Schizoaffective

by Jay Paul Strange things keep happening to me, and they are not my imagination. The other day, I ordered breakfast at a diner, then stepped out for a cigarette. In the early morning darkness, I struck up a conversation with a man who happened to be standing outside the diner. He had a skateboard. After joshing me about being high on cocaine the previous night, we exchanged pleasantries about our family and work situations. At that point it got strange, but in a pleasant manner. He asked me if I were eating at the restaurant. When I answered in the positive, he said he would pay for me. He never asked my name, and I never asked his. He followed me into the restaurant. I ignored him. After I finished eating, the waitress informed me, "that guy paid for your meal." I say this only to illustrate that my life is often odd, filled with off-the-wall occurrences and coincidences. Perhaps what happened to my earrings was not a coincidence. Perhaps there was a message hidden in both ...

  by Jay Paul Recently, I learned that my diagnosis has changed—from "schizoaffective" to "schizophrenia unspecified." Whatever. It's still the same old thing. Yes, I hear voices. I suppose all of us schizophrenics come up with techniques to deal with and overcome them. Here, I will point to one that has worked for me. As always, I caution you that what works for me may not work for you. We schizophrenics need to talk to each other about our techniques and experiment, trying out various ones until we happen upon those that work. Anyway, my best technique is not to ignore them entirely. I recognize, acknowledge, and listen to them for a time when they come—which, lately, has been a good part of every day. After this greeting, I then tell them—quietly, of course, so that I don't look "crazy" to neurotypicals—that I am going away to attend to other matters. I then force myself to concentrate on what I need to do, whether it be meditating, doing the di...

by Jay Paul   [Note: A "neurotypical" is a person without a condition such as developmental issues (autism, etc.), cognitive issues, or what is typically called "mental health issues"—a so-called "normal" person.  Neurodiverse people—people with conditions such as autism or schizophrenia—add valuable insights and thinking to human culture that derive specifically from their conditions.] Oh, those poor neurotypicals and their delusions! Thing is about neurotypicals, they don't know  they're deluded. We schizophrenics often realize we are, and guard against it. For instance, neurotypicals typically think the sky can't fall simply because their culture tells them so. But it can. Chicken Little was right. Maybe Chicken Little was schizophrenic. At any rate, I say the sky can fall because sometimes the sky is clouds. Clouds fall as rain. Hence, the sky falls. What's more, in the 70s Skylab fell out of the sky. Some may say that there is a differ...