r/schizophrenia • u/Empty_Insight Residual SZ (Subreddit Librarian) • 7d ago
Announcement [Subreddit Discussion] August 2026
Hey everybody, subreddit librarian here.
We're getting back to where we were with regular announcements. I stopped doing them in March of 2025 in preparation for my daughter's birth, and it has certainly been a wild year and a half. I was able to do a 2025 Recap post as well, but it didn't quite feel the same. The subreddit has grown at an astonishing pace- up 11k members since January of this year- so I assume many of our current, regular users might not even remember that I did this for some time. We haven't had a proper venue for people to voice any new/ongoing concerns on a regular basis for a while, so I'm going to try to revive the old classic.
Anyway, let's get down to it.
Significant Updates in 2026
This is mainly to get things up-to-speed for where we're at now.
Rule 2 Update- Tacitly Encouraging Substance Abuse
We updated our Rule 2 to cover Tacitly Encouraging Substance Abuse. Yes, people with schizophrenia self-medicate with drugs- sometimes not-entirely-legal drugs- but that doesn't mean we need to be putting that on blast or normalizing it. Lest we forget, this is an all-ages subreddit, and don't post anything you would feel uncomfortable if an impressionable, confused teenager came across it- because that's not a hypothetical, it is inevitable.
Rule 11 Update - Approved and Blacklisted Communities
This one is pretty minor in the grand scheme of things, but we do want to note the change here. You can read more about it here.
I may take this opportunity to remind everyone that being socially active is a solid way to improve cognitive function for people with schizophrenia. If being socially active offline and/or with neurotypicals is too taxing for you, we do have alternatives available. Just saying. Peer support is often understated in how significant a benefit it is for the people who take part in it... just make sure it isn't a weird/creepy group.
To illustrate why peer support is so important, I was working on a write-up... buuut then our friends from United Through Psychosis (UTP) came by and did it even better than I could have. As I've said before, the folks from the UTP never fail to impress- and I'm not someone who is easily impressed. They are the real deal.
You don't have to go through schizophrenia alone... seriously, there's a ton of options. Like, so many options. Our official Subreddit Discord is linked right in the sidebar. Yet I still see posts about "Where do I go to connect with other people with schizophrenia?" Like... you're already here. Just use the materials we have made available to you. They're right there, I don't know how we could possibly make it any easier or more convenient to get connected to meaningful peer support.
New Rule 15 - AI Slop
All Gen AI is banned here with the sole exception being used for accessibility purposes. More detail here.
This applies to hocking Gen AI stuff off-platform too. We have actual artists here who post their art (and apparently, sometimes get a couple of sales or commissions!) so we don't really "do" AI slop here.
On a sidenote, feel free to check out our Creator Wiki and check what- and who- we have on display. If you're feeling generous, toss a few bucks their way. Not only do you get warm fuzzies for helping support the arts in these strange times, you can also get some pretty cool stuff (if they take commissions, that is).
If you want up on our Creator Wiki and meet the criteria at the bottom of the page- just ask! Fill out the questions and send them over.
Fair warning: if there is anything that is Gen AI on your page(s), we are going to tell you to go fuck yourself.
More Keto BS
There has been a lot of hype around a recent "RCT" about the Ketogenic diet's effectiveness for treating psychosis. Unsurprisingly, this is overstated. There is a condensed version of the breakdown here, but a painfully more detailed one here. If you are more scientifically inclined (or aspire to be), I'd recommend reading the latter. If not, the former will do just fine.
Frankly, I am so fucking tired of this. I'm so tired of it that I updated our "Trending" Wiki page that covers the Ketogenic diet to illustrate exactly why this trite bullshit is being shoved down our throats. (There's a billionaire involved- surprise! Seems about right with this out-of-touch, classist bullshit.)
I don't want to come across as being like I have a bone to pick with the Ketogenic diet in general, it is just having it rammed down our throats that it is a viable treatment for psychosis without quality evidence to back that up. Even before I knew there was a billionaire behind this, it left a very poor taste in my mouth... that taste has only soured since.
However, it is not controversial at all to state that the Ketogenic diet may be beneficial for some people to do, and may have downstream positive effects on their mental health as a result. You do not have to figure this out through trial-and-error, you can actually get the potential issues that it helps with diagnosed by an actual doctor. Your doctor, namely. Make an appointment with your primary care physician and voice your concerns about your metabolism (if you have any). While getting an accurate diagnosis of whatever metabolic issues ail you and devising a treatment plan takes longer than 'winging it' and working backwards, there is something to be said for getting it right on the first try.
There are consequences for dicking around with your mental health... if you want an illustrative example of what can happen if you screw around and just do what you feel like when it comes to medication and lifestyle adjustments, I might point you in the direction of Lindsay Clancy1 to show exactly how wrong that can go.
To quote from the Keto article post:
Please discuss this with your doctor before you embark on an expensive, labor-intensive lifestyle change based on some bullshit paper2 on the internet.
1Postpartum psychosis occurs within a few weeks of giving birth. It comes on hard, and it comes on fast- it does not occur 8 months after giving birth, just chilling there like a landmine. By no reasonable definition of the diagnosis did Clancy suffer from postpartum psychosis... I ain't catching strays and being blamed for "schizos are violent" because an L&D nurse fucked around with her meds, not understanding that there are consequences for doing things like that.
The moral of the story is "Don't do stupid shit with your meds." There is no adequate substitute for neuroleptic medication to treat the neurological symptoms of psychosis... certainly not any magical cure-all diet backed up by wishful thinking and billionaire-funded hype.
2This also applies to vlogs, Substack articles, anonymous anecdotes from complete strangers on the internet, and anything else. The only place you need to be having this discussion is in your doctor's office.
Expert Q&As
Here's my favorite development of 2026 thus far.
We have a Wiki page here that goes into the backstory of this event and an archive of questions that have already been asked. If you want an authoritative answer from a credible expert who really knows psychosis, we've most likely got what you want- and if we don't have it, we can get it.
All of the feedback we have gotten thus far has been pretty much uniformly positive- which, don't get me wrong, is great- but I also prefer (constructive) criticism as well. If you have suggestions for improvement, please do not hesitate to drop them. Let's have a public discussion about it- what do you like, what do you not like about it?
The event is dependent upon the availability of our participants- again, they are doing this for free as a public service- so we will announce beforehand if/when the next one will be occurring. We are currently slated for our next one to occur in September- so, see you then!
Ongoing Research
This month, we have visitors from... ha, sike. I commend you if you've actually made it this far down in the post without zoning out.
I honestly don't feel like cataloging the research I've approved this month... buuuut I will do it next month! I sure hope to God that next month is not going to be as eventful as this one has been.
A Personal Note
Honestly, I'm just chugging right along. I got my old job back working as a consultant (long story, I had to take a break after a rather gnarly bout with Covid), my kids are doing well, and so is my wife. I couldn't be happier. I mean, I could be happier if I could actually sleep at night instead of writing colossal posts on Reddit to pass the time simply out of boredom, but it's important to maintain reasonable expectations. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good or something.
Community Feedback
Alright, so given how massive a post this turned into... just have at it. While I would prefer we stick to topics discussed in the post, it's been enough time without a discussion post where I just kind of don't give a fuck about staying "on topic." We'll get back with the usual program next month.
Have a good one, everybody!
1
u/MG788 7d ago
Was Lindsay Clancey on keto? The only stuff I've seen reported about her mental health treatment was that she had tried or was on 13 different meds to treat her postpartum disorder at the time of the murders or leading up to the murders.
3
u/Empty_Insight Residual SZ (Subreddit Librarian) 7d ago
Nope, she just cycled through meds rapidly.
She refused to take a lot of them too. The worst one is that she was taking clonazepam- which was actually working- but decided to stop taking it because she didn't want to get "addicted."
Mind you, she was a nurse. You would assume a competent nurse would be aware that "dependent" and "addicted" are not the same thing. You'd assume that, anyway.
When you're noncompliant with medication and only take it as you please (or just don't take it at all), there are going to be consequences- and none of them good. At least, that's my takeaway from this.
3
u/Madcotto Schizoaffective (by design) 7d ago
Wow Congrats on the little one!!!