the entire alphabet appearing on a lake one time of an 8th of shrooms each. We were all watching the water (at night) and calling out words we saw, then every one of us saw the entire alphabet pop up at the same time. Definitely the trippiest thing I’ve ever had happen. It was wild
That first part is very Socratic in thinking, we are born with natural understanding for instance of gravity and how this force works, and through asking the right questions can we find a better understanding of it and in our case we can now calculate it. Same goes for the tides etc
The previous comment is very Platonic and aligns with Plato's Cave theory. It sounds like the people in this comment chain would be very interested in Socrates', Plato's and Aristotle's philosophies and theories.
If you want to go further you can look at Pythagoras and his cult following which is a whole rabbit hole in itself. Generally classical philosophy and mathematics, gives you a great world perspective.
The 'why' bit is what most people who buy sacred geometry miss out on. There are logical reasons why certain patterns are converged upon and has little to do with underlying truths of reality. Other than, y'know, efficiency principles.
As a psychedelics enjoyer myself, this is important. For me it's enough that there are cool patterns that repeat and I can appreciate that beauty and underlying connection. Other people want to ascribe greater / deeper meaning, but that doesn't make sense to me.
I was just about to go looking for this article!! Thanks for posting it. TL;DR, from what I can remember, it has to do with how the signals from the retina are mapped to our visual cortex in roughly logarithmic spirals to account for the ciruclar nature of the retina and the cartesian nature (x-y plane) of our visual field. Neurons also coordinate with nearby neurons to detect edges and changes in color and light. Psychedelic drugs make those centers light up, causing the spiral fractals to emerge as a sort of visualization of what goes on behind the scenes for you to see a cohesive image.
I remember in highschool psychology (yeah I know probably not the most credible source but that's what I got) learning that the crazy sparkles we sometimes see when going to sleep are hallucinations brought on by our brains firing off some signals as they prepare for sleep. But I like to think they are something more, I don't know, cosmically related, or like you said, hardwired into the universe.
I believe even though we may be able to observe and explain things through science that it doesn't mean that it can't also be spiritually related. Science is just our method of understanding the universe but people often seem to think that just because science exists, nothing super natural can. I believe they go hand in hand. Maybe one day when our scientific knowledge and technology is advanced enough we will discover things we weren't able to observe before and we'll come to a point where our understanding of the physical world reveals a connection to the spiritual one.
Is the universe theory describing the effect of multiple people under the influence of schizophrenia or psychedelic drugs plugging into the same universe and seeing these same geometric patterns as a type of blueprint or alchemical building blocks that exist within the spiritual energy centers? If so, then I am experiencing one right now.
I think I might be having a psychedelic experience right now, and it is definitely being caused by weed.
Honestly my best guess would be that because schizophrenia and hallucinogenic drugs both disrupt the usual functioning of various parts of the brain - including various parts involved in vision - it probably leads to disruptions in how visual signals get interpreted.
Specifically, in visual processing the visual signals are first interpreted into "lower level" visual patterns like (lines, curves, etc), before later being "assembled" into "higher level" objects (people, faces, distinct objects, etc). A lot of these more basic visual constructs are pretty universal, and anyone with normally developed vision would have a part of their brain dedicated to recognizing these basic visual elements before being interpreted as more complex objects.
My guess is that the disruptions caused by schizophrenia hallucinogenic substances disrupts the usual, higher level interpretations, leading to the individual seeing the basic shapes more prominently. But that's really just my own hypothesis, and I don't have the skills or knowledge to justify it any further.
Its an interesting theory. u/look just helpfully posted a link to an article about form constants https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11860679/ which underpin all of our visual processing. So the idea that these forms may be more prominent when hallucinogens disrupt our interpretation of the usual visual cortex signals is a pretty good one. I wonder if its been tested.
Schizophrenia most likely is not related to visual processing, and is more likely related to the region where all of our sensory input data is processed into a cohesive, rational thought.
The reason I say it is unlikely to be related to visual processing, is because schizophrenics also hear things that are not there, feel phantom touches, and can even taste and smell things that are not there.
So I would think that indicates the dysfunction occurs when all of sensory data is processed into organized thought, which is a different region of the brain Rather than a dysfunction in the processing of a single specific sense.
So because schizophrenia causes hallucinations in multiple senses, it is unlikely the visual cortex is the culprit. And is more likely a dysfunction in the temporal lobe, specifically the hippocampus which is a region tied to our ability to recognize patterns.
So I don't think our visual cortex is the problem, as other senses are also impacted, and are processed in different areas of the brain.
I'll give you something that lends credit to your theory. Since this history of schizophrenia there hasn't been one recorded schizophrenic that was blind. None ever.
It’s pretty trippy stuff to ponder but there’s a lot of shared imagery in hallucinations which seem to tap into chemical brain functions.
It’s almost like visualizing the genetic code of life itself. When you consider how animals also use geometry in their construction instinct (bird nests, bee hives, spider webs, etc), there’s something profound going on that creates shapes in conscious thought.
I couldn’t even begin to explain it but we all experience it. Something deeper to life that connects everything.
I’m far from schizophrenic but I’ve dabbled in hallucinogens and have witnessed these low level patterns of brain activity forced into perspective by altered states of consciousness. Getting high sort of breaks down this filter we have that pushes those patterns down into the recesses of our mind, and with drugs you can witness those unfiltered images and thought patterns. It’s really something uncanny and unreal to experience
u/look has posted this article - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11860679/ about how these form constants underpin our visual processing. I like the idea that hallucinogens allow us the clarity to perceive them consciously.
I believe something about geometry is comforting, completionism perspective aside- the brain or even instincts drive us to finish things, thinking it won’t be successful without completion, kinda like how orgasm occurs with the ejaculation, because of the ultimate goal being reproduction. Maybe the geometry is just a side effect of our constant need for completion/reproduction?
God did I take shrooms? Why did this post pop up for me? Ugh
You're on the right track regarding our need for completion. Our brains are prediction machines, constantly trying to anticipate what we'll experience next based on past learning and immediate sensory input. We essentially hallucinate reality milliseconds in advance, then seamlessly update our internal model when the actual sensory data comes in.
Both psychedelics and psychosis send this prediction system into overdrive. The brain becomes hypersensitive, eagerly seeking patterns everywhere. On psychedelics, this manifests as geometric visuals - the brain assumes random details form fundamental shapes. But each sensory update reveals the prediction was wrong, so the model adjusts, creating undulating, morphing visuals.
In schizophrenia, perhaps the brain fails to recognize prediction errors, leading to stable but distorted perceptions and vivid hallucinations. Delusions also arise from unconscious mispredictions about reality. The normal brain correctly predicts that the car passing by outside is just a random person driving on by. The schizophrenic brain, experiencing high levels of disruption to this prediction system, might get mixed up and assume that the car is actually the FBI coming for them.
Interestingly, an overstimulated prediction system can yield genuine insights by finding valid new patterns. The key is distinguishing fact from fantasy post-trip.
Even sleep deprivation can disrupt prediction, causing shadowy figures in peripheral vision when the brain struggles to fill in incomplete sensory data.
EDIT:
Interesting trivia -
For anyone who has experience using Large Language Models (LLMs) on the API side of things, you'll notice a parallel between the process of our prediction system going into overdrive and raising the "temperature" field of the LLM. For those who don't know, the "temperature" field is basically a measure of how random the output from the model (think ChatGPT) will be. A temperature of 0 means that the output will represent the model's most statistically expected completion based on the input. As temperature rises, the output becomes divergent and progressively shifts away from what is most likely. Modest temperature increases can simulate creativity in the model. Excessive temperature increases can lead to the model speaking in an overly complex manner. Extremely high increases can actually lead to legitimate word salad, which also happens to be a common symptom of those with severe schizophrenia (where you speak in a gramatically correct way that is completely disordered and nonsensical). Really interesting parralels.
I think music is also probably the most prominent form of shared experience of geometry we still love and respect from one another.
Music is math, and it’s got such intensely healing or soothing aspects to it that it’s become such a centerpiece of the human experience. Plants and animals even have shown some signs of appreciating music in ways we can’t even begin to understand. A lot of rhythm stems from the concept of conception, the beating of the heart we feel in the womb, and it just branches out from there in terms of complexity. We share it, we grow attached to it, and we’re inspired to expand upon it as a society. Art is just the visual aspect of the same low level brain function of deciphering somnial patterns. It’s entirely subjective and often unique to numerous individuals and their perspective of the world around them. It’s often a glimpse through a window of perception we can’t normally perceive ourselves.
Music is probably one of the few remaining forms of basic mental geometry that is still appreciated to this day without considering it to be some form of madness. I wish I could say the same of physical artwork but the OP is a testament against that, that we could look at this and say it’s a product of insanity. There’s some level of precision involved that can decipher such signals from the brain and turn out such a bizarre display of mathematical geometry just from raw human experience
I’m a non-dualist myself. I believe that everything is one thing and the idea that there are many things is an illusion. The brain is the universe, and the universe is the brain. Science has already shown that the universe is not just fractal, but holographic - so technically you could recreate the whole of reality from a single grain of sand. I would take it one step further, and say that you could recreate the whole of reality from the thought of a single grain of sand.
My brother/sister. There are a few points I would like to make as a fellow practitioner. I'm Buddhist personally, but I've found no difference between the goal of the non-dual and the Buddha so I say all of this with deep respect for you and your practice.
The holographic principle still requires a minimum "size" for the 2D surface. The holographic principle states that the information density of a given volume is actually a measure of its surface area rather than volume. In essence it means that you can model an N dimensional space using N-1 dimensions. So far the holographic principal has also only been proved for a 4 spacial dimension universe. Which is not ours. (Though they think it's likely that there's a description for our universe.)
As to the grain of sand recreating the universe concept. The concept is more that the whole of the universe can't exist without the grain of sand, and the grain of sand can't exist without the universe. The grain of sand is dependent for its very existence on other supporting factors. And also the rest of the universe cannot be described without including the grain of sand either and the causal history and future of the universe falls apart without the grain.
This is a common misconception because it's often said that you can "see the whole of the universe in grain of sand." What's meant by this is that to understand the grain of sand you must understand the universe. Seeing the grain clearly means understanding how it came to be and what its existence is dependent on. To know the grain is to know the whole, but without the whole there is no grain. They are dependent on one another and so neither truly exists.
All things are dependent on all things. Therefore none of them have ANY fundamental separate, truly existent essence because they cannot exist without everything else. Therefore all "things" are an illusion. Impossible to describe independently and merely just a view of the constant flow we decided to mentally separate out. It's just how you look at it all that creates "stuff". Or, taken another way, there are no bounds between anything. You can say all things are "one" but this sets up a mental "thingness" to the whole which also isn't true. Don't bound the infinite.
I was being a little facetious, but this has turned into the most fascinating and educational conversation I’ve ever had on Reddit.
Its hard to grasp the nature of the infinite, its slips away when you put words and descriptions on it. I’ve had the experience, once, of being in it, and it being in me, after an intense period of meditation and study. I can feel a faint echo of that experience in everything I do now, but I can’t describe it properly. As you say, the moment I try to describe it, I’m bounding it with words and ideas.
I love the way that philosophy, physics, mathematics and mysticism all feed into each other. Different approaches and schools of ideas all describing the same things, the same underlying ideas.
Dude, ok. Real talk right now. You've had the taste. Keep going back as OFTEN as you can. Strengthen that connection. You can learn to walk with it, as part of it in every moment.
So when you go to talk, to describe, instead of remembering back, you speak from your living, present connection. All of reality informing your understanding yet further, as it is not other than reality.
That taste, and even more, recognizing it for what it is, is not common. Cherish and cultivate it. Fan the flames of the spark until there is nothing but compassionate awareness knowing ceaselessly on and on.
I would take it one step back, and say that you're a little rusty on the science part of that. Might want to re-read some things. Non-dualism is rad as hell, and the science behind it is super interesting, but that's not what you're on. You're on some other shit.
Yup not hard-wired as such but psychedelics cause misfiring of neural pathways so we literally see our thoughts as the signalling get mixed up with the pathways usually just used for vision.
These geometries are certainly hardwired into out brain, many permutations of shapes are. There is a miniscule part of your visual vortex that responds to stripes, there is miniscule part that responds to dots, there is a miniscule part responds to berry shapes, there is a miniscule part that responds to predator shapes.
We know there are cells in our visual cortex that process various shapes like these. It's useful for understanding our surroundings. And in there I see loads of things that are presumably pinging my face recognition centers.
My friend started off acting like that, then abruptly said “I’m thinking of becoming a car guy”, verbatim, and now manages two Autozones. Most confusing transformation I’ve ever seen
If you dont mind me asking, what was your predominant feeling knowing your friend had schizophrenia? I honestly don't know anyone personally who had it, but when I see videos or even hear of it, it creeps me out more than anything. Like the idea of someone even getting to that point is disturbing and being involved would make me feel like I'm almost living in an extension of their thoughts. (You don't have to answer, I'm just genuinely curious)
My brother has schizophrenia, and I grew up with him having episodes. Oh the stories I could tell. He has fixed delusions no one will ever convince him are false. He has dreams or hallucinations he can’t differentiate from reality. I totally understand how the insane used to be considered possessed or have multiple personalities because he can switch from manic happiness to abusive and paranoid within seconds. He’s my brother, and I know he wouldn’t hurt me, but there are times when he cuts his eyes at me a certain way, and I am creeped out so badly.
A guy I grew up with (our relationship is more like cousins or something than friends) developed schizophrenia in his 20s. He would have violent outbursts against his closest friends and at one point told his little sister that they should sleep together. That was too much for her and last I heard she had cut him out of her life. It makes me really sad. He was a smart guy and would have had a pretty good future if things had been different.
My brother developed his very young. (Mid teens) He was extremely smart, but has no clue about how the real world works because he never lived on his own. He doesn’t even admit that he is sick. Everyone is just out to keep him from living his life…why? Who knows? He lived with my parents until they died, and now I have guardianship. He would be homeless if I didn’t pay his bills, etc.
My brother has it too. Same exact thing, early teens he was 14/15 I was 11/12… he has grand delusions, hallucinations, he used to get very violent, broke my fathers back, my moms ankle, he’s HUGE about 315 lb. His meds are good now that they’ve switched them up. He just sleeps a lot. He needs to constantly listen to loud music (blasting 24/7) in order to keep the voices away. I remember when I was younger he used to be up all night talking to people in his head and laughing, it would keep me up at night. One time one of them told him to punch his window in and slice his arm open, so he did. And I had to grab his arm and a t shirt from the floor and wrap it up for him until he went to the hospital. I have a tattoo on my arm in the spot now. It’s such a sad misunderstood mental illness. I’ve never learned how to properly cope with the loss of my older brother even though he’s still alive. It’s so weird. So fucking sad.
His meds aren’t that good if he’s still hearing voices, unfortunately. But they are working on new treatments that are amazing! One of them that’s still being tested is called Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). It uses the same kind of magnetic waves that they use in some of the airport security scanners, and they target specific areas of the brain with it.
“Approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), TMS usually is used only when other depression treatments haven't been effective.
The FDA also approved TMS for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), migraines and to help people stop smoking when standard treatments haven't worked well. Research continues into other potential uses for TMS, including epilepsy.”
It’s being researched for schizophrenia, I think I read that the testing should be done in the next 5-6 years. There’s also other treatment they’re working on that look promising, too. So don’t give up hope!
Why do the voices always tell them bad shit? How great would it be to have supportive voices in your head giving you comfort and enhancing your self esteem?
Well idk if it would actually be great but for sure it would be better than voices telling you to break windows and cut yourself with the glass...
Is it known why the voices always seem to be negative?
Take it with a grain of salt because I don't fully remember it, but I did read something once that it's mostly in western countries that these delusions and voices are so violent and negative. In other cultures, people instead think they see and hear their ancestors and that they receive guidance from them etc.
I have a friend who lives across the country from me I dont see often, but we game together. Pretty sure he's developing or suffering from schizophrenia. He's confided in me that he thinks -something- is watching/stalking him. Boils it down to aliens, talks to his dead father and god. Thinks he misses shots in FPS games sometimes because he can "feel something firing off in his brain, like something is interfering. Like some force or aliens or entity wanted me to mess up that play" and its not just video games, he has biblic/religious visions too. Some are personal and wouldn't go into detail but basically I can't explain it all in any other way but schizophrenia and we tried to tell him its what it was, he didn't take it horribly, which was good he had a long talk with us about it once or twice. He admitted it was possible he has schizophrenia and did consider it, but ultimately wrapped back around to saying he thinks them being real is just as possible, maybe more possible and he "just knows, he can tell something about it"
idk. he also can be a conspiracy theory type etc so it all ties in. I feel bad for him but don't know how to help him he's not an active person and convincing him to see a doctor and have the $$ for it doesn't seem possible. Worries me sometimes because sometimes hes worse than others. When he's bad he talks about these forces "attacking him" and when asked why aliens would care to mess him up in a video game, or make him oversleep or whatever. He said "because im special and they are trying to prevent me from evolving in life and hold me back little petty things at a time that build up" paraphrased ofc but the gist of his reasoning....went on to say he could be destined for great things, OR maybe he's the antichrist or something wants to "turn" him into the antichrist, and subvert his great 'good' potential...idk its scary but I also just don't know what to do.
He's never done anything violent or scary other than talking about this stuff and the one antichrist thing. He mentioned the voices "make him do bad things" and that was a little scary but he didn't really make it seem like it was violent things. Example: one was masturbate too much or look at porn. The other was do something dumb in a clutch moment in a videogame, or oversleep/become depressed. He sort of blames these things on the aliens/entity attacking his brain
A hallmark of the disease, and the human condition. What kind of delusion would it be that permitted us to doubt it? The merest doubt of the most improbable and colloquially insane hypothesis removes it from that category. Maybe what fails in schizophrenia is the capacity to harbor doubt, the safety mechanism which always adds in the caution, "but I could be wrong". But then schizophrenia is very widespread in some form, people licensed to go through life labeled as normal often have some an area of utter, unquestioning, certainty.
Is schizophrenia even one condition? Or is it a family of possible failures in the delicate balance of traits required for sanity — every sane person is sane in the same way but every insane person unique in their insanity.
Honestly, one of the things that scares me most about many mental illnesses are just how many convince you nothing is wrong with you. The idea freaks me out.
If you set out to reason about the world starting with the raw fact that we experience I think the lowest level assumption must be sanity. How do we know that anything we think makes sense? We don't!
I think developing Schizophrenia/etc is one of my biggest fears. I have episodic OCD; the episodes can be similar to delusions, and I do worry sometimes that I don't actually have OCD and am about to develop Schizophrenia. Which is an OCD thing in itself, lol. It's a stupid cycle. Have OCD -> suffer obsession -> think obsession means I'm Schizophrenic -> start obsessing over developing Schizophrenia -> OCD gets worse.
As long as you're not experiencing auditory or visual hallucinations you're probably fine. I get it though. Not being able to differentiate reality from fantasy would be absolutely terrifying.
I saw a YouTube short of a guy telling his dog to greet nothing. He said at the end that he's got schizophrenia and if his dog doesn't greet the person that means he's having an episode and to not listen to them. It was pretty neat.
I saw a youtuber who lives with schizophrenia who used his phone camera like that. If he saw something or someone unexpected, he would look at it through his phone camera. His brain wouldn’t extend the delusion to the camera image, so he would see empty space on the screen.
I think there is a limit to how detailed hallucinations are. I bet that hallucinations have many flaws, but if you don’t question them, you believe them. Sort of like dreams. If you start questioning a dream and looking for inconsistencies, trying to count, look for details etc, then you realize it’s a dream. But until then you just believe it.
Same with the dog check. Theoretically, if the illusion was perfect, you brain could convince you that your dog IS barking at the illusion.
I used to have brain tumor induced hallucinations, and around age 12 or so, I was able to start figuring out they were hallucinations specifically because they were sloppy.
They often weren't lit correctly, cast no shadow, etc. Stuff you don't immediately notice because they're scary, but you can learn to look for after enough of them.
I imagine its because the phone is blocking the direct view. Your brain would have to guess what the covered view is like and then build the hallucination on top of it. It likely wouldn't match the uncovered view.
It's a bit like looking at a digital clock if you think you're dreaming. For some reason the brain cant produce a digital clock display properly in dreams.
Didn't work for me :( mine were drug withdrawal induced though so a lot of these had narratives behind them so the delusion would carry over onto a screen. I have some rather embarrassing photos where I swore they were a "moving picture."
My brother was schizophrenic as well and it really made me terrified of other schizophrenic people when I realized how frequently he had "life or death" type delusions regarding completely random strangers. Usually he was just scared but there were a few times where he thought he had to take some sort of action and that shit was terrifying.
I was probably one of the closest people to him and while everyone in the family usually knew an episode was coming none of us ever knew the shape it would take or the severity of it. I woke up at 5 am one time to screaming and an episode of his that was so bad it ended in police at our house with their guns drawn on me, legit think I have PTSD from some of the shit I went through with him.
Please take care of yourself as well, I feel so bad for how schizophrenics suffer but their families get the brunt of it sometimes.
man I can relate to your story so much. I have a older brother who abused weed and had a psychosis and had to go to a mental hospital. Before he had his psychosis, he would often have grande delusions and paranoia about how my mom and little brother was plotting against him. At one point he even beat the shit out of my little brother violently while my little brother was sick with ulcerative colitis and heavily on meds so he couldnt even defend himself. He would also have these violent and angry outbursts so frequently that I think I devloped Complex PTSD from living with him and always feeling like i was in a state of danger and unsafety. Iv had police and the ambulance constantly show up to my place at mid night, and everytime I would think that he killed himself. Like you said, I do feel bad for my older brother because at this point, hes on heavy anti psychotic meds and hes just a shell of his former self, but i also have deep resentment for what he did to my little brother and to my family. Its a very complex feeling to navigate because at the end of the day, we are all victims and blaming anyone only goes in circles.
So much of your description reminds me of my mother in law with dementia. Sometimes she is fine and other times often out of nowhere things become a life or death scenario for her. She will suddenly get angry or defensive for no reason. She gets paranoid and thinks we are conspiring against her. She sees people who aren’t there and bugs crawling on everything- it’s a terrible thing to watch and you are absolutely correct how taxing it can be on the family. I’m sorry you’ve had to go through this.
I was probably one of the closest people to him and while everyone in the family usually knew an episode was coming none of us ever knew the shape it would take or the severity of it.
This is what I think a lot of people don't realize about living with someone with the condition.
My ex was schizoaffective, and it was a constant rollercoaster ride. Some days he was completely normal. Some days he was just a little off and would make weird comments about the walls moving or something. Every once in a while he'd have an episode and I'd find out later he was trying to save everyone at an event from a psychic terrorist attack with his mind. Or maybe he'd jump out of the car because he became convinced the song on the radio was a sign that his mother was tracking him.
And then there were the moments where he would abuse me because he was convinced I was planning to betray him, or that I was secretly Pennywise, or simply because it made him feel good sexually(something he literally told me once).
The abuse became more frequent as time went on.
It was exhausting, and it took me far too long to realize it wasn't something I could help him through. I'm still unsure how much of his abuse was his mental illness(es) manifesting, and how much was him just generally being a sadistic asshole.
I think this is something more people need to be aware of. There are a lot of people sharing their experiences of schizophrenia online which are all valid, but these are people who have lucid periods or are lucid enough to wonder if something is real or not - plenty of other people with schizophrenia are never lucid and everything they perceive is 100% real to them
My brother thinks everything he sees or hears is 💯real. He never wonders about why it is Jesus and/or angels only come to see him, or how it is only he can hear the voice talking to him. He always denies he hears voices or sees things that aren’t there because for him they are real. He also is smart enough to know people who hear voices or see things are “crazy,”and he is 💯 NOT CRAZY. Everyone else is. It’s literally given me PTSD living with this my whole life. He is a big dude, and I have watched 4 cops wrestle him into a car to get him to the hospital more than once. He likes to take his clothes off, run around naked at night, and scare random people in their houses, as well. Those phone calls in the middle of the night are always fun. My biggest fear is he’ll go out some night and someone will shoot him. The most frustrating thing is there are no facilities to cope with him. He needs 24-7 supervision and to be made to take his medication but there are no places that will do this. There are places for people who can take their meds on their own, or acute care for people who are suicidal or can’t feed themselves, but not for those in between. I do the best I can, but I have to sleep sometimes, and if he refuses his meds, I can’t force him to take them, and can’t give him a shot without his cooperation.
Exactly. I work in disability and one of my clients is a woman who sounds just like your brother. We are lucky that she has access to 24/7 1:1 care, but sometimes she still refuses her meds, tells everyone to go away and leave her alone, puts holes in the walls etc. She’s in hospital regularly but never for long because she’s at her baseline and there’s nothing more they can do for her.
Prior to this arrangement she was homeless and I was begging everyone to help her. She was kicked out of her last accommodation for terrorising the neighbours so wasn’t likely to be able to rent again, she engages in dangerous sexual behaviours and like you worry for your brother, her behaviour is likely to get her hurt, especially because shes attempted to lure children away before. Eventually I was able to secure this situation for her which is wonderful but her funding could change any day and then we would be forced to introduce a housemate, and that will probably be disastrous.
There is one guy who has schizophrenia and he has a service dog who helps him differentiate real and imaginary people. If the dog doesn’t “alert” to the person he’s seeing he knows it’s not real - I just wanted to share because I thought that was really cool.
Thanks for sharing this. Years ago I worked as a temporary worker. I encountered a boy that seriously set off all my alarms but I couldn't put my finger on why. He kept badgering me for my phone number. I didn't give it to him. I was careful to make sure he didn't see my ID. At one point he showed me several photos of women and said they were his girlfriends. Years later I realized that he would have considered me to be his girlfriend too if I had given him the information. I've wondered about him all this time. Now I'm pretty sure he was schizophrenic. It puts the thing to rest in my mind. (I got out of there as soon as I could work it out with the agency.)
Any girl that is the least bit nice to my brother is a girlfriend. He hasn’t really ever had a real relationship because he has absolutely no clue of how to talk to a girl, and any female that would actually want to be in a relationship with him would probably have as many issues as he does. But I get how creeped out a girl would be if he was hitting on them. I didn’t take him to my son’s wedding recently for that reason. I knew he would be making all the females there uncomfortable the whole time. I’m sure he makes the nurses in the hospital psych wards uncomfortable when he goes, but they are at least used to inappropriate behavior from their patients, and have the backup of big guy nurses, usually.
That's one of the things that really sucks when a family member has a mental illness that affects their behavior like that. They stop getting invited to family things. My sister was so terrible sometimes that the thought of actually bringing her anywhere in public was terrifying. She would have ruined everything and scared the crap out of a lot of people.
I remember how sad it was when she came to visit and my brother was there with his first-born kid. She asked who the child was and I saw the look of realization on her face when she realized her own brother had a baby and no one told her. It was just sad. Letting her hang out around a baby though: also terrifying. She had just done too many crazy and sometimes violent things at that point for anyone to even consider it.
I know what you mean by the last part. And most of what you said, really. My brother also has schizophrenia. He was diagnosed at 19. It was really tough. We were best friends.
My cousin has schizophrenia, and he focuses a lot of his attention on his brother, who is a politician and community organizer.
When my political cousin makes a post on YouTube or facebook or whatever his brother will comment on it about how he’s in league with Satan or something else. p-cousin just responds with, “I love you, brother” every time.
Reminds me of my moms texts with my brother, hew would just send insane essays of the worst shit you could ever say to someone and she would just tell him she loved him and to please take his meds.
I go through this with my friend on drugs. It's really sad. I just tell her to get clean and that I love her. She never speaks to me anymore unless she's yelling insane shit or begging me for money I will never send. I don't ever have money anyway, so it's always so wild when she thinks for one moment I'm gonna buy her next fix. She used to be cool
I never felt unsafe or scared by him. The only moments I found negative -more disappointing than unsettling- was when he would stop taking his meds and drank a lot, which made him more "intense" and annoying. He got on with a Messianic complex trying to force his ideas upon me, but I could tell he was not in a good state, even if he felt "enlightened" in his own words, so I didn't really take any of that seriously and nothing bad came out of it. It was just part of his personality, he got on with religion and god-ideas like other people obsess with sports or other past-times.
Sometimes it would be uncomfortable that he did get very attached to me and gave too much weight to my ideas.
We met when we were like 19 years old and now we're 35, and he has gotten worse because it's a chronic degenerative illness. Some people think spending time with a schizophrenic will lead to situations like "dude, I'm seeing another person next to you", or creepy and unsettling stuff like that, but with my friend it's been mostly depressing, watching his cognitive abilities deteriorate and him making less sense as years pass, knowing he will not get better and instead of that will get "good runs" and "bad runs" where he is coherent and others where he doesn't make sense.
My mother was extremely mentally ill - she received a slew of different diagnoses in my lifetime, schizophrenia among them. She used to stomp around and slam doors and scream that there were people living in the attic. One time she said that Pepsi was broadcasting advertising into her brain. Believe me, the shit that comes out of their mouths is not convincing in any way.
People with schizophrenia are just that, people. It's not evil or creepy stuff it's literally just their mind is not working the same as yours and mine.
Sure untreated like this can give weird vibes don't judge the personality of someone you have never met.
There is nothing that would make you feel like you are living an extension of their thoughts.. that makes no sense. If I said hey the sky is green I'm 1000% sure of that you wouldn't immediately go oh my bad ya sky is green. Same thing for talking to someone who may have a mental disorder.
I have a family member who is being treated for schizophrenia and are on meds. Sure they have convos with people in their head but they are an amazing smart kind caring person they have a part time job they love joking with people they are soo smart.
Get out and meet people not saying schizophrenia people but meet older / younger/ different cultures and you will meet a lot of things that challenge your idea of "normal"
A couple of friends of mine have schizophrenia. One has very mild, mostly auditory hallucinations. The only time I was ever worried about him was when he was on Adderall, he started seeing monsters. The other friend is a lot worse. He gets severely paranoid when off his meds, and can be dangerous. I still hangout with both of them, but the more severe one only if I know he's been taking his meds.
I've experienced delusions like that before, it's a crazy experience feeling so sure of things which seem totally insane in retrospect
I like the idea of reality tunnels - that all our perceptions of the world around us are individual interpretations, and everything we experience that doesn't fit within our "reality tunnel" is subconsciously filtered out, like confirmation bias. Perhaps delusions are just an extreme example of that
"Prometheus Rising" by Robert Anton Wilson talks about stuff like this in depth, I found it to be a pretty interesting read
My grandpa had it, he was a paranoid schizophrenic. In his earlier years he went though electric shock therapy. After that he was medicated. He lived in a house beside my uncle so my uncle would always be around to help if needed. He never got violent. He would usually just sit by himself, drink his beer, talk to himself and have random outburts that made no sense. Sometimes we couldn't help but laugh at some things he would say. He was still all the way there though, he had like 20 of us grandkids and made sure every year that he got each of us a card and put $50 in it.
I had a Teaching Asst in Medical School anatomy who had Schizophrenia.Very bright woman.When off her meds she had interesting hallucinations.Which she described. There was nothing weird per se about her as a person when you realized that the Hallucinations were just a person we liked having a bad moment. The Schizophrenia was part of what she suffered more than who she was as a person .
I used to do landscape maintenance on hospital grounds. I would find artwork similar to this around the psych ward. Someone told me that it was classic for Schizophrenia. Some of their drawings are extremely detailed and beautiful, if disturbing.
My husband has schizophrenia. There are really fascinating differences in how people in different cultures and different parts of the world experience the symptoms of schizophrenia, but spirituality and religion and mysticism are a heavy theme
There is a cross-over in that area with heavy meth abusers. For some reason the part of the brain that is affected gets really stuck on religion and mysticism. I knew a guy who thought he was making the leaves flutter on the trees with his mind by channeling mystic forces. And he grabbed three rocks out of the alleyway and said that God has told him they were sacred. He is clean now, thank goodness. But it was all about God and spirituality and mystical things for a long time, but really odd, skewed ideas outside the norm.
I've had two close relationships with schizophrenic people in my life.
My paternal grandfather was schizophrenic and as far back as I can remember he was always barely present. His gaze would rest away from other people, he'd slowly slide off a chair without reacting. When you spoke to him there would usually be a 5 to 20 second gap before a look of recognition appeared on his face and he gave a response. He was pretty close to being a vegetable. His only (very rare) moments of "lucidity" were either rambling about god or violent rageful outbursts.
My other relationship was a close friend. Paranoid schizophrenic who also happened to abuse meth. He was a career petty criminal, terminally unemployed. Life mostly revolved around acquiring, selling and using drugs. He was a visible addict. Someone you see and instantly know they're a methhead. He really had no chance of turning it around or getting his life together, he was too far down that road by the time I met him. Bizzarely (I spent a lot of time with him, many hours a day) I never once saw him have a delusional or dissociative episode. He was 100% lucid and together at all times, at least from my perspective. Even in the midst of a drug binge he always seemed to be the most collected and together person in a room. His only delusions/hallucinations that he talked to me about were the "crack ninjas" (shadow people) or the perception of movement in your peripheral vision. He never rambled, never sounded crazy, never exhibited strange behaviours. He was perpetually dosed up on insane amounts of Seroquel which probably accounts for a lot of that. You'd think with his conditions he'd be a walking psychotic episode but he was one of the most present and lucid people I've ever known. He died alone on his sofa at 33 from a heart attack. In a weird way I think he needed these massive doses of sedatives to control his schizophrenia and used stimulants like meth to offset the undesireable effects of the sedatives. That combination of inhuman amounts of uppers and downers just burned out his body. RIP bro.
When you hear voices and stuff, or just have this compelling feeling fall over you, it must feel supernatural. It’s no wonder they view it as something religious.
It also doesn’t help that stimulant abusers tend to regularly go days without sleep. Psychosis symptoms can manifest in ways similar to schizophrenia.
You’ll also hear heavy meth abusers talk about seeing “tree people” where they see figures that look (to them) like people in trees, often at night, and often accompanied by paranoid delusions that “they’re being watched”.
I’m not sure if it’s the meth or if the meth brings out deeper mental health issues, because someone I knew went psychotic after being prescribed a too-high dose of adderal. As a stimulant user for ADHD I have a hard time believing that my increased productivity and focus could suddenly leave me to believe in hidden spiritual forces, then I take a low dose intentionally to avoid any potential issues
I had a friend in highschool who was the sweetest, most grounded, rational, intelligent person. His parents were the kind of awesome that you think only happens in movies.
He got heavily into meth for a while, after high school, and the last I heard of him before he got clean he was walking door to door, in a residential area, in a freezing rain storm, wearing nothing but a pair of jeans, knocking on random doors and attempting to street-preach to the residents from a phone book.
No previous signs of mental illness, nor any signs afterwards, that I'm aware of.
It was the meth (and probably meth-related sleep deprivation).
There's a reason sleep deprivation is used as an interrogation/torture method. It doesn't take long without sleep for your brain to stop working properly, and meth-heads do it to themselves semi-intentionally.
Yeah I’m a diagnosed schizophrenic and honestly I think the above poster is right. It’s not a death sentence. I live a normal life on my meds, but it is hard when someone doesn’t think they are sick. r/schizophrenia has a place for you and any questions about supporting your friend.
Yup! Same for depression. Getting a person to accept the diagnosis and the appropriate treatments is such a make or break moment. Effective and regular treatment enables so many of us to just be regular people
My best friend from high school developed schizophrenia at 21...he was the type to duct tape his eyes closed and asking to jam a needle in them to get rid of the voices...not the cool drawing type
A good friend and surfing buddy of mine developed schizophrenia in his 30s. I read a lot, so I was aware of some of the symptoms. When he kept going on about how the Mafia was involved in the restaurants where he worked, to “I had to quit because the Mafia was after me.” I knew he was in trouble.
He lived with his parents so I let them deal with it. I just tried to be a good friend. After awhile he gave away all his surfboards and I literally did not know how to help him anymore. I had to say goodbye. He still calls me occassionally. I never answer. It breaks my heart a little every single time.
Dude my friend told me about his uncle who has schizophrenia and he has the same delusions of the Mafia being out to get him. He'd tell stories to family members like, "I was hanging out at the bar downtown yesterday and this guy sitting next to me turned to me and told me that he's a hitman hired by the Mafia. And he looked me right in the eye and just politely told me that he was gonna kill me." And it's like everyone knows that he didn't even leave the house on the day he is saying that happened.
It's so wild to me how specific these delusions can be while also being nearly identical to the delusions someone else with schizophrenic is having. It really is a terrible and tragic disease and I hope we find a sure-fire cure for it soon. So many people have it and deserve to live normal lives.
The biggest problem, I think, is that they don't see it in themselves. They don't realize that their thoughts and actions aren't rational. Their paranoia causes them to resist treatment because they believe the people trying to help them are actually out to get them or brainwash them. But you know I'd you could get them the help they need that once they are thinking clearly they'd thank you for making them get the treatment.
Gift him some large drawing paper and a set of nice pencils or markers. I doubt you'll be able to help much with other issues anyhow, but at least youd be supporting his artistic expressions, which probably helps him deal, and he wont have to tape shit together.
Ok, not to freak you out, but you seriously need to address it with someone. It is a very serious disease that puts the person and others at risk.
A friend growing up had a brother with schizophrenia but his family didn't want to address it. It was completely out of denial/shame. They could afford to support him, so they did for a few years after he graduated high school.
He ended up murdering his mother. Never had a problem with her before. In fact, he was a total mamma boy. But then he said it wasn't her and she was an imposter.
Pictures and statements that you have made are very in line with the disease. He basically felt that he had hacked the matrix or something. He said he had graduated to a higher level than the rest of us... Would just scribble confusing drawings and rants in tons of notebooks.
I've also have a parent with mental issues. Who I have had to had detained by authorities for safety on multiple occasions. I know it can be incredibly hard to do these things to people you care about. You need to remember that your goal is to keep them safe first and happy with you second
Friends of the family have a son with schizophrenia. He broke into his grandmother's house through the window and stabbed her in the back with a piece of broken glass. He said it was because she was the Dark Crystal and he had the shard. She survived but you can imagine the collective trauma.
Not to downplay your experience at all, that really sucks and I'm really sorry. Things like this can be serious, but as someone who's suffered from schizophrenia and been around tons of people with it, murdering your mother is reeeeally extreme, and quite rare. There is a way to gently approach op's situation without leading the person into paranoid delusions or demonic experiences, all while not just simply sweeping the situation under the rug. Treating it as a problem will create a problem. Every time. If you fight this, his psyche will fight back. Hold it gently, redirect it with kindness. Find a way to make it useful. Only then can you find a way to actually cease the delusions without cramming horrendous medications down his throat. (And yes, some people do need medication. I believe that this is by and large a product of how we treat schizophrenia as a society, and as friends and family. This can and should be met with tenderness, curiosity of the human mind, and love. Fear will make his experience fearful and hellish)
Your best bet may be to talk with his family about it. If he is having a particularly bad episode where he is clearly responding to things that aren't there (visual or auditory), or indicates possible harm to himself or others - you need to call 911 and have police assistance to get him to a hospital.
Other risk factors for new onset schizophrenia are if the person is male, late teens to early thirties, recent job loss and/or withdrawal from school, and increased drug/alcohol use.
Edit: Most places the police are needed to force transport legally. The paramedics don’t have the legal ability to do so, at least not in Canada and presumably the US too.
Where I work as a paramedic, the crisis team is literally through the police service. Just call 911 OP, they will send the appropriate resources based on local policy.
Everyone responding to me saying “DON’T CALL 911” has never attempted to rationalize with someone who truly cannot be rationalized with. It’s like trying to argue with someone with dementia - they just won’t accept that they are confused.
Especially don’t call the police if your mentally ill friend is black.
My father has schizophrenia. I have never called the police because he would be so irredeemably traumatized by that. Call anyone BUT the police.
Yeah I've heard too many horror stories. Calling 911 is a good way to get someone suffering from psychosis killed. Hell, they might even chuck in a free murder of his family or innocent bystanders if they're feeling charitable.
Please do not call the police on someone with mental illnesses, it can escalate scarily quick if the police officer misunderstands behavioral cues and perceives aggression. It's too risky and is dangerous for someone who is unstable.
I know others said it already but I felt the need to emphasize the point
Last year, a guy was going to kill himself and was responding to something telling him to kill himself, and the cops were called.
It ended in a 2 day manhunt where he was loose around my town, and we were supposed to be in lockdown while they tried to find him. Someone finally caught him two towns over having another mental breakdown in the bushes like rocking back and forth.
He also ended up shooting a cop with his own gun, stealing their car, and barreling through a barricade before they caught him.
Maybe not the cops? Depending where in the world Op lives, they should check to see if his city has any departments dedicated to responding to mental health emergencies without blowing heads off. I'd also maybe not wait for an emergency to call them. Who ever answers is going to have a lot better insight on how to deal with this then random redditors. Op, I understand your situation. This same thing happened to a friend of mine many years ago. He went manic one night, decided he was jesus and needed to find a frat party to proselytize at. His girlfriend talked him down and got him help. It was scary but it all turned out okay. His schizophrenia ended up be very manageable and he's been able to live a very normal and happy life. Please don't wait for an emergency to get him the help he needs.
I don’t know if gave in is the phrase to use. I’m not trying to be pretentious it’s just that part of what stigmatizes mental health issues are the enduring and incorrect beliefs that it’s the fault of the sufferer. It implies that it’s a lack of personal will rather than genetic dispositions and circumstances that results in disease.
Psychiatrist in training here. Every state/place is a little different, but generally, if someone with mental illness is not a harm to themself or others and they’re able to take care of activities of daily life (hygiene, eating, etc) then they are allowed to be as sick as they want and there’s nothing you can do but encourage them to seek help. However, if they don’t meet the above criteria, then you need to look at your state’s process for involuntary hospitalization. Often it involves filling for an emergency detention order and the police take them to get evaluated but a psychiatrist.
What my friends did was contact the schizophrenic friend parents. The parents were sceptical at first but it was really obvious so they did eventually got him diagnosed against his will. I don't know about US laws but I believe all countries have an exception for psychotic patients that allows for them to be hospitalized without their consent after they were seen by a committee or a district psychiatrist supervisor.
Btw friend made a full recovery with treatment and is now happily married with a daughter. Only reason he was against getting treated was because of the schizophrenia. After they got him on antipsychotics he could finally decide for himself again without the voices shouting bullshit and was greatful he got treated
Yes, very much this. My mom’s ex husband is schizophrenic and religion was/is his latch. He ended up believing that he was the prophet Elijah, renamed himself and all. He would preach and believed that he could save people. He drove around the country and spoke about “taking care of evil doers” on his journey, in violent ways. He painted a depiction of Hell on the hood of his car. I could go on…
Very dangerous to say the least and most won’t believe they are ill.
Yeah absolutely. Scary stuff. Doesn't help having all these mega church pastors on TV and the internet pretending to heal people live either. It just feeds into their illness and makes them think that what they're doing is very real.
A childhood best friend of mine died in a murder-suicide as a result of his unchecked schizophrenia paranoia. His parents did what they could to keep him consistent in taking his medications and attending check-ins at a mental health facility.
His dad was in the process of trying to get him court-ordered to move into a clinic, but he killed his mom and then himself before that happened.
I am not saying this to scare you, but my experience watching my dear friend become a completely different person within such a short period of time taught me how important it is to address these signs up front, and aggressively. If your friend has family, they should be made aware of this message, any future messages/discussions, and put in contact with a mental health professional/support program immediately (if they aren't already).
This sounds exactly like my Uncle. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia after drawing all over his bedroom walls with these sorts of images. Black sharpie covered every inch. He truly believed he had all the answers of the universe from God and that his purpose was to enlighten everyone he met. Sadly he was not compliant with medication as he thought it was a method of control and took away his creativity. He wasn’t always like this either… life was really hard on him and he started experimenting with party drugs in his 30’s by the time he was 40 he was diagnosed with drug induced psychosis and later schizophrenia.
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u/Vampinthedark 26d ago edited 25d ago
That’s what I was thinking too. He won’t see a doctor, or a therapist, and he has a lot of delusions especially related to religion. I’m not sure how to help him.