Harm OCD and Depression

[Ember.Vesper]

A diagnosis of schizophrenia would only be made if OP were hallucinating the distressing imagery, in which case it would be schizophrenia, which is very serious and they absolutely should seek professional help. If it's just intrusive thoughts, stemming from OCD and/or PTSD, they shouldn't be diagnosed with schizophrenia, tulpa or no tulpa.

 

Yes, talking to people who live in your head is poorly accepted by Western culture at large. But there are also a number of mental health professionals and students who are members of the forum. There are many members of the forum who have told their therapists about tulpamancy. This has generally gone well. There is a published study on the positive impacts of tulpas on mental health:

 

http://pubs.sciepub.com/rpbs/5/2/1/

 

and an ongoing study preparing for the possibility of therapists introducing tulpa creation to clients as a therapy technique. (Given that tulpas are people in their own right, I'm sceptical of that one.)

 

Therapy has come a long way in the past century. A modern therapist is a facilitator of client-guided change, growth, and healing. A therapist may ask penetrating questions to help the client clarify their viewpoint, but shouldn't be telling the client that their beliefs or experiences are wrong or delusional. If that is the case, the client has to come to realize that over the course of therapy. A therapist doesn't attack functional and productive coping mechanisms just because they are exotic.

 

Leading with, 'I'm worried about someone raping my tulpa', may not be the most productive approach, except in cases where it is the entire concern for which therapy is being sought. But OP should not have problems introducing to a therapist the broader and older truth, 'I've been having intrusive thoughts that are violent and disturbing', and allowing discussion of their tulpa to emerge organically as relevant.

 

-Vesper

[tania]

All I can speak is from my own experiences of being passed from psychologist to psychologist to psychologist (I"m not kidding but I must of seen 6-7 of these in the end)..  as they struggled to understand me at all and they ended up deeming due to their struggles to do so as not being a suitable therapist for me. 

 

This inability to understand me come from them missing at the time that I was on the spectrum so firstly I'd been wrongly diagnosed (I ended up much later getting the correct diagnoses of Aspergers), me having a little understood another serious illness and then my belief system being one different to what they could really understand thrown in on top of those things.  And I never even brought up the tulpa thing them.

 

They truly got me so so wrong and hence was unable to really help me as they kept on saying the completely wrong things. I even got accused of "attention seeking".. and I think having quite far out beliefs and experiences did not help in that.  

 

Last time I sought some mental health support.. the way I was treated was truly shocking.  (there is an old psychiatrist at the hospital who seems to like have it in for me but he seems to have rubbed off on others). I was made by someone to call an ambulance as I was very suicidal at the time due to my severe health troubles with other things and disability.. I'd actually gone onto the deep web as I wanted to buy the euthanasia drug to kill myself and had started researching websites for it.. and the hospital did not even want to keep me in for the night when I was truly unsafe to go home as I knew I was going to complete my order and end up with the drug.

 

The psych told me he had no sympathy for me and my health issues at all... and said if I was a single woman who had 6 children he could understand it if I was distressed.  He did not at all care that I'm living in a filthy home and at times have not been able to get myself food...gone up to 3 weeks without it at times and even killed animals (accidently) due to not being able to look after them.  He accused me of lying about being suicidal, accused me of attention seeking etc etc.  OMG I can imagine what he would of said if I brought up anything such as tulpas. 

 

I do have a father previously diagnosed with schizophrenia (though now they say they do not know what was wrong with him though he still HAS TO or he goes delusional take drugs for this) so when they hear of my family history.. they also try to really go into the whole "are you hearing voices" kind of thing .  (I have never though told them about my tulpas or my occassional spirit experiences).. just with me having different belief system with the yogi stuff I do and that they have found that very hard to understand. I've sometimes had them actually twist things I said and put things into their notes completely wrong due to their lack of being able to understand me.

 

I had not even been able to get my medical records with the wrong mental health diagnoses on it corrected even thou twice now two of the younger psychriastrists at the hospital wanted it corrected as they could see it was incorrect and they say it's what is then leading to others at the hospital treating me badly (they wrongly got down I have borderline personality disorder, that misdiagnoses happened cause of the autism being missed by so long and cause they were so extremely misunderstanding me over me in regard to the other serious health issue I have (one those ones had no training for or correct knowledge over) and was thinking I was attention seeking... urgh.  It seems I wont be able to get my medical file corrected til that old guy at the hospital who I assume is a head of their mental health team seeing the other mental health people there seem not to be able to go against what he says.. dies. (you can be really screwed if given a wrong diagnoses).

 

anyway.. in my case if I go and start telling them things they view as far out.. it will further cause issues for me down there. The doctors at that hospital (well at least the older ones there) are not ready to hear about things such as tulpas.  Last time I was made to go to hospital as I was basically having a mental health breakdown with all the stress of what I'm dealing with, I didn't even want to speak to them but was pushed and pushed and pushed till I did (the dr actually got angry at me for not trusting him to want to talk to him).. and then once I talked to them they just didn't believe anything I said and told it was all lies and they just wanted to throw me then out of there as fast as possible..  I was told it all sounded too unbelievable (and I didnt even bring up weird stuff). I had two drs end up getting very nasty towards me over it.

 

With that study link you put up, it says

 

 "Abstract

 

Current models of mental health rely heavily on the assumption that only one agent of self exists in every one brain. Deviations from this model of singularity in mind are heavily stigmatized and often considered disordered. This paper opposes this bias by analyzing one form of plurality in consciousness: tulpamancy. "

 

 

It even says in that that it is often considered disordered and is often heavily stigmatized.. the stigmatized part is what I've experienced when I'm talked about other things that they do not understand. So that paper supports that someone may find themselves with a mental health professional who just doesnt understand at all. (and I've found that most doctors will not research if asked to do so,  if they dont believe in something). The tulpa stuff is not yet generally accepted in mental health fields.

one of two things will happen when you bring up something to a mental health professional which they just can not themselves accept (hence they wont research or read what you take in).. they will either think you are disordered or they will think you are lying.

 

IF you are lucky you may get someone a bit more open who will research fields which sound strange to them.

[tania]

ICD-10 Diagnostic criteria for Schizophrenia

 

>1 month of:

 

At least 2:

Hallucinations frequent or with any delusions

Disorganized speech

Catatonic behavior

Negative symptoms, e.g.,Marked apathy or Poverty of speech or Flat affect

 

OR

 

Bizarre delusions

Implausible (many specific types of delusions are delineated)

 

OR

 

Prominent hallucinations

Voices commenting or Voices conversing or Voices emanating from body part

..........

 

That above is the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia which could cause someone to get this diagnoses.  Just a tulpa talking to someone (there is no exemption in that criteria for self imposed halluncinations so this alone will have someone meeting one of the two criteria) and  if the psych believes this is all a bizarre delusion you'll meet the other diagnostic criteria.. could easily get someone wrongly diagnosed.  (I don't fit half of the diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder but still had that wacked onto me cause they were confused on what was wrong with me and wanted to label me with something.. many drs love labels)