One aspect of
#disability #accessibility that I feel is criminally overlooked is being mindful of
#schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.
Please, please don't joke around with common psychotic triggers, at least without a clear content warning on it. It's not funny.
Examples?
Any absurdist shitposting that implies common psychotic narratives (stalking, shadow people, cryptids, paranoia, mind control, fake reality etc.), especially if deliberately directed at the reader!
Even worse if it's trying to use a meta level to 'convince' the reader that they can't trust their senses or logic! It's not funny. You're attacking someone's only coping mechanism to ground themselves right after triggering them.
The whole "they're in my walls" meme, for instance. Or the "the curse is now lifted/back" one. Or the one that insinuates someone is trapped in a coma and people are trying to send messages via these memes to wake them up or whatever.
Or that
#Fediverse joke that inserts someone's name or instance into a post (i. e. "anyone else see John Doe around everywhere lately??", where John Doe is automatically changed to the reader's name by exploiting the protocol), is just as bad.
All of these can and will actually hospitalise people, or worse!!
Psychosis is not a super rare condition. I myself experienced an isolated psychotic episode a couple of years ago after a
#THC overdose.
Example of someone hospitalised because of a TV ad that happened to use her name:
https://www.dexerto.com/tv-movies/woman-hospitalized-after-pluribus-ad-on-smart-fridge-triggers-psychotic-episode-3290678/
There are no words to describe how absurdly terrifying it can be to exist as a consciousness that can't trust its inputs anymore, whose compulsive trains of thought are working against itself.
Please, if you consider yourself a progressive or just a kind person, try to think a bit about this before posting. And use a content warning if you're unsure.
#PSA #disabled #psychosis
