Posting memes as if one were experiencing a mental breakdown is known as “schizoposting,” an internet slang word. Schizoposting memes, often referred to as “schizo memes,” typically take advantage of mental illness and schizophrenia while veering toward conspiracy cultural narratives that also occasionally touch on mysticism or occultism. Memes featuring Trollface and other characters from Rage Comics are frequently used in schizo-posts. The phrase is frequently used in connection with the term “shitposting,” which refers to memes that can be viewed as spam or nonsequiturs.
You may be a schizoposter
Schizoposting is a term that emerged in 4chan threads and is a mashup of schizophrenia and shitposting. Schizoposters are people who exhibit symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia, such as hypergraphia, or the need to write, or word salad, which is a collection of words or sentences that seem to make no sense or are just jumbled words.
Despite the term “schizoposter,” you don’t actually need to be schizophrenic to be one; in fact, you don’t even need to be mentally ill. The following is a list of ways that you could be a schizoposter:
To put it simply, schizoposting is the art of believing crazy stuff and speaking it. It’s the skill of combining erroneous logic, peculiar syntax and spelling, and new age/based beliefs to produce a rather intelligent worldview that is beyond the capacity of any reasonable intellect, even if their lives depended on it. Also this serves as a defensive barrier against external influences and a psycho-weapon against capitalism, the state, and its proxies. Its roots are found in Dadaism and Surrealism, two creative groups that eschewed logic as a natural force and untied the unconscious/subconscious mind according to Freudian theory.
Since Refbatch has genuinely experienced psychological mind games created by capitalism, one could say that he is the new Dadaist or surrealist, even more so than those who are purposefully creating these experiences. Because the logical can be found in the nonsensical and the nonsensical in the reasonable, it can be somewhat helpful in evaluating daily life. Writing in the form of a stream of consciousness is one technique to release your inner schizoposter. In this manner, illogical beliefs might be found in a way you never would have thought possible.
Spread
In 4chan threads in the years after 2016, the word “schizoposting,” defined as the act of posting illogical memes that could be posted by someone suffering from a mental breakdown, continued to be used, frequently in reference to conspiracy theorists affiliated with QAnon. But it wasn’t until 2019 that the phrase became widely popular on other social media networks. The caption of a photo uploaded by a meme page about cryptids on December 2, 2019, which received over 100 likes in just three years, is one of the first Facebook mentions.
One of the first Instagram mentions is a video posted on February 21, 2020, by user @ginger_meme_dood, which amassed over 2,000 views in over three years (see below). In 2020, the term “schizoposting” also started to be used often on Twitter.
The subreddit /r/schizopostingmemes was established on April 26, 2021. It quickly attracted over 20,000 members before being taken down due to individuals uploading pictures of dead birds they claimed to have killed in an attempt to win the title of “top schizo.” On July 3, 2022, Redditor bemmington (great) published one such post that, in just seven hours, received over 45 comments and 95 up votes.
Such memes and posts are posted on the “schizophrenic order of piss” Facebook page, which was created on May 3rd, 2022 and has over 600,000 followers as of December 2022.
How “schizo posting” is harming to the field of mental health
Psychopaths are actually harmed by it.
This cannot be disputed. The memes’ whole structure involves making fun of or mimicking the thoughts and words of someone who is genuinely dealing with the condition, then sharing it online as if it were a joke. Is this alone not problematic? How is something that seems like a fantastic concept even approached like way? Those who suffer from comparable symptoms or who are actually schizophrenics have access to the internet, and seeing these things can make them worse or even trigger an episode. Some people with schizophrenia struggle to identify what is real. Some people believe that ordinary events are omens specific to them. Some people think that everyone is trying to get them on a daily basis.
The signs and symptoms persist, as these gaffes aim to offend everyone. Are people truly under the impression that encountering someone who shares their beliefs will be amicable? What about those who are in recovery? Many people with mental illnesses are making such progress, searching far and wide for the best physicians and therapies, improving themselves, being transparent, staying overnight, and more, only to have their progress undone by something they read online. Here are some actual instances of some of these terrible “memes” that have gained widespread popularity online.
They trivialize a grave problem.
Given the humorous nature of some of these memes, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that they are being mocked. Not to mention an entire category of memes devoted to effectively trivializing and making fun of a serious condition, the community already faces difficulties with shame and personal matters. These memes may encourage people to laugh it off or not take mental health seriously, yet mental health is a serious issue. There has never been a joke about mental health. One should never make fun of or make light of mental health. Mental wellness is not a topic for memes. Mental health issues can be fatal.
OurWorldInData estimates that 800,000 people worldwide commit suicide every year. Three hundred and sixty-five days and eight hundred thousand. More than half of these are the result of issues with mental health. Psychotic and mood disorders are the most common psychiatric conditions linked to serious attempts at suicide, according to the National Library of Medicine. Suicides have totaled 427,907 only this year. Still, we’re creating memes about mental illness.
Mental health is so misinterpreted already.
People frequently overlook or undervalue the importance of mental health. In addition, others frequently stigmatize or misinterpret it when, in fact, people are only attempting to heal. Schizophrenia is among the top 5 most misunderstood mental conditions, according to meetmonarch.com. Psychotic illnesses alone are also frequently misunderstood. Memes like these only make the situation worse. Why explicitly go after one of the most misrepresented subjects when you can attack one that is already so stigmatized and struggling? For those who already have a difficult life, doing this will only make it harder. Someone may feel alone or as though they are misunderstood if others fail to recognize or comprehend their disease.
These attempts at humor have the power to genuinely change someone’s viewpoint on schizophrenia and possibly other illnesses as well. It may also be more difficult for someone with little to no prior knowledge to comprehend if they just see these memes and have a distorted perspective, undervaluing the true experiences.
