My first thread about psychosis and saneism is how we’re often stigmatized and penalized for communicating differently than others. I’ll call this thread “rambling, nonsensical word salad”.

[CN ableist language]
To start with, I’d like to remind folks of the origin of the word “dumb”. It used to mean someone who is mute. Now it means someone who can’t think, or whatever.

Neurotypicals place a lot of value on communication...but only on THEIR form of it. If you can’t express yourself in accordance with their strict rules - which vary widely depending on the context - then your ideas are automatically dismissed.

We see this a lot with non-verbal autistics, or even folks who are verbal but communicate and experience language differently. I’ll use Gus from To Siri With Love as an example: he has a different way of speaking, so his own mother doubts he can “think at all”.

Psychotics are often harassed and belittled - even to the point of being imprisoned, beaten, & killed - because we communicate differently.

Think of the stereotypical psychotic - the homeless man ranting on a street corner - and you might get an idea of what I mean. That we’re subject to imprisonment, injury & death because we communicate differently isn’t hyperbole.

People say we ramble. That we make no sense. They think that means they don’t have to listen to us. That our ideas - and by extension, ourselves - have no value.

One of the things I hear most often from folks when I try to educate them about saneism is that my arguments are nonsensical.

They’re not, though. Sane people use that argument as an excuse to not listen, and to guard their neurotypical privilege.

I’m one of the lucky psychotics, in that I have educational privilege. A lot of us are kicked out of school, or we drop out, when we start to have psychotic episodes, so we often don’t have perfect grammar and vocabulary.

The language part of our brain often works differently than sane people, too. The thing about psychotics is we’re (according to my psych doc) “too creative”, and that means we can make up words. Sometimes really cool ones, too. And we often use words in creative ways.

That means that neurotypicals have to work a little harder to understand us. God forbid y’all have to actually think, though. So, instead of actually listening and discovering that we have something really interesting and new to say, you dismiss us as “nonsensical”.

The fact we don’t speak in cliches is actually really cool, if you ask me.

Regardless of whether you can understand us or not, why would you dismiss someone and make fun of themselves for communicating differently than you?

So next time you’re tempted to make fun of or dismiss a neurodivergent person for rambling and serving up word salad, try listening instead. The problem generally is with you, not us.

Btw I don’t have a tip jar but I would love it if you would check out my books! I also do editing and authenticity reading. https://www.amazon.com/Elizabeth-Roderick/e/B01A4FUJJM/