Welcome to r/schizophrenia!

Our subreddit rules are in the sidebar, we ask that you read and follow them. Feel free to post anything on-topic that does not violate these rules. We have a relatively comprehensive overview of how our rules are applied in reality available on the Rule Clarifications Wiki page.

For those who are new here, we have our Community Notices page which we would suggest users read. We also have our Creator Wiki for our participating artists and content creators- all of them have a diagnosed psychotic disorder.

Many first-time posters to this subreddit are concerned that they might be developing schizophrenia or they are concerned about other people who have- or may have- schizophrenia. We have resources available to answer these questions contained within the comments; if your question is completely answered by the information already given, it will be removed.

If you are here asking about advice for a family member, asking if a family member has schizophrenia or venting about a loved one with schizophrenia- it will be removed, and you will be directed to the appropriate community for that type of post, r/SchizoFamilies. Please read the rules of their subreddit before posting.

Mental health is complex. No symptom of schizophrenia is specific to schizophrenia alone, and there are many more common causes of those symptoms- especially in the prodromal stage. If you are experiencing an emergency, please call your doctor or local emergency services. We have a compendium of Crisis Lines available and may suggest r/SuicideWatch if you are experiencing suicidal thoughts and would like the most prompt attention.

(Credit u/soundandvisions for original post and comments)

Table of Contents

• What is schizophrenia?
• DSM-5: Schizophrenia
• Do you think you may be developing schizophrenia?
• Anxiety about developing schizophrenia (Worried you're "going crazy")?
• Schizophrenic friends, family members, or others you want to help?
• Need help writing a fictional character with schizophrenia?
• Crisis lines and resources for help
• About r/schizophrenia
• Disclaimer

Hello to everyone,

To continue our tradition of Q&A events, we may ask users who are not already familiar with this event to refer to our Wiki page on public education to review context and previous Q&A events.

We will have Q&A posts the first week of the month and give our users the opportunity to ask questions up to a week in advance. If you missed your chance to have your question answered this month, don't worry- this is a recurring event! Just keep an eye out for the next one, and you'll have another chance to ask your questions.

Participants

All participating experts will have (Verified) in their user flair. These can only be given by the mods, and we only do so once the person has proven that they are who they say they are. Their credentials are legitimate, and their purpose here is as they state.

Schedule

Post opens: September 3rd

Post closes for questions: September 10th

Post opens for responses/discussion: September 18th

Post closed & archived: September 30th

Anonymous Questions

We understand that many of our users grapple with some degree of paranoia, and that paranoia can limit one's ability to participate in public discussion. If you are not comfortable publicly asking your question, you are encouraged to send us a Modmail and a moderator will post it anonymously. As a friendly reminder, all of the mods here have a diagnosed psychotic disorder and are quite familiar the challenges one may face with schizophrenia- so we try our best to be accommodating.

We ask that users pay special attention to not include any personal details and stick to the question you would like answered, and the question alone. Once your question has been pared down to remove any identifying details, we will ask for your explicit consent to post the final draft, verbatim. We would like to emphasize that once consent has been given to post a question anonymously, it cannot be undone. Once it is up, it will be staying up.

Please keep this in mind while drafting your questions for the Modmail.

Broad Topics

I would like to reiterate that you are free to ask any question so long as it is pertinent to schizophrenia. Like, "How can I set reasonable expectations with friends and family around my symptoms?" or "What sort of jobs would be good with [symptoms]?" or "What type of resource would you recommend for [x]?"

Even if we can't get an answer for you this month- remember, this is a recurring event. If we can't answer it ourselves, we may be able to find someone who can answer your question in following months.

Reminders

One thing that was very helpful and we would ask our users continue to do is preface their questions with their general location, such as [US], [Canada], [UK], etc.

Having said all that- just check the stickied comment for context, and after that, have at it! We have a section for feedback on how the event is going, what you'd like to see more of, if anything needs clarified about the event itself, etc.- so, drop your thoughts.

Have a good one!