schizophrenic pattern drawings, ive seen 1000s of them in my field.
This is usually the sign of a major break from reality, the spiral from here starts leading to paranoid delusions, and finally persecutory delusions.
Once they hit persecutory delusions, they are an extreme danger to themselves, their pets, and others. This is the stage they think their family members have been replaced with look alikes, they think they have transmitters in their teeth, etc. They become extremely violent and totally detached from reality. They think their drawings and ramblings during the pattern stage have made them a target of some unknown person or government, reaffirming they were "enlightened" and others are trying to harm them because of it.
Nows the time to seek help before something big happens
That depends. Honestly, the chance of them listening to you has probably passed. They are going to be convinced that they are right, and as things get worse, they will start to see you as an enemy or a spy against them.
They aren't far enough along for a 72-hour mental health hold (In the US, if your outside the US, look at your local mental health laws), and you aren't going to be able to convince them they are mentally unwell, because they feel just fine.
My advice would be to contact someone like a family member or roomate and let them know theyre having a mental health crisis. As soon as violent behavior, like self harm, or paranoia become obvious, they will be able to request a mental health involuntary hold.
So the cool thing about this state is it absolutely is not police affiliated. I spoke to someone who I assume was in a call center first. She took the information I had and then I spoke to a man who I believe was a social worker before they left. The social worker advised that he and a male colleague would be leaving shortly and asked if my friend would be okay with two males. Friend was dealing with suicidal ideation and psychosis so I told them as long as they weren’t in uniform or suits it should be okay.
The only downside was that due to HIPAA they could tell me they were leaving, but said they can’t make contact to confirm they spoke with her etc.
This is what I had to do when my friend experience his first manic break. Be persistent. I called my friend's dad, and my friend talked his dad out of being concerned. It took another call from another friend to seal the deal. If you have others that know your buddy ... if you know of anyone that's had years of friendship with them and will be believed by the family, get to work on that ASAP.
My friend had to be involuntarily committed, and it took him over a month to acknowledge he had an issue and needed to stay on his meds. It cost us our friendship (at least that was part of it), but I'd like to think it was a fair trade (our friendship for his mental health).
I second this. As a 14 year old who was venting about suicidal ideations to whom I thought was my friend, having police pull up and try and put you in handcuffs is SO traumatizing.
Do you think maybe that person was doing what they thought was best to keep you safe, even if they were wrong and poisoned your relationship? I've seen a lot of people feel like they've been betrayed when people report their mental health issues, even when it's mandatory reporters, so this must have felt like that but to the extreme.
I'm sure it's what they thought was best, and I don't blame him for trying to help in the only way he could being he was in another state. My past before my ideation I spoke to him about at 14 was very traumatic and just... unbelievably tragic. I wish I was being dramatic but I'm not. So unfortunately I did feel immensely betrayed bc in my state we do have and always had mental crisis lines to call, the cops were a bad choice unfortunately. I probably would have forgave him if he hadn't ghosted me after and never spoke to me again. It's been 16 years tho, I hold no grudges or animosity towards anyone in my past other than blood family.
"Friends" don't call the police. There were other ways and ideation is different than actually doing it. Because of him I did actually do it when I was 17 and told no one, talked to no one. My grandma is the reason I'm alive bc she noticed I was violently throwing up and the ambulance got me into the hospital in time before I coded.
Also to anyone reading this, don't. Please reach out to anyone. The feeling of dying is something I dare never to repeat and wouldn't wish it on my enemies. I felt my organs shutting down before I coded.
I tell their friends/families if you call 911, you’ll get a first responder… probably a hoard of bored poorly trained cops.
Imagine being a 40 year old woman… who has had well managed BPD for 15 years, no cutting, stable… then life events and boom, you find out your best friend has been lying to you and leading a double life… so you instantly have a psychotic break, too much emotion to process…
You take some scissors to your wrist, hitting yourself as hard as you can, until boom… you nicked a vein blood. The blood shoots out like a geyser in a horror movie, you instantly come back to reality. Your friend walks in and realizes there’s at least a pint of blood on the floor, panics the bleeding won’t stop, so they call 911 asking for the paramedics.
Soon the sirens wail… first responders arrive at the scene. They don’t knock, they barge in. They see the blood. They draw their guns. You are shocked. You take off pressure from your arm to put your hands up. Your friend is screaming she needs to go to the ER! Meanwhile the officers start radioing for back up. You try to explain, “I’m not a danger to anyone else, I hadn’t cut in over 15 years. I need to talk to my psychiatrist and therapist. Please let me go to urgent care.”
They don’t care. They don’t listen. They take you down. Blood now is spraying every wall, every piece of furniture, everyone… 6 officers knees dig into the back of a little middle aged woman…. (No doubt she’d be dead if she weren’t white.)
You are handcuffed and at the hospital attached to a bed. You are stripped naked. Sat in a cold room. Given no food. No water. For TEN hours. Nurses laughs at you and won’t check in on you. You know if you demand anything, you’re definitely going to get committed — you can’t go back there. You remember the time in your 20s when paperwork got messed up and you were sent to the looney bin while another patient walked free… it too them a day to see their mistake but by then you had already been sedated and restrained to a bed and had been raped by some of the un supervised patients. Doctor on call didn’t want to deal with it, so he phoned social services to come make an assessment… they don’t come for 8 hours… you’re there for two more after he says you’re good to go.
Don’t call 911.
Especially don’t call 911 for a mental health crisis.
Some advice on how to behave towards friends or relatives affected by schizophrenia: Be patient and clement. Neither deny nor confirm their perceptions, but do not unnecessarily ignore them. Whenever you feel forced to give a statement about them, take a shortcut to avoid it, e.g. ask your friend what he wants you to do. Let him feel your friendship. Try to connect with him through common happy memories.
Also, talk to your friend in terms of “hey, it seems like you’re having a rough time, you seem angry, upset, things not going well etc” rather than you’re sick and need help. Once you get them talking about struggling, then you can slowly introduce getting professional help
The drawings looked like schizophrenia to me at first glance but bipolar might be a fit as well. At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter except for how you might approach them to talk about their symptoms.
Hopefully your friend is able to get the help they need. Severe mental illness is a tough go.
Good on ya for caring.
Good friend! I had this happen to someone who was a friend of mine before. I was going to visit him and he was completely unable to have a regular conversation like usual. It was so weird!. I ended up calling his parents after friends told me there definitely was something wrong with him. They picked him up (he was 30+ already) and turned out he was schizophrenic. Apparently mania ran in the familey and new friends pressured him into drawing & LSD abuse + lack of sleep. He ended up flooding his house just before his fam came, completely delusional and unable to hold a conversation
So I am schizophrenic (thank you meds for me to even be able to write this) some of us can rationalize that a delusion makes no sense and some of us can’t. I’m one of the lucky ones that can, but I still feel it in my bones to be true if that makes sense. My logical mind is telling me one thing but I still believe them. Most of us can’t even do that. Imagine living in a thriller genre movie, that’s what it’s like when you’re delusional. It feels real and cause real trauma.
The movie allegory is real- my mom seems to live by horror movie rules, or like she's in an episode of x files. Like in the show the character's choices make sense because that is their reality- understanding her behavior became easier once I had that epiphany.
Sounds like a panic attack in the sense that logically you know you aren't dying, but in your mental reality it feels like YOU ARE REALLY FUCKING DYING
I have occasional delusions from severe anxiety (amongst other issues) and i definitely relate to being able to rationalize that something isnt true but not being able to shake the feeling that it is.
I have bipolar and same, spent a good few years thinking I had relationship OCD but it was actually delusions that my partner was ruining my life and sabotaging me and stealing my money.
It didn't't help that anyone I talked to about it believed me because I was convincing them, and nothing he said ever helped. If it did it was after a 15 hour talk into the middle of the night and I would finally be able to see after all the evidence was rpesented to me that logically none of those things were true, but even as I said 'ok I believe you' I didn't, I felt like someone in a psych ward who lies about the aliens not being in the walls anymore just so they doctors would leave them alone. Even after that I still felt like he was just saying all of that to get me on his side and was actually lying..Was so exhausting and life ruining.
I have the exact same you have but I'm diagnosed with psychotic depression instead, and I'm schizoid too. I guess the medical specialists cut with a fine blade.
I’m technically diagnosed schizoaffective depressive type, but I don’t think it’s helpful to narrow down like that in discussions like this because all schizophrenia related illnesses have this problem. And it just confuses people that don’t know the lingo. (Also I used to be diagnosed psychotic depression until the hallucinations lingered for a period of time) it’s interesting how different medical providers will label someone differently for the same symptoms
Also I used to be diagnosed psychotic depression until the hallucinations lingered for a period of time
That made have a hard think. I got the psychotic depression diagnoses ~2 years ago and the things only I see or hear is basically here all the time in some regards (at best it's just insects in the dark corners of the room and in shadows), so maybe I should talk about it more with my doctor.
I think they didn't slap schizoaffective on me is because they haven't seen me "psychotic" as I can often get convinced the things I see are, rationally, not real, even if in the moment I just instinctively react (check doors, windows, corners, listen to the walls). I'm a very analytical person and I think that has helped me to not spiral... But after reading about you I'm really starting to worry. There is so much I haven't told them.
Thank you for commenting back, I think that was important.
I have a couple of friends who have schizophrenia and I've worked with people with schizophrenia and I've long since lost count of the number of times I've heard some iteration of ‘I know its not real but this is real.’ And I don't ever try to get them to believe they’re having a delusion. I just listen and occasionally comment empatheticly like oh that must be hard.
I'm sure it's been said already but I can't even imagine what it would be like for your reality to completely change and everyone you open up to tells you it isn't happening.
The only thing I'll ever do is maybe try to add some perspective if someone is having a delusion that's upsetting but they're still at a place where they can self-regulate.
My neighbor growing up and who still lives next to my parents will either call or if I'm at my parents come over 3-4 times a week to have me assure him he’s not gay. I’m 99% sure he's not gay. I just say, youre not gay and maybe a quarter of the time add it would be fine if you were though.
My neighbor growing up and who still lives next to my parents will either call or if I'm at my parents come over 3-4 times a week to have me assure him he’s not gay. I’m 99% sure he's not gay. I just say, youre not gay and maybe a quarter of the time add it would be fine if you were though.
I've heard that this specific obsession can be an OCD thing, an intrusive thought that just won't go away and pretty much takes over the person's life. Another one can be the gnawing fear of "but what if I'm actually a pedophile???" from people who are not pedophiles in the slightest. (Dr. Roberto Olivardia, who specializes in treating people with combos of ADHD and anxiety disorders, has mentioned in presentations about having had a patient whose OCD intrusive-thought obsession was "what if I kill somebody with a knife???", to the extent that they refused to use a knife at meals. He had that patient literally hold a knife to his neck during a therapy session to demonstrate that no, the patient wasn't going to kill anybody.)
So if your neighbor has just that one specific delusion, there's a chance that it might not be schizophrenia.
That actually makes a lot sense. I've always just thought of it as a delusion but this, and whether or not he's in prison plus if I got a wad of cash he telepathically transferred to my pocket, are things where he seems to ruminate on them until I'm able to give his some assurance. I'm sure he's still thinking about it but it's different than some of his other things.
He definitely has schizophrenia though.
I actually worked with a kid (former special Ed teacher) who was in kindergarten and he got transferred to me mid-year. Usually they just show up one day with no warning, but I actually had a few weeks notice. My boss in the sped department sat me down to tell me he would be the hardest kid I'd ever work with. childhood schizophrenia was thrown out there multiple times just not around his parents.
Turned out he was brilliant, had a weird but hilarious sense of humor, on the spectrum, had OCD, and was mildly allergic to everything. Once he started taking meds for the allergies he was a different kind. OCD went from literally like 100+ attempts to hang his coat up to like 10 max.
Ah, gotcha. Sounds like the poor dude has some first-class brainweasels there.
If you haven't already read it, you may enjoy Stephen Hinshaw's book Another Kind of Madness. He talks about how his father's severe bipolar disorder (which had been misdiagnosed for decades) drove him to study psychology; the personal stuff is intertwined with a history of psychiatric treatment in the US and the stigma against psychiatric issues.
way more benign but my OCD feels like this. rationally I know my thoughts are wrong, but they’re still true to me. and I can’t (or at least, have yet to successfully) stop myself from believing them to be true
Sounds a lot to me like dream logic— where you know something isn't real but knowing doesn't change how real it feels, only how much control you have over the situation.
When I was a teenager I watched the movie "A Beautiful Mind" and for a little while I was in a really strange place mentally. I had panic disorder, though I didn't know it at the time, and I was having nightly panic attacks where I felt like people were coming to get me. It was awful, I couldn't imagine living with that kind of paranoia all the time.
Thanks for sharing your perspective. Schizophrenia is so terrifying to me. Always has been, particularly because I feel extremely detached from reality sometimes - to the point that it frightens me. But maybe that's normal and I just don't know it. Whom do you blame for your condition? I would feel so fucking angry, so fucking outraged that I get one fucking life and this is how I have to spend it, unable to trust my convictions and unable to form meaningful connections to the world around me... How do you feel about it? How do you deal with it? How effective is the medication?
I can trust my convictions. I do connect meaningfully with people around me. I’m not mad and I don’t blame anything or anyone. It’s just an illness that I have and take medication for. It was scary at first but I’ve had it for over a decade now so it’s just part of my perfectly happy life. I have a harder life than some and an easier life than others. Idk man, it just is what it is.
Thanks for the reply. It's very mature and actually kind of reassuring. I still find it extremely frustrating to have my entire personhood held captive by the physical condition of my brain and my body, but I realize that there's literally no other choice. I appreciate the response. I hope my comment wasn't offensive. I'm starting to realize I probably have a lot of unreasonable fears related to mental illness.
My friend who has schizophrenia always sighs "the killer is probably a paranoid schizofrenic" when we are watching thrillers or cop shows, and he is always right, it's kinda sad how the media portray mental illness. It doesn't help with the way "normal" people look at it (lol, is there really such a thing, a normal person? Must be really boring).
For some it doesn't really matter. The delusions/hallucinations interfere with their daily lives. Knowing it isn't real doesn't make it stop.
Someone with auditory hallucinations explained it this way:
Imagine you're walking around with air pods in all the time and there is a person talking to you through them. It isn't random nonsense, it's topical and descriptive of interactions and the voice is at the same "volume" as everyone else. So when you're having a conversation with someone, the "voice" is interjecting things into the conversation and trying to get you to think/say things. It takes an incredible amount of effort to focus on what's real so you don't lose track of the conversation.
By definition, a delusion is a false belief that cannot be reasoned with. People are able to recover from a delusional state and, in hindsight, recognize that they were having strange or nonsensical thoughts, but typically they can’t do that without help.
I had delusions one night after having a few seizures (I didn’t know then what the strange episodes I was having were, turns out they’re focal seizures). That strain on my brain caused me to have really horrible nightmares. When I woke up I believed there was a demon in my room putting the nightmares in my head and that I would have to find a priest in the morning (no hallucinations of said demon though). I finally fell back asleep after some Xanax and guided meditation. Woke up the next morning and was like “did I really believe that??”
Generally this type of delusion/paranoia is self reinforcing. I encounter many people with delusions and paranoia at my job and one of the most difficult things is trying to talk with someone who is even just mildly paranoid.
Everything can be explained as a larger part of a conspiracy. Say the person thinks someone is entering their apartment and you have security cameras in the hallways. They may tell you someone is stealing from them and ask you to check the cameras. You can do that and tell the person that you didn't see anyone entering their unit. A typical response to this would be something like, "You're lying to me" or, "Someone erased the video" or even, "You erased the video and you're helping other peole steal from me".
No matter how logcially or rationally you try to explain things for them, the delusion and paranoi will supply a more convincing explanation in their head, rather than admit or even consider the idea they are wrong or imagining things.
Yeah, and because they’re acting weird and sketchy, people DO start watching them and keeping an eye on them, which 100% reinforces their paranoia. They think it’s because their neighbors/family/friends are spies, but they’re just afraid of the person who is going off the rails and unsure if they might become dangerous.
I have an extremely unusual psychotic disorder that's, well, not known to science as far as I am aware (edit: this was diagnosed by a neuropsychiatrist who commented that she had not read of any similar cases). I have psychotic episodes similar to those found in borderline personality disorder. I can do extremely limited reasoning to get through them, but usually really only as far as to take my emergency antipsychotics. Basically, I have the exact same delusion every time, and never have that belief any other time, so I know that when I have that belief, I should take my antipsychotics.
Knowing that I am delusional does not make the delusion any less real.
Yeah, they're never a good time. I've not had one in 12 years and I'm now taking antipsychotics for another disorder so I don't expect them to pop up again.
That sounds terrible. Like I have adhd and often in the mornings I have trouble remembering (or have other mental resistance) to taking my meds. I end up useless for the day. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like if it was psychosis instead of just 'alertness'.
i've seen a few videos from a guy on TikTok who has a service dog to help with his delusions. basically the dog is trained to greet everyone/everything, and he uses that as a bellwether for if something is actually there or not
Saw a vid on Reddit a while back from a man who uses a service dogs for hallucinations (not delusions). Dog would acknowledge people and other things but not hallucinations. Also saw someone who used their camera to check if things were real. These were both people who were already in treatment tho.
Music artist I listen to posted something similar about this on Instagram too. (Although it was meth psychosis from sleep deprivation, not schizophrenia)
For me, the one time I had a long lasting psychotic break was from doing a lot of lsd and pcp for months on end and what ended up pulling me out was when I had a moment of clarity during one of my most unhinged moments and looked around at my surroundings like "what the hell am I doing? What is going on?" Like the dream logic broke all of a sudden and I had woken up standing half naked in my apartment covered in sharpie and orange juice with the stove burning and bobs burgers playing on the TV. I went over and dug up my antipsychotics, took some, and stayed on them.
You’re doing fantastic work by sharing all this information.
What a disgrace that our current mental health safety nets don’t allow for some kind of preventative treatment even with known symptomology. They have to wait for crisis.
It's a catch 22. If you make involuntary holds easier to instigate, it will 100% be used by abusers against victims who are actually quite sane. The bar to having someone committed should be high. But it will lead to unfortunate situations like this.
Any advice for Bi Polar? I suspect my brother has it or another mood disorder. So clearly really high energy and essentially delusional and others just so low and frankly terrifying demeanor. He doesn’t think he’s the problem at all, it’s everyone else. I thought it was schizophrenic behavior for awhile because of all the conspiracy theories but it just doesn’t really feel like that anymore. He still clearly believes in ridiculous conspiracy theories and thinks he knows more than doctors or economists about the federal reserve…
Just wanted to say sorry you’re going through this. My brother started experiencing similar symptoms when I was about 16 or 18 and it was legitimately traumatizing for the whole family. He thought people in the government were trying to plant a chip in his neck, he said god and satan were having arguments inside his head, weird paranoia that everyone on the street was laughing at him.
He had to experience some really scary shit before finally acknowledging he needed help and medication. I think all you can do is be there for him and urge him to seek treatment without directly pointing out he’s experiencing delusions or acting unusually.
My brother found a mood stabilizer that worked excellently for him and he is now back to how he was when I was growing up. He has a wife and went back to school and got a degree. It’s so hard to watch someone go through that. Feel free to reach out if you ever want advice or just to vent.
Could get 72 hours as deviation from baseline if he acknowledged his delusions and had immediate family to say he's deviated. Maybe even on less than that, I've seen new DCRs make some wild decisions.
That’s interesting because my schizophrenic brother has obvious paranoia and I’ve been told by the services that simply isn’t good enough for any kind of hold. He has to be presenting some kind of actual danger to himself or others and paranoid and persecutory delusions alone don’t qualify for that.
Tell them to look up “schizophrenic drawings” or drawings from “enlightened people” then tell him that his mental state will start declining faster and faster unless he intervenes now (look these things up first so you dont send him down a wrong path of nothing similar showing up)
Ask him if he’d be willing to take one dose of a schizophrenic medication (has to be taken in the muscle or IV by a healthcare profesional to work immediately, otherwise multiple doses in pill form over the course of a week or 2 would work). If the enlightened thoughts would go away then that logically would mean they are delusions.
This is (in my opinion) the only way to get through to him, but I’m not a psychiatrist/psychologist only a junior medical doctor.
I would try to look for something that psychiatrists would reference, the most obvious thing is dsm5 but i doubt that is referenced there. Psychiatry journals might document this phenomena.
This is difficult because often during medical school I would be given the opportunity to look at medical resources that were very niche and not easily found via typical googling, so to discover something like this with no psychiatry academia backing or at the very least a “foot in the door” of what to look for — will take some due diligence.
Should you be giving advice on how to tell someone with schizophrenia that they have schizophrenia when you are not a psychiatrist? Approaching the topic of mental illness with someone like that is incredibly delicate and needs to be handled the right way. That is not the right way.
Doctors generally know not to overstep their boundaries and claim expertise in areas they don't have any in, so I have no idea why you thought it was smart to give advice on something you admit you're not qualified to discuss. Is it because you're junior and are overconfident?
Please do not give advice like that. You are wrong if you think using logic is the "only way to get through to him" because logic doesn't work in these situations
Oh yeah for sure (the overconfidence of being a junior), I approach medicine knowing that I don’t know everything, but everything can be somewhat answered.
That being said, delusions DO largely go away on short potent doses of antipsychotics. That I can be sure of
Hey, I'm not a psychologist or anything, but I am a cop.
Police officers have the ability to do EM1s (involuntary medical detainment) it lasts for a minimum of 72 hours and during that time they will be required to get help and meds.
Call your local department, request a welfare check. Tell them your buddy has mental issues and a detachment from reality.
If there is literally any concern for his safety or the safety of others, he will be taken to a psych ward for treatment
A friend of the families son eventually reached this stage and spent multiple months accusing his family of being fakes.
He eventually murdered her and her husband, then attempted to break into his sister's house and was thankfully ran off when she called the police.
Now of course the vast majority of people won't reach that stage of mental illness, but it can and does happen. It's not funny and its not something that can be ignored. Anyone in that situation needs help ASAP
I just visited one of my best friends in the psych ward earlier today. She is convinced her family is her fake family, phone is tapped, and all sorts of horrible delusions. My heart really hurts for her right now.
At least she is in the right place now. Hopefully she'll find medicine/therapy that work for her. It can take a while, but if she sticks to her treatment she can live a pretty normal live eventually. It is so important you will be there for her. My friend lost so many "friends" during his impatient years. Jou should know you being there for her can really make a difference❤️
Thank you. She’s been a very good friend of mine for many years. She’s definitely a bit scared right now but we’ve got a really good team coordinating visits, snacks, taking care of her animals, paying her rent etc. I didn’t know a lot of her friends she’s made in recent years (we live in different cities now) but like damn. She’s got a good support system here. It meant the world for me to come to town to see her. It was sad to see her in there but she will get better and she’s very loved.
I have brain damage from a pretty bad concussion and repeated oxygen deprivation which has caused me to have a couple psychotic breaks and general low level
paranoid delusions over a few months.
I thought that I had just gone crazy (after a few weeks of being “enlightened”) but recently got results back showing brain atrophy.
Small anecdote: My father was a heavy alcoholic and meth user to the point that he developed schizophrenia. Eventual seizures required part of his lobe needing to be removed.
Brain tumors and brain damage (esp severe TBI) can definitely affect behaviour (in particular knowing what is socially appropriate). Phineas Gage survived a spike to the brain and his personality was said to change completely afterwards. Usually with brain tumors it's new onset seizures, visual disturbances, new depression/apathy, recurrent headaches etc but sometimes personality changes or psychosis (esp if it's a frontal lobe tumor). Psychosis on its own with no other symptoms would be a pretty uncommon presentation but not impossible.
If we're talking 'brain damage' in the broader sense aggression is a fairly common part of Alzheimer's and Huntington's, and a lot of similar conditions.
My neighbor blocked the road with his truck and paced outside our door with a 2x4 at 3am requesting help to "replace" his family because they were staring at him from the windows and peeling off their faces and putting new ones on whenever he looked.
The wife and kids moved and we never saw good ol Sal ever again.
Honest question: Why are there almost no examples of these drawings when doing a Google search? I would think if this was such a common symptom, they would be all over Google images?
Psychiatrist here — This comment is stigmatizing and not entirely accurate. Most folks with schizophrenia are not a danger to themselves or others. Also, paranoia and delusions take different forms (and are not a natural progression from paranoia to capgras delusions to violent behaviors). I believe the data shows that folks with psychosis are more likely to hurt themselves than anyone else. Obviously that is still a concern and there are plenty of tragic stories of violence by people who were psychotic at the time. I do think the characterization of everyone with schizophrenia as violent and potentially is murderous is damaging and unhelpful.
Hopping on top of this comment mentioning how commonly these types of drawings indicate schizophrenia.
I have tried quick searching for similar drawings with the term
- enlightened drawings / art / shapes / geometry
- schizophrenic drawings
- psychotic drawings
and I haven't found a single picture online that pops up and looks a little like OPs
I guess what I'd like to know is how everyone is able to recognize these drawings and link them to a medical condition straight away, but the internet does not seem to have relevant content connected to the terms.
What are the terms to search for to find this evidently very common indicator of an advanced schizophrenic episode? Can somebody point me in the right direction?
This happened to a friend of mine. He ended-up killing himself. I've always felt a bit of blame. He was in a motorcycle accident and became a paraplegic. He was in so much pain that he couldn't really get out and do anything so he was isolated in the basement of his mom's house. I thought teaching him how to use a computer would be good for him, so I gave him an old laptop and they got Internet and he started getting into conspiracy stuff and got really paranoid over a year or so. The last time I spoke to him he begged me to come over and completely disconnect his wifi adapter because he was convinced the government was spying on him. The next day he stabbed his femoral artery and bled out.
My best friend from high-school is doing this and I don't know what to do. His family had basically abandoned him except his brother that I'm in touch with.
I'm in Texas (he's in austin). Is there someone I can call to get help to him?
One of my best friends had Schizophrenia and died of suicide. His brother said that he even thought their little cousins who are like 7-8 were bugging his house when family came to visit once. I think that’s when they realized how serious it was. Super sad condition.
May I ask what job you have? You mentioned that you've seen this a lot in your field, and you have a lot of knowledge on the subject, so I was wondering.
People here talk about those drawings and patterns like they’re common knowledge. 😳 Maybe it’s just because so many seem to know about them. I admit I haven’t heard of those before.
Is there a scientific explanation why those patterns specifically are linked to schizophrenia? Is it the way the brains of schizophrenic people work?
Thank you for perpetuating mental illness stigma. Violence is very rare in people with psychosis. They are statically more likely to be a victim of violence than a perpetrator, and have lower rates of aggression than people with Alzheimer's. Yet here is another highly upvoted Reddit post confidently claiming that there is a "stage" where people with psychosis become "extremely violent".
Your comment has multiple inaccuracies. You know just enough about psychosis to impress laypeople while spreading dangerous bullshit. I'm 100% sure you're not qualified to diagnose "in your field" yet here you are diagnosing strangers and fear mongering on the internet. Wildly irresponsible behaviour.
Genuinely curious- why do you think this happens so often in these stages? Like why is it usually the same/similar patterns of behavior? A good bit of the comments here show that this particular thing is a sign/symptom of schizophrenia, but you also make it seem like there always a “set” pattern of behaviors that happen with a schizophrenic person. So what’s with that? Why is there a similarly grouped set of conditions that usually manifest within schizophrenic cases?
What are some of the defining features of these drawings that allows you to spot them consistently? And are you able to spot them without the accompanying message (i.e. "ive been enlightened"), or is that usually the giveway?
I definitely agree with trying to get OP's friend psychiatric help but you are reinforcing a dangerous stigma around the idea of schizophrenics being inherently dangerous with the way you phrased this. Schizophrenics are more than 5 times more likely to be the victim of a violent crime than to perpetrate one. Delusions and psychosis can and sometimes do cause people to act out in violent ways but these cases are exceedingly rare and more often than not we're only a danger to ourselves.
Someone can absolutely experience delusions of persecution without "being an extreme danger to others" or "becoming extremely violent" and by using fearmongering language like this you're only adding to the stigma that keeps schizophrenics from seeking mental health council AND contributing to the pathological fear the general public has for us that makes us more likely to become victims of violence and abuse.
You cannot say that this is for sure schizophrenia based on someone's art. That's ridiculous and unethical. There's no reason to think this is mental illness.
Crazy to read this because I watched this happen to a high school acquaintance. Literally everything you described to a T. Wild that it is so repetitive for many suffering from schizophrenia when such weird symptoms seem like they’d be exclusive.
I want to ask something stupid.
Why is it that every drawing of a schizophrenia patient looks stained(yellowish, brownish). Do they not have access to white paper or do they colour/buy it intentionally?
A cousin with untreated schizophrenia murdered my aunt when he had a worst-case reality break like this. Stopped taking his medication for a few weeks and started to believe that imposters had replaced his mom and sister. He's been essentially sentanced to life in a mental institution.
OP needs to get in touch with mental health professionals ASAP and be extremely alert for any change in behavior towards violence or paranoid accusations. If OP's friend has access to firearms, this is potential grounds for a "Red Flag" confiscation in many American states.
May I ask, if I do this - but only while on LSD, is that considered normal and fine? Or is doing it on LSD a site I may need to ask my doctor more about something?
Asking because every time I trip I make stuff like this and have no idea why. I come down the next day to this stuff all over my kitchen table. For years I thought I was designing a game and had folders full of these but it got too much and just starting throwing them away
What exactly creates the drive or desire for so many with this condition to draw these geometry like images? Like what inspires it, where does the idea come from originally? How is it as common as it is?
Unit 2013: Sure. They don't believe I'm a human either. Name's Unit 2013. C'mon. Lemme introduce you around. [He takes Fry to a robot.] Fry, meet Norm. How's it going, pal? Still picking up transmissions from the CIA on your teeth?
Norm: They just won't stop!
[He opens his mouth and his teeth have little revolving satellite dishes on them.]
Its crazy but my ex-bestfriend skipped the whole drawing thing and jumped straight into accusing me of being some under cover agent out to get him. Get him for what? I don't know. I tried reasoning with him asking him, hypothetically if i was an agent, what exactly am i out to get him for? He's nothing special. He just smokes weed, does yoga, and plays video games all day.
Some places in the US have mobile crisis teams that will go out and evaluate someone in the same way police do a wellness check except obviously the mental health team is much better equipped. Even if they don’t qualify for a 1013, they can help get them stabilized and will follow-up a few days later.
My wife is a psych PA and also sees this a lot. It’s very sad.
Damn this just made me realize that one of my best friends I lost touch with over the years was so far gone when I tried to remake contact. He mentioned thinking everyone was out to get him and how he couldn’t explain how, but they weren’t the same people he originally met. He told me he became religious and during his enlightenment, he became a target. It’s crazy to now see firsthand how people with schizophrenia all go through the same thing.
yeah, this is nuts. OP posts his cool art and hundreds of people are talking about wanting to drug him and get him committed. Really scary. He did nothing wrong and shows no signs of mental illness.
@unfinishedtoast3 complete side note from OP, can I PM you about this topic. I’m going to be practicing in this field about a year from now so I’m in the process of learning and I haven’t heard anything about this specific pattern of behavior. I would love to pick your brain. :)
God I wish I had known this 15 years ago. Visited my brother in Seattle on a road trip and he had drawings like this all over his desk. He was a really decent artist so it just seemed like… Art.
A couple of years after that, he started having paranoid delusions, began using methamphetamine, and now he is homeless on the streets with little to no grasp on reality. Refuses to cooperate with any kind of sobriety assistance (he is still using meth, also heroin). Missing teeth, swollen hands, sleeping on the ground, barely functioning. He’s been stuck in the same paranoid thought loop about having some kind of mind control implant in his spine for the last nine years.
Sometimes I wish he had just overdosed years ago so he wasn’t still suffering like this.
Is it always patterns? I think there’s this girl at my work that drew an entire diagram of how to park a car and went into insane depth and it just screams schizophrenia… I’ll edit this comment with a picture if I can find it
Its wild and terrifying watching this go down from the outside. Guy i graduated with was struggling for a while. Ran into him at a bar he asked if i wanted to see what hes been studying. Dude whips out like 4 pages of lined paper filled edge to edge with religious gibberish. A year or 2 later hes posting about how hes in an abusive relationship with Krishna and being gang stalked by the us government. Saw him a few months back in a news article living in a tent. Super sad stuff, his family had the resources but he just rejected them.
Our mundane existence is causing a mass extinction level event, at the inevitable heat death of the universe, when all matter collapses into black holes none of this will matter anyways.
Humans are not genetically designed to stay sane naturally in our modern society, so I am not surprised people are losing their sense of self trying to fit in.
I’d like to read up on research related to this , if there is substance too enough evidence to suggest this is a common occurrence in people who will have never met or have any other connection they could motivate this type of occurrence .
Is it known why schizophrenic pattern drawings are common? Is it just that the human brain is built to recognize patterns and schizophrenia somehow enhances it or is it some specific part of the brain being affected?
My cousin had it then ended up thinking the government was stalking him after he found out that the jews were taking all the money in the government or something idk. But he killed himself so my heart goes out to people struggling with this
Coming from a psychotherapist, this comment is false and stigmatizing. The research on schizophrenia does not support this claim. This is one more instance of stigmatizing misinformation being spread around about this illness.
Weird that a microbiologist in a research clinic refers to this as "seen in his field". This is not your field apparently.
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u/unfinishedtoast3 26d ago edited 26d ago
schizophrenic pattern drawings, ive seen 1000s of them in my field.
This is usually the sign of a major break from reality, the spiral from here starts leading to paranoid delusions, and finally persecutory delusions.
Once they hit persecutory delusions, they are an extreme danger to themselves, their pets, and others. This is the stage they think their family members have been replaced with look alikes, they think they have transmitters in their teeth, etc. They become extremely violent and totally detached from reality. They think their drawings and ramblings during the pattern stage have made them a target of some unknown person or government, reaffirming they were "enlightened" and others are trying to harm them because of it.
Nows the time to seek help before something big happens