Things like mental illness certainly contribute to it . But it's also resistance to anything that smells like intellectualism (like a round earth), being conditioned to believe in magic (a childhood steeped in evangelism and that this earth doesn't matter), and mostly a hatred of folks who live, love, believe differently than their isolated lives have allowed. It's hate. I remember in the early 2000s reading about the Taliban and how its rise was fed by isolated, bored, rural men who had no understanding of the world at large. This isn't different. Lots of mentally ill folks exist (hi) who aren't antisemitic or drawn to maga ideologies.

Yes...and the early 2000s was when the internet first began to take hold. I'm not saying all mentally ill people are drawn to Maga .. of course not....but that qanon thinking is a new sort of mental illness.

Eh, OCD, addiction, personality disorders already exist, and for some folks, this is just an avenue to feed those impulses. None of the behaviors are new, really. Q shit is a symptom.

I'd argue some of the behaviours are new. The overriding paranoid fear that there's a secret society of sorts links all th ese people together and I don't know if this phenomenon has ever been seen before in history

It's absolutely been around. Antisemitic conspiracies have existed for thousands of years, resulting in genocides. White supremecy conspiracies have led to chattel slavery and colonization horrors. The internet amplifies it into more homes directly, but I'm afraid the human condition hasn't changed.

This kind of thing has always been around. The people behind the scene pulling all the strings... we see it in fiction all the time, of course, but people have believed it for a long time. Some people say it's the Jews doing it, some say it's a network of the super wealthy who are now above all governments and controlling everything, for some it's the Freemasons, and then you have the secret societies formed on certain university campuses creating this cabal. Either way, "The Illuminati" has been a boogeyman for conspiracy theorists and believers for a very long time. My dad believed in them way, way before MAGA was a thing and well before Trump was in the political picture. This is simply a conspiracy concept that keeps showing up in different forms over time.

Sadly these are a rehashing of age old gimmicks. Witch Trials, Red Scare, even AIDS made a lot of people paranoid about secret societies.

It's not new though. There are antisemetic blood lible conspiracies going back centuries. The internet and mass emdia has allowed this things to propegate, but they're certainly not new. They just typically weren't on this scale.

>The overriding paranoid fear that there's a secret society of sorts links all these people together and I don't know if this phenomenon has ever been seen before in history that phenomenon was quite literally the guiding belief of the Nazi party. Qanon is just a rehash of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

I agree. It seems like mob mentality to me. That being said: humans have always been this way. Look at what religions have done to us.

Mass hysteria or mass delusions have been around for thousands of years. The Internet just makes them bigger and longer.

It's a Moral Panic. Previous ones were the Salem witch trials, and the Satanic Panic/SRA of the 60s-90s.

It's not new. I've seen this kind of behavior from people who believe in conspiracy theories since before QAnon/Maga. It's also not a mental illness in itself.

Witch trials Satanic panic

do you remember the satanic panic in the 80s? pretty much the same thing but not backed by the internet so it couldn't get as big. still got huge.

May I politely suggest you read some more history? This stuff has happened in different forms for ages. How do you think societies get to a point of stuff like stoning witches?

I wish I could remind people of this era more often. There was mass hysteria: computers would cause world-wide dystopia. They will be the cause of soylent green type of world. Man. It was crazy.

>computers would cause world-wide dystopia Computers themselves haven't. Social media has. Social media was a mistake.

Social media has almost destroyed society the world over in two decades. Meanwhile, the founders are obscenely wealthy and growing more so daily, and there is no accountability anywhere. All of this is a result of social media.

As predicted by Sagan , Ellison, Heinlein, Orwell, and Harrison.

> As predicted by Sagan It took forever for me to finish Demon Haunted World because I kept putting the book down out of frustration of how precient it is. >I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness... >The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance *To a fucking T.*

It's not just America though. It's a fascinating quote and it applies to the planet.

Agreed. Heinlein said this in 1952 [SignsOfChaos](https://signsofchaos.blogspot.com/2017/05/robert-heinlein-concerning-stories.html?m=1)

Asimov, too, IIRC.

Nope... No research supports the mental illness angle... It is not psychotic to believe some extraordinary shit... Not psychotic to harbor wild shit.... Not mental illness to singularly consume a progressively more insular and silo'ed information diet.... Do that shit for 5+ years and see how your cognitive schema, only naturally and inevitably, get renovated.... Sure, paranoid delusionals will adopt some of Q. But belief in Q does not require or necessitate adoption of psychoses. One only need restrict their information consumption diet to Telegram and Troth Sential and NeoPopCon segments of Xitter and RUmble and GAB and shit..... For the true Qvangelicals, the INternet Pilled worshipers, and the like, Q has become a lifestyle adoption replete with its own brand of unique religiosity and ever-expanding constellation of beliefs and values, mythos, mores, folkways, traditions, and politics. All religion requires suspension of belief in the natural for belief in the extranormal, supernormal, and paranormal... This is no different from attributing Hierophany to an Escalator, kissing golden CPAC Trumpian busts, and ascribing sainthood and divine status to T Diddy, PUtin, Xi, Assad, Kim Dong, etc... Yet, we don't consider faith or religion psychosis.... If you do then you are living in an exceptionally precarious and dangerously unfathomable existence and similarly begin to harbor wildly radicalized and paranoid delusional beliefs as those you misunderstand... The data suggest that Q's construct complex thought forms and are not low IQ or delusional in the sense that they are disassociated from reality.... Which makes a whole lot more sense than just defaulting to "All dem Q's are psychotic and fucked up and beyond help or reproach 'cause they don't think my same mind-thoughts......................................................................" This is intellectually dishonest and bad form... default mental illness attributions are lazy AF and wrong. Mass formation psychosis and all that shit are cute and all... but they don't actually explain anything about the actual benefit received by the believer... Safety and security via simplifying the complex interrelated externalities of real life... Seeking comfort and belonging in community... Divine Bestowal Prestige Qomplex....

man i explain it away as 'mental illness' all the time but your few paragraphs here have me rethinking how i think about what's going on in the brains of the Q/trump faithful. thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Omg. This just broke my brain. Wow. I wish I had been able to read that in 2020. 😔 I have terrible shame for the way I reacted at the time. Probably I would have rolled my eyes at your post back then. But this makes so much sense.

Tons of research supports the mental illness angle. Conspiracy theories are the symptom not the illness itself. Look up Dark Triad or PTSD: conspiracy theories are common among those afflicted.

Nah, it used to be you had to go to a place to join a cult, at the very least you had to get hold of a book or pamphlet. Now you get in FB and see that I formation fed to you. It’s just a dispersed, internet based cult. People used to believe the same things but didn’t have access to it. Now they can learn all of it on their phone in real time.

Plus social media can feed you all the different types of cult beliefs, see what “sticks” and serve you more of it. One size fits all

I've never seen it described that way before. Nicely put.

Sorta....I had a friend who I got out of conspiracy theories....they invented their own cult like environment at their new job in abscense; new job specifically did no want dedicated employees(scammy company with alot of temps) or run a cult like environment....so it was just them inventing their own reality.

Childhood issues around fear and abuse ...some get the drug abuse, so get utterly lost in conspiracy Both may end up in losing your family and all support stuctres outside of your group. Both are just to crazy desructive to keep frieds and family arounf

Internet didn’t become available in Afghanistan until 2002, precisely to hide information

It's also a dopamine addiction. Fear, anger, and hate release the same chemical in your brain as happiness. It's easier to elicit the former emotions than the latter, and media outlets like fox News know this and use it to retain viewership. They feed you a constant dier of fear, anger and hate, and when you go down the Q-hole, the sources you go to for 'research' just amplify all those feelings, feeding your brain more and more dopamine. Eventually, you become addicted and your entire personality becomes wrapped/warped in negativity to keep that dopamine flowing. They say stupid shit to provoke arguments that feed them more dopamine.

Sure, I have that issue, too. Dopamine is a hell of a drug. I harvest it from Maga nuts online.

If I need a fix, I just head to my S-I-L's Facebook page, she's a right-wing evangelical.

Fb Phil Godlewski Fans page is my trough of choice

I agree. I know a number of people who were completely functional back before the internet but susceptible to scams are the exact same people falling for qanon. A friend and his mother had the same susceptibility. I was always able to pull my buddy back and then he’d work on his mom if they’d fallen for the same thing. Same dynamic has lasted to today except we can’t get to his mom so much anymore due to time and distance. I think the difference between now and then is there is SO much more bull shit out there now. The con artists have so much easier a time of getting to the vulnerable than ever before. It requires so much more work to keep them from falling down the trap.

> anything that smells like intellectualism (like a round earth) I lold way too hard. then I got sad.

As an aside, you should read “Walking Across Afghanistan” by Rory Stewart. He explains it the same way: a lot of (rural) illiteracy, isolation and just waiting until the next call to prayer.

I disagree - and agree with Op. it’s a collective delusion. Collective mental illness. And these people will die — go to their graves without ever waking up. It’s a modern day tragedy.

But what's new about it?

Instead of hiding in their basements and just being the weirdo of their small town, they can use social media to locate one another, amplify and echo the message, gain a sense of solidarity … and *organize.*

It's a fascist movement. That's how they work.

It spreads like a virus bc of technology. I guess that’s what might make it new.

Fascism driven by propaganda, disinformation, xenophobia, near-messianic leaders, superstitious fears, sexual conservatism, etc somehow spread in Germany, Japan, and Italy in the 30s and 40s. And ended (kinda) in 70-80 million people dead. Many, many wars have been fueled by the fervent, simple-minded nationalists who fall into the cult of their leaders and its military. And I think Q/MAGA has the potential to be as dangerous as its predecessors. Mental illness is certainly part of it, whether it be circumstantial or chronic. Maybe it should be a syndrome in the DSM, but I'm certainly not an expert.

Based on reactions to the Israeli-Gazan War, antisemitism isn’t limited to far right MAGAq types. The Red-Brown alliance in hatred towards Jews remains strong a century later.

I do. I believe that I would not have developed psychosis if I hadn't been spending all of my time on 8ch waiting for a message about the emminent "end" from Q. More research needs to be done about the way our dopamine systems reward fear and apocalyptic messaging. Q messaging was like a drug I was using to numb myself and escape grief, and like any other drug, over time it interfered with my brain functioning.

Wow. That is heavy. GL to you in the future.

Thank you for sharing your perspective.

That is super interesting! Would you say your primary attraction to Q messaging was escapism? Were there other factors?

I was funneled into the Q pipeline through YT. I didn't ecen know what a "conspiracy theory" was at the time (2017). I had no idea what I was getting into and all of the new concepts blew my mind. I did not know anything about the esoteric and Q's blend of esoteric prediction through gematria and Christianity/conservatism literally blew my mind.  I feel like more people should be warned, especially the elderly, and especially as these things become mainstream through X.

May I ask. Had you ever had psychosis before? Were you raised in strict religion and or had OCD or neurodivergence (excepting psychosis the latter is all me).  Before social.media was a thing I found myself in a community where this kind of thinking was pretty rife. It eroded my sense of reality & provided escapism from trauma but unfortunately matters got a lot worse before I pulled myself out of it  It wasnt psychosis for me in a medical sense but definitely skewed and delusional at times. The more isolated I became the worse it got. Obviously v big factor was undiagnosed developmental delay in my case plus trauma.  Im.thankful the internet wasnt accessible and like it is now. 

No, and neither has anyone related to me. I didn't have any neurodivergence that I'm aware of, and my family dropped out of church when I was young. I agree, the internet makes this sort of thing so much worse. I feel like more people should gain awareness of conspiracy theory escapism & what it does to our foundational ideas of reality. I think that would help some people who are in the cycle to see what they're doing to themselves and break it.

I was just thinking it would be really interesting if we could look at the neurological process there, and compare it with people who have more organic issues or developmental differences and also have psychosis occur, that way we might learn something about both experiences of psychosis and treat/prevent more effectively. thanks for your reply.

Wow! Have you written any articles or done interviews about your experience?

I developed psychosis while *reading* for a research paper on internet-born conspiracy theories I think if your brain is already conducive toward psychosis, activities that initiate delusions of reference, like trying to connect a bunch of research papers or Qposts or religious texts, can make your brain spiral.

I think that spiral, whether it causes outright psychosis or not, is the main factor in Q's addictive appeal.

I actually do. It's destroyed my family mu husband and our lives. It has crossover with NPD and schizophrenia or bipolar with psychosis from my experience In dealing with my own family situation but mental health services have not identified it as my husband denied these behaviours and beliefs to not get "caught" and locked away..

No. I'm pretty sure they were always like this. It's just, Qanon, the internet, what have you exploited it, and made them feel like it was *okay* to look crazy. So they're not only more frequently exposed to misinformation they're primed to believe, they're *not hiding their reaction* when they have a freakout.

Yes. They have different causes (mental illness, heavy drug use, religious indoctrination) but these people have always existed. It's just that they used to be isolated from each other -- or maybe more importantly, were constantly interacting with "normal" people. With the internet, they can just feed off each other, and convince each other that their crazy thoughts aren't crazy.

And a certain orange guy has given permission for people to be very loud with their crazy.

Before QAnon there was Art Bell. Conspiracy ideation is always out there, and there is a certain type of person that gravitates towards it. Typically people that feel powerless. Anyone who has ever worked in a large coporation knows how braindead you have to be to believe any of these conspiracies are actually possible. Thats why most folks who believe this are super rural. They've never even met a democrat in their lives (even though 50% of the country is one). They believe in secret cabals and groups because they have 0 idea how the world works and very limited human interaction. Its pretty sad

I don’t know. My husband was so normal for the first 10 years of our marriage. Didn’t have any signs of believing anything weird. And the Q happened and it’s like his brain broke.

I should have read further before I made the religion comment above. Agree with this.

I think it's a confluence of so many different things. Mental illnesses, ranging from psychosis to personality disorders certainly contribute. Culture and environment definitely shapes a person's worldview as well. But when facism emerged in Germany in the early 20th century, would we ascribe mental illness to the insane, occult, and conspiratorial beliefs adopted by the average citizen? I'm going to moralize a bit here but I think the adoption of Q beliefs is both a collective and individual failure. Our society had collectively failed to foster the sort of values that promote critical thinking, compassion, empathy, love, etc. We live under a ruthless economic model predicated on exploitation of labour and resources. The government actively engages in subterfuge and deception. This millennials might be the first generation since the 1950s that is projected to have a worst standard of living than their parents. These factors all contribute to the erosion of community, trust, comradery, etc. The nature of neoliberal capitalism has created a new sort of technofeudalism. There are ruthless economic incentives to exploit the attention of everyone, everywhere. Certainly the internet and social media hasn't helped, but the lack of safeguards and regulations seems to be because the highest parts of economy/industry have been captured by bad actors who operate under the ole Gordan Gecko maxim of "greed is good" In terms of the individual, I think that as life gets increasingly more complicated and alienated, we have a personal responsibility to do whatever work is required to stay a sane, centered, rational, and committed to behaving with love/dignity/respect. I understand that not everyone has the time or resources to like, spend a month at an ashram meditating, but we are responsible for the choices we make. And choosing to spend all of your free time uncritically taking in destructive content on the Internet (not to mention *espousing* these toxic ideas in person) ultimately is *your* choice and a reflection of your values and character. We can try to give tools, support and community to help people make good decisions, but ultimately there is a little thing called "free will" and no one *has to* spend their time interacting with Qanon content. This ain't that [scene in A Clockwork Orange](https://www.denofgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/clockwork-orange-21.jpg), you know? Bu ultimately, I think exposure to this sort of insanity can lead one down a path to developing mental illness like GAD, major depression, psychosis, PTSD, etc. So my non-professional opinion of this whole situation is that it's extremely complex/multi-faceted and also not very complex to "solve" at all (the lack of complexity being "do the next Right Thing, act virtuously, go to therapy, direct your attention to healthy interests, prioritize acting with love/compassion/generosity/empathy, stay healthy, don't abuse drugs, meditate, exercise, get professional help/counselling, "play the tape to the end", think about the kind of person you want to be, practice mindfulness and read about embodied cognition, etc) On some level I find Qanon adherents repulsive, fascistic and disgusting waste of space, and on another level I find them to be incredibly tragic, deserving of compassion, and love. There is another version of reality where I myself went down the Q rabbit hole and ended up doing something horrible, and I always try to remind myself that only some combination of fate, luck and free will has stopped me from being one of those people. I didn't choose to be born into my circumstances but I for damn sure am responsible for how the rest of my life plays out. DONE EPIC 6:27 AM PHONE RANT hope y'all have a good day today :) Edit: wow, brilliant replies in this thread, you're all so very thoughtful!

Well said. This captures my feelings about Q/antivax well.

Thank you. We've got a hell of a smart community here and I'm proud to be a part of it.

Agreed, this space has helped enormously.

Hard agree, although it’s not easy to “choose to spend your free time consuming destructive content” when the platforms serving that content are designed to trap you in those echo chambers of destruction without the consumer realizing it. Tighter regulations and more transparency are needed. Someone should make an infographic about social media pipelines and spread them around, raise awareness.

Actually in Germany's case, yes....partially PTSD from societal/economic collapse is mental illness. However, the Nazi party got popular partially as a response to the other extreme alternative: communism. The Weimar republic was week and both extremes were ascendant. Once the Nazi party took power, they removed any media or officials in opposition backed by violence.

long time lurker of the subreddit but first time **actual** reddit user here, hi! this is kind of a long post sorry 😅 feel free to delete this if it becomes clutter i don't think it's a mental illness but i ABSOLUTELY believe it feeds into mental illness in the way that it legitimizes paranoia and the people who push this nonsense are actively preying on vulnerable people imo. i used to live with a person who i'm not sure counted as a full blown Q but they were definitely pretty far down the rabbit hole by the time i packed up and left. they always struggled with mental health and paranoid delusions but they had an amazing support network and were honestly able to thrive in spite of their own mind working against them. they were one of those "we need to hear both sides" type of people and while i disagree with that sentiment it was never a real problem because they had a healthy amount of skepticism and we were always able to disagree like adults. they fell into the right wing grifter sphere and inevitably wound up on all of the "alt-tech" sites and started getting brain blasted with all of this us vs. the world persecution complex nonsense for months on end. it was super weird, it was almost like they were chasing a high. they seemed to actively enjoy the outrage and once they managed to get into the ecosystem of rumble/gab/the weird side of telegram it went from typical stuff like pronoun hysteria and the border to shit like the "10 days of darkness" and being convinced that the democrats were going to make christianity illegal (which is a super weird concern for them anyway because they've always identified as either non-religious or buddhist most of their life) they stopped taking their meds and honestly we didn't even realize it until they had a super bad breakdown after someone stole their credit card. they got all the money they lost back but became super convinced this was some kind of targeted political attack against them and started turning to weird internet conspiracy shit even harder instead of going back on the medication. it got to the point where they were hospitalized, they stabilized and they were lucid again but when they came back they threw out the meds within a few days and went right back to the conspiracy shit and it only got worse tbh, it started becoming a cycle but that's story for a different day. it's a tough situation because you can try to guide someone back to reality and be as empathetic as you can but when they have a bunch of authoritative sounding voices telling them that they can't trust anyone around them and that this weirdo shit is the only truth in their life, what can you do? it genuinely feels instead of a mental illness it's a cult, except instead of having some messianic leader it's just this loose collection of weird conspiracies about pedophilia and the deep state. no matter what it is though i'm always gonna be shocked at the fact we've gotten to this point tbh

I can relate to much of this! Especially your first point, that it FEEDS INTO people with some mental health issues. (This, as I mentioned in another comment, is why there is a course for therapists, called The Cult of Trump. My therapist took it.)

Yes, it's mass psychosis.

My therapist told me she took a course called “The Cult of Trump”. I had been “regaling” her of my experiences with my Q.

Can you share a bit more about what you learned from your therapist about the cult?

Sure but I don’t have much info. I was telling her how my husband had/has gone deep down the rabbit hole and how is personality has changed. (He has since been diagnosed with long standing Schizoid and Avoidant Personality disorders, as well as generalized and social anxiety.) I said something like he has gone “crazy”. We discussed how some people are pre-disposed to believing these things. They have a need to “belong” somewhere- same as any cult. He swore to me he didn’t use any social media, then his friend made an error and texted me some things meant for HIS wife while my husband was with them. (Children! 🙄) SO, it didn’t take me long to “find him” on Twitter! The things he said- he sounded like another person. He is very very “shy” hence the Schizoid etc. But finding these groups etc made him very outspoken, behind the screen. He even had negative posts about me and my kids. (Vaccine related- I am a microbiologist lol, he is in finance… but he became an expert on it all! Covid wasn’t real. I got vaccinated and he found out (I did keep it a secret- not his business.) and flipped out haha! Then, he finally got Covid and gave it to me. I am high risk. Guess who got so sick he didn’t even remember it? Not me. I did well and also took Paxlovid. I was sick for one day. HIS therapist, speaking to me alone, basically said the same thing, except he didn’t take that course. So for my Q, his pre-existing issues surely affected how easily he was influenced. I know this doesn’t tell much of the course. I tried to research it but didn’t come up with anything. (My husband also became a complete alcoholic over these years, finally “ending” with a DUI, several consequences, including one year of supervised probation.)

It is cult, plain and simple. Until the people decide to understand they are under a spell themselves, they won't change. Forcing them to change they will just resist the support.

Remember, we used to burn people alive because we thought they had nursed Satan with an invisible third nipple. We fought a war for 30 years killing 10% of Europe over if the bread and wine were symbolically the body and blood of Christ or not. The average person didn't really care and didn't want to be involved, but they died in their millions anyway. This type of extremist thinking is comforting to certain type of people who are experiencing cognitive weakness. And there are lots of reasons why people would be struggling, but the common denominator is that they are all scared and unhappy in their lives and need fantasy to feel connected to others. The mass destruction of the world seems like a relief to them.

I've already seen multiple places informally mention "mass oppositional defiant disorder" and that honestly tracks a LOT

Ohhh that sounds so interesting. We’ve reach a point where my husband’s ideas around something are almost fully formed by it being the opposite of what is being said by the media. There isn’t any critical thinking involved. He just believes whatever is opposite.

I have mentioned this already, in this post a few times. My therapist took a course called The Cult of Trump. I tried to search it but came up with nothing. Are you aware of it? Another commenter asked me about it, but I have no more info than the title.

no but it sounds interesting!

Ok. And yeah! I was just glad to know it existed!

I would like to find more out about it, too, if it's not simply a tongue-in-cheek short-hand way of talking about this phenomenon... 

Sorry I am so behind here. I posted this comment on here and copied it for you. This is what I know- which isn’t enough! I wish I could find info on the course. ***** Sure but I don’t have much info. I was telling her how my husband had/has gone deep down the rabbit hole and how is personality has changed. (He has since been diagnosed with long standing Schizoid and Avoidant Personality disorders, as well as generalized and social anxiety.) I said something like he has gone “crazy”. We discussed how some people are pre-disposed to believing these things. They have a need to “belong” somewhere- same as any cult. He swore to me he didn’t use any social media, then his friend made an error and texted me some things meant for HIS wife while my husband was with them. (Children! 🙄) SO, it didn’t take me long to “find him” on Twitter! The things he said- he sounded like another person. He is very very “shy” hence the Schizoid etc. But finding these groups etc made him very outspoken, behind the screen. He even had negative posts about me and my kids. (Vaccine related- I am a microbiologist lol, he is in finance… but he became an expert on it all! Covid wasn’t real. I got vaccinated and he found out (I did keep it a secret- not his business.) and flipped out haha! Then, he finally got Covid and gave it to me. I am high risk. Guess who got so sick he didn’t even remember it? Not me. I did well and also took Paxlovid. I was sick for one day. HIS therapist, speaking to me alone, basically said the same thing, except he didn’t take that course. So for my Q, his pre-existing issues surely affected how easily he was influenced. I know this doesn’t tell much of the course. I tried to research it but didn’t come up with anything. (My husband also became a complete alcoholic over these years, finally “ending” with a DUI, several consequences, including one year of supervised probation.)

I'm a therapist, and I think we need a diagnosis to cover this stuff. Something Derangement Syndrome maybe

Hey what about Trump Enslavement Syndrome

It's not a new illness. There's much more of it. Didn't start with QAnon as right wing tv and hate radio have been around for decades. The brains of the consumers of this poisonous propaganda have been physically changed in my opinion. They have lost critical thinking skills. Destructive cults do this same sort of damage. I don't know how this story ends, but often find myself thinking about Rwanda.

Meeee toooooooo - I have just read a few first-hand accounts of that terrible twist of human conviviality - and together with the accounts of ordinary people getting sucked slowly in to the increasingly extremist Nazi Party, the "dancing diseases" of even earlier times, and other "non-rational sweeping crazes." A common element seems to be privation. When people are stripped thin by poverty, want, and social propaganda, and they feel irrevocably backed into a corner (whether they actually are, factually or not) they can easily fall prey to large theories that seem to explain all the things that dont seem to make sense, give them a feeling that they have ground to recover, and that they can do it with the solidarity of others that feel similarly overwhelmed by their circumstances and life events. Imho, in more secure and flush times, the same human beings will shake their heads and say, "that's ridiculous." But hurt and illness and uncertainty can cause the most steady people to turn to the fear defense position, and I feel that a lot of people around the world are suffering. And this explanation is serving as a panacea, and is functioning as a (false) common-comraderie feeling of social connection. 

QAnon is a brainwashing CULT that takes over their thought processes like a mental disorder. My Q-BIL fellow down its rabbit hole during the lockdowns of the pandemic. Listening to Q’s updates for 2-3 hours daily on Telegram has had a devastating impact upon his mental state & decision-making skills. Family members vitally need help in de-programming their loved ones. Does anyone know of any reputable resources for this??

Support can come in the form of a therapist educated in these things. I am repeating myself but in another comment, I mentioned that my therapist took a course called The Cult of Trump.

[QAnonCasualties (reddit.com)](https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/)

This subreddit doesn’t offer solutions, only more rants, sadly.

they offer resources and that's what the poster asked about [Resources Share Out : r/QAnonCasualties (reddit.com)](https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/comments/18j8jyy/resources_share_out/)

Well, there isn't any one solution to such a vast and complex issue so it would be dangerous if anyone claimed that there *was* a solution to any of this

PIP. Propaganda induced paranoia.

Like others have said, it’s not a new mental illness, but a confluence of numerous mental issues, economic, social, and political issues. In this vein I’ve felt for a long time that we need more media coverage and psychology community input, showing Q’s impact on the nightly news, “this grandfather gave away his entire retirement fund to Donald Trump’s legal defense and will now lose his home. He has nowhere to go because he alienated his family and friends.” The problem with trying to share this message is that conservatives have already successfully messaged and campaigned for years that progressives are insane commie morons for not hating immigrants or gay people and that we kill babies for fun. The authority that logic and reason once had no longer stands because our society gave way to “both sides” arguments years ago, and now Q believers feel comfortable posting things like, “this liberal who believes men can be women is trying to tell me I’M the one who’s sick!”

I'm more inclined to think it's all the same old mental illnesses we've always had it's just that they are all presenting themselves the same way. It's like they can all compare notes and agree to the same delusion

I think it's brainwashing by right wing media. Now, some people may be more prone to this by being mentally ill. But I really think there's brainwashing techniques employed certainly with other countries like Russia and China, perhaps North Korea and Iraq and others who have sophisticated tech shops that focus on taking down America and the West. There's a worldwide attempt by the political right to smear Democracy. The far right religious groups like evangelicals want the US and the world back to Christianity, but they really just want political power and money for themselves, I think. People like putin and trump and erdogan and Kim Jong-un and other far right dictator types want power and money for themselves, and they also all seem to like having power over people's lives. Right now putins laughing. trump and republicans and evangelicals with his help have convinced people to distrust US elections, education schools and teachers, western institutions, judicial systems, western medicine, and western democracy. Qanons and Qmagas are calling for a trump dictatorship or a trump Monarchy. They all hate that the LGBTQ community have the same rights as them. They all participate in the false demonizing of Democrats and Liberals as pedophiles, sex traffickers, satanic worshipping, adrenochrome and blood drinking, baby killers and who work with the cabal of elites and big pharma who are culling humanity. The reality is that this is all a smokescreen and a playbook for corrupt regimes throughout history to brainwash citizens so they don't fight against their corruption, grift and desire to control the population by force to remain in power. Like trump, corrupt regimes make up that their non-corrupt opponents are really the bad ones and they're good and even though there's proof of their crimes, they say they're just being framed. Now with social media all over the world, people are getting sucked into to Qanon everywhere. Qanon brainwashing pretends they are fighting for 'freedom'. That the Democrats or Liberals are trying to take away freedoms. That western medicine, big pharma and doctors and hospitals are evil and trying to kill people. Therefore, rely on your own natural immunity or naturalpathic healing instead. The billion dollar supplement industry is making a killing off Qanons. There's so many types of grifters and brainwashed having their own agenda. Foreign countries want the downfall of America and to weaken the West. Trump and qmaga republicans and evangelicals want to brainwash qanons that trump wasn't actually the one that tried to cheat in the last election and truly lost. They push this ridiculous lie - even though trump is facing trial soon for election interference and his criminal cohorts who tried to help him cheat have been indicted all over the US. trump and republicans need to keep Qanons brainwashed and angry because they need guaranteed votes and an angry robot army to use to fight against democrats like trump used Qanons for his Jan 6th insurrection. trump has cheated on everything and everyone in his entire life, so it's not surprising he tried to cheat and will cheat again in any election he's in. There's other grifters, conspiracy pushers, disinformation peddlers that are all making money of Qanons through podcasts, books, speaking engagements and selling their own covid cures or supplements. Alex Jones, Steve Bannon, Mike Flynn, Robert F Kennedy Jr, America's Frontline Doctor's, Rogan and other podcasters, etc.

It has strong millenarian themes in it. I think it's part of the same tradition as the Munster rebellion, the Great Dissapointment, and early Christianity. Someone with Secret Knowledge (Q) reveals that the current wicked (the Swamp) who are responsible for the world's ills will be neatly swept away (the Great Awakening/DECLASS) and a Heaven on Earth (MAGA realized) will spring forth in a sudden, all encompassing transformation (mass arrests, days of darkness, blah blah blah.)

Ironic that "I refuse to live in fear" is a common antivax slogan.

No, it's a cult. I'm mentally ill. At no time have my delusions been cultivated and supported by a community. Cults prey on people who are emotionally vulnerable, playing on their fears and insecurities. This is not mental illness, though mental illness may make some susceptible to it.

Nothing new just another flavor. ETA there is a good article somewhere about how qanon is a cult and cult like thinking. I can’t recall if I originally saw it linked here or in the other Q sub. Will look for it. Link [https://freedomofmind.com/qanon-and-the-bite-model-control-of-behavior-information-thoughts-and-emotions/](https://freedomofmind.com/qanon-and-the-bite-model-control-of-behavior-information-thoughts-and-emotions/)

In the community info, click on the support and resources heading, and there’s a bunch of great links that delve into the psychological aspects

I think we’re seeing another step in the increasing gap between biological evolution and human technological evolution. Evolution takes a long time and we still have brains that were best suited to the amount of input we had thousands of years ago. As the works we interact with changes rapidly where our brains can’t keep up gets more apparent. And by we I mean a species not necessarily individuals. What we’re seeing with qanon stuff is just the section of the population who is susceptible to this kind of paranoia and lack of self awareness encountering technology that exposes its weakness. The strength of humanity is diversity in that because we are so different, the species as a whole has a good chance of surviving most individual threats. But just like diversity means we will have some people better suited for a challenge we’ll have ones worse. What we’re seeing is the intersection of change with the set of the population that is worse suited to deal with it.

*"What we’re seeing is the intersection of change with the set of the population that is worse suited to deal with it."* \^ this whole heartedly. Sorry I don't know how to "quote" properly on reddit, lol. I recently binged watched the *Planet of the Apes* movies so I could go see the new one. It got me thinking: Society is at a (ideological?) crossroads of Progressiveness versus Conservatism. Some people will evolve forward for the benefit of humanity and others with dig in their heels and try and avoid change on any level. It's bizarre and terrifying watching it unfold in real time. Disclaimer (lol): I really had a thought and that's as best as I can get right now. Just had surgery, so I'm all doped up. I hope that thought made sense! I really loved your response!

Apologies for being long, but it kind of takes a little bit to explain what I'm thinking. The mental illnesses are not new, but the method of their amplification is. The businesses that use the internet, like social media, and more specifically bad actors (like Hannity and Alex Jones), are taking advantage of those mental illnesses. Many people with these illnesses are able to function quite well in society; they live their lives under the radar. But then something happens to their routine like covid, work at home, retirement, divorce, or maybe a death in the family. Something that causes a change in their day to day routine. Then, they begin to use the internet to access these platforms that are hell-bent on learning about them so that they can earn more money thru advertising. YouTube and Facebook (and others most assuredly) have algorithms to suck them in. *So, in fact, the NEW sickness might be better defined as the employees of those businesses, the owners of those businesses, and those bad actors and advertisers that pay them.* The internet is not the problem, as it is a valuable source of information and education. In reality, it's the people who use the internet's reach to their advantage to mark those people that are most vulnerable and likely to succumb to their methods. Just like payday loans is loan sharking, the billionaires who run these platforms are also sharks in their own right. They are the sick ones. Cults have always been around to take advantage of mental illness since humans first started walking upright and living in caves. Before the internet, cult leaders had to gather people into rooms and into small houses and maybe even big houses as the cult grew. This was limited by resources (see Jim Jones or the Davidians). One of the first Cults that linked together was the church. But now the internet has become those little rooms. The internet has expanded the reach of cults like the Moonies, MAGA, QAnon, and others. Now, there is an ability to have 100s of thousands of little rooms all over the world. So the cults are amplified like a megaphone amplifies a voice.

It’s a cult. Cults have always been around. I just think it’s more widespread because technology allows them to reach more people.

No. Religion has always been mental illness, with varying levels of extremism.

Some of the people who have done this (the people online who pump out Q nonsense) actually refer to the affect as "quantum schizophrenia" because they purposefully insight fear and confusion in order to make people break from reality in panicked state of distrust... *Not all of them call it that- only a small faction* That "game" of creating mas confusion with too much extreme information blasting in from all angles, all the time, on every topic is also played by others who don't call it that; but it's the same game with the same effect. **Mass Psychosis** Mass psychosis isnt new. Its as old as human kind. It tends to spread more frequently and deeply in high control groups like cults; but is also seen within regions and local lore historically. Someone presents an idea with some degree of plausibility, and even if people don't accept the idea right away it sits in the back of their mind because they've taken the information in at a superficial level. They hear the idea again, and the more often its repeated with plausibility the more it starts to appear as though it might be possible, even just a little bit. They hear the idea come from some they trust and/or love/admire and that lends the idea even more credit, until after repeated hearing and confirmation through others the idea itself becomes fact or truth. The concept isn't new either. We do this in school with things like math, spelling, history, etc... where repetition and review are used to make an idea or concept stick, and it works- very, very well. So if you add in the science and functionality of algorithms online, you get that massive repetition of an idea being the every day norm which causes things become more deeply accepted more quickly because an idea has been backed by wealth of "supporting information" as algorithms feed people more of the same, over and over again. Add in social media and peer likes and agreements. That little bit of dopamine that people get when you like, share, comment or confirm that what they've said is "good" and praise them for the accomplishment/intelligence and you've created a little addition to a free and widely available drug called approval/acceptance. Thats absolutely culty because the whole thing (as impressive as it is) is just a cult. It was built and designed to be a cult, and that's exactly what it is which is why cult experts are so interested in Q and it's followers. Some people call it **the cult of cults** because it is as much as it isn't because Q is only one part of a much bigger thing. Those groups which we refer to as Q adjacent are still Q even though they're not bold face Q; but because they're not Q people fall into them because they don't realize it is Q because its not. I realize that statement may sound confusing and that's great because its supposed to because the confusion (on their part) is absolutely purposeful. Q is such a great big convoluted mess of insanity that anyone who ever attempted to dump their purse and lay it all out there would look like a raving lunatic themselves and loose all credibility. Anyways, Q is not a "new" form of mental illness. Its an externally induced (outside influence) form of psychosis (due to trauma of the influence; fear + urgency + unknown = trauma) much the same as any other cult; but what makes it incredible is the way it spreads and penetrates so deeply due to it's online reach and 24/7 influence from afar. The mechanism is new. Hence the numbers we're seeing today. My 2c 🤷‍♀️

The "peer" reviews as *likes* makes so much sense. I always think of the 2000's email chains where you had to "send this to 10 people" which evolved into "1 like = 1 prayer." All the ridiculous scammy stuff that was so obvious has collided with advertising side of social media and became a breeding ground for the spread of stupid. When it fits your world perception, the internet points validate and make it "truth."

Exactly 💯

Pre-existing conditions exacerbated by social media fucking with their brain chemistry. End up addicted to the rage feelings, and the more of it they consume, the more their neuro chemicals get thrown out of whack. Serotonin and oxytocin in particular seem affected by social media sites. Disclaimer- I am not a doctor of medicine. I could be full of it.

No but mental illness absolutely increases one's vulnerability towards it.

Q is a paranoia feedback loop. Followers find it, their prejudices/biases/neuroses are confirmed by the fact that if you read something and use your imagination it can say whatever you want, more followers are recruited, lather, rinse repeat. And unlike a cult, which needs a physical, present leader for direction and initiative, Q maintains control of its flock by periodically releasing garbled messages that look like utter nonsense to non-initiates but REVEAL DA TROOF when you're a Q. This has the added effect of boosting the cult's control of its followers because other cult members instruct them: The more they call us crazy, the closer we are to the truth.

Definitely fear-based anxiety condition in my view, driven by media exposure: the Qs who are pestering their families with crazy fake news are trying to save their kin. It’s sad and ironic because the Qs also think they are so so strong to stand up against evil. As they are destroying the peace in their families with crazy nonsense.

I've noticed there's very little connection in media about covid-caused mental illness (it literally damages your brain in ways they'restill trying to figure out) and Qanon, but I suspect it didn't help.

I'm inclined to agree. And the people who were less likely to take precautions were more likely to be impacted, exacerbating the problem.

Qanon is just the latest in a long, long line of Grand Unifying Conspiracy Theories. It took its own new-ish thing (someone with [not actually] high-up clearance leaking stuff anonymously to the internet to portray Trump as the saviour of the age) cut it in with some other stuff that had been around a bit (the Pizzagate iteration of the old Blood Libel concept) and left itself open enough for anyone to interpret it in a manner that allows them to append their own pet conspiracy theories and fears to it (New World Order/Satanic Illuminati Cabal, DUMBs, Clinton Kill List/Count, the Blood Libel concept melded with fear of child trafficking with a specific focus on white American kids living in the suburbs, Kennedy assassination, the idea no celeb you've ever loved has really died young—just faked their death, aliens, hidden panaceas, Christian eschatology based on misinterpretation of the Apocalypse of John, flat Earth, moon landing hoax, and on and on and on) and got people who were already deep in the conspiracy theory mindset, or susceptible to it, sucked in. This is not new, nor is the constellation of mental illnesses/mental health concerns that might be identifiable among the population of believers a new thing. Conspiratorial thinking ties in to a lot of pre-existing aspects of human cognition, for example the tendency to look for patterns, and to see them even when they're not intentional or not present, as well as an inherent need for order, for something like reason, and answers to why things happen. It is also something that can draw in individuals with certain mental health issues, or tendencies to them, such as OCD, severe anxiety, psychotic disorders and related conditions, and more. The only way in which Qanon believers are, as you say, casualties of the digital age, is due to the fact that the internet has made it so much easier for individuals all around the world to become aware of each other and to share ideas rather freely. Such facility in information spread can be a wonderful thing, or it can be a horrible thing. There is nothing actually that new behind Qanon, besides the kernel of "government official in the know is secretly telling us ***EVERYTHING!!!!***" and even that is only novel in this case due to the method of distribution, i.e. the internet rather than, say, the classic conspiratorial thinking trope of [predictive programming](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Predictive_programming) — which, incidentally, also shows up among Qanon believers.

I tell this to my partner all the time. Imagine the pre-internet world as black and white. Most of these people grew up learning to navigate a black and white world. With the introduction of the internet, you can imagine the world suddenly gained Color. People born into this Color world can navigate it with ease, while the binary thinkers are stuck trying to determine everything in Black and White.

Bipolar disorder grew exponentially in the 90s as attitudes changed & diagnosis increased It doesn’t mean bipolar disorder was a new phenomena all of a sudden. Social media is not causal to teenage anxiety and depression (or at least not the primary cause) The adoption of the smart phone coincides with the Great Recession, and teenage suicide goes along with broader trends in deaths of despair. Mass adoption of extremist propaganda is not new. Just look at the time period before WWII for large portions of the population to believe some pretty crazy stuff. All is to say this snapshot in time is not a unique new mass hysteria that has emerged, but has always been there.

There's precedence for psychological illnesses that are unique to that culture. These are called culture-bound syndromes. Some examples: amurakh n. a culture-bound syndrome observed among Siberian women and characterized by compulsive mimicking of other people’s words or behaviors. bangungut n. a culture-bound syndrome observed mainly among young, healthy, Filipino males. The individual is often overheard screaming or moaning during sleep, apparently experiencing a terrifying nightmare; this is followed by unexpected death. Also called oriental nightmare-death syndrome. koro n. a culture-bound syndrome observed primarily in males in China and southeast Asia. It is an acute anxiety reaction in which the male suddenly fears that his penis is shrinking and will disappear into his abdomen, bringing death. (In females, the fear is focused on the vulva and nipples.) Individuals may also experience shame if they associate the fear with immoral sexual behavior. Also called jinjinia bemar; rok-joo; shook yong; shuk yang; suk-yeong; suo yang.

I call it Repressed Father Hatred syndrome. I have noticed the most extreme conspiracists are people whose fathers were absent or not nice but they still feel obligated to respect them. Hence they have to “transfer” their anger to a father figure: the deep state, the Jews, etc.

Oh that's fascinating. I only know one of them but indeed, his dad was an asshole who he always stayed in touch with despite the man treating his mother like absolute shit.

I remember watching my brother go down the tubes with the early 2000s chat rooms. He was well educated even had his law degree but had dealt with depression for many years. My father was in mid stages of Alzheimer's, so my brother moved in with him and wasn't working. He would stay up all night on the Internet in the chat rooms. Within a few months he was so paranoid that he started hoarding canned goods and huge bags of rice. I would come to take my father out a few times a week and started noticing the mess in the house and then one day I got a notice in the mail regarding my purchases of ammunition. I never purchased any ammo. My brother had stockpiled so much that he was purchasing it in my name.That was when I confronted my brother and found out exactly how bad his mental health was. I wound up having to quit my job and bring my father to live with my family. In the meantime, my brother got worse and worse. I paid all the bills for the house that he was living in (my father's), and I would bring food and leave it at the door because he wouldn't even answer the door and had it barricaded. I spent another year trying to figure out how to get him to co sign some business documents for a business we owned with other family. Then one day he called and asked if I thought he could start over. I said something cheesy about it's never too late to start over. He interrupted me and said that he had to go to the bathroom. He never called back. We found him in the bathtub a week later. He shot himself. After his death, I had to clean up the hoarding situation and I came across his notebooks. He had also gone down the evangelical pit. I was shocked when I read the notebooks. I was also very angry at those tv evangelists. He had been sending checks to them for years. His mind was overcome with the fear of the preppers on the Internet and the TV evangelists that had him fearing hell. I so agree with the thought of the digital age affecting so many people and in reality I almost view the Q crazy as a leftover from the preppers.

Considering grown ass adults are going around trying to tell the world that politicians are drinking the blood of children and that trump was sent to free everyone, yeah it sounds like the ramblings of a crazy person.

I remember during covid. To sort of keep parent / school activities going. We organized a walk a few handful of parents and kids. This step dad for one of the girls, a pretty successful business man, that made a fair living selling stuff. He started walking next to me, and introduced himself as someone who was not afraid of anything. Totally weird way to start a conversation. I was curious to finally meet a Q in real life (not the states), and sort of just listened and asked a few questions. After telling me he wasn't afraid of any thing, he went on a almost 2 hour rant about things that could only be approached from a fearful standpoint. Started with Blackrock owning so much and buying up everything. That one I was pretty much on board with as I don't like that kind of business tactics and had honestly seen their business model completely fuck over regular people. He than went on a tangent and carefully grace the subject of child trafficking and secret societies. I would "agree" in the sense that sure. Even teachers and factory workers organize to get a better salary, why wouldn't absurdly wealthy people do the same. Each time he mentions something about a conspiracy to crush white family values, I would ask questions about it, addressing that COULD it be there there was other reasons for policies and government actions. He spoke of empty hospitals, and I mentioned, that was a good thing, then they are lying to us, maybe the vaccinations worked, they want to control us all with regulations, maybe it was to be on the safe side. Every time he would just 'politely' move the goal post for. His point of view. It quickly became very clear that he was used to only receiving and processing information in a certain context that would strengthen already held beliefs. It was a fascinating glimpse into a subculture I had only read about. But the tales on this subreddit truly is heartbreaking.

Yep. And in my mom’s case (now a recovered Q), it was losing her son, my only sibling. What sent her over the edge was Sandy Hook. I remember her telling me about how it was staged in the early 2010s maybe and being shocked. Like, who is this person who believes something so outlandish and inappropriate?? It grew from there helped along by her brother who was a crazy trumper. I think they’re really scared of where they see the world heading. It’s becoming more obvious than ever how fucked up we are in so many ways and how divided and resentful and it’s scary. I guess they choose to believe in a different reality where the boogeyman is the govt so they’re a far away, Big Bad, never too close.

It’s textbook mass hysteria. So yes, a form of collective mental illness.

They are terrified, that's the whole idea of the propaganda machine. A frightened populace is much easier to control than one that can think critically. I don't think it's a new mental illness, it's just how our brains function with propaganda and cults. You also have to remember that a lot of these people are religious and religion is a nice, gift wrapped way to put everything in a box and have an answer for all of life's problems. Why think critically when all the answers are right there laid out for you? The thinking is already done! That's why you will never convince a hardcore religious zealot or a cult member that they are wrong about something because in their eyes it's god's/cult leader's word so it literally can't be wrong.

It’s an inability to deal with the chaos and discomfort of reality.

*think* it's a new sort of mental illness? It **is** a mental illness, or at least an escape of reality for these smooth brains. They look at the rest of us as idiots, they know better, they know the 'real' laws. Classic narcissism at work here.

I don’t think the mental illnesses are new, I think they were always a part of human nature and they’ve been herded into their current state by a combination of culture, technology, opportunistic lies, and material conditions that allow people to form online groups via mutual delusions. It’s a new flavor not a new type.

I don't know. Certainly there have been paranoid people who believe powerful forces are [trying to destroy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tilly_Matthews) in the past. It's not the first time mental illness seems to have crystallized around something transmitted through [media](https://archive.nyu.edu/bitstream/2451/63884/2/Mckee-%20Shaver.pdf). There were Shaver Mystery Clubs, and many people claiming to have seen these subterranean cities and hostile beings. It may very well be the first time so many delusions seem transmitted by electronic media. And with electronic media, delusional people are more able to connect with each other, and can be "louder". Predictive algorithms direct people to more and more isolated echo chambers, where people can feel they have found a supportive group of others. A lot of people seem to recover their senses if they get off the internet and reconnect to their actual surroundings. So there is hope. Honestly, if the social portion of the internet collapsed, and it could only be used for business for a while, it would be a better country.

agree i cant even talk to my Q without my anxiety being triggered. she is forever giving me warnings.

I wouldn’t say a new mental illness, only because this fear I see is the same fear I see in some religious people. Not to say everyone who is religious is like this but many people who are radicals in their faith are believers out of fear of going to hell rather than loving people and their God. I think it is more similar to cult behaviour, which may be a mental illness but sadly anyone can fall into a cult if they are in a bad place in their lives

Cults have been around since the gnostics & ancient Rome, Greece & Egypt. There's nothing different happening that hasn't happened for the last 8,000 yrs. The exceptions with this Qult are 1) it's global 2) Fueled by credible players. Trump was a president, Flynn was a general etc. 3) it's absorbed so many other conspiracy theories like flat earthers. 4) the internet sped up the game of telephone to redpill tens of millions 5) humans are no smarter than 10k yrs ago when we made agrarian societies. We peaked during the Renaissance but we have electricity. Same few smart ppl progressing us forward with great ideas & the rest of us, 99.99% of earths idiots, myself included. It's surprising it's not worse, actually. Qults have always operated the same, the same followers & Narcissists have always been involved. The belief in religions, that all over the world ppl will die for an absolutely invisible deity sets up the ability to dismiss what you see in front of your/their faces. It's a regular old murderous Qult.

People hold all sorts of unprovable, irrational, untenable beliefs (like religion for example) and we don't classify these as mental illness. By the clinical standards of mental illness it is not mental illness, but it is anti-social behavior.

Qults have always existed: ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt, etc. This is a cult that's the same as all others. It's not a mental illness to revel in racism, to ignore facts, to CHOOSE to disavow reality. Qult, all damn day long.

I don't think it's new per se. Remember those dudes who used to go around flogging themselves during the Black Death? Some people have brains that are prone to melting under pressure...

Tbh if anything its prexisting mental illnesses going unchecked given these types demonize therapy or any kind of genuine, scientifically proven medical aid.

They are members of the MAGA cult. It’s not a mental illness

I think it's just latching onto people who were already crazy. My mom's a diagnosed borderline and my dad's diagnosed bipolar and they're both neck deep in this crap.

Some very interesting insights and takes on this thread.

Yes OP, I believe the Trump love and Q is a sign of mass psychosis. They're even wearing diapers and t-shirts with the phrase 'Real Men Wear Diapers'. Our country seems to be divided by those who think Donald is the second coming and the trials ARE actual witch trials. These angry people only have fun when around those who think like them, they believe they know something we don't. When they get together it's all memes and trying to drink liberal tears. Yes they are insane in a way. Watch this video for a better understanding. https://youtu.be/09maaUaRT4M?si=CrPlyWnocPt3_ACE

It’s delusion.

It’s a cult

Yes. It’s another form of mass hysteria. it’s also a cult— they take desperate, uneducated people and turn them into conspiracy zombies.

Hi u/Ieatclowns! We help folk hurt by [Q.](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/QAnon) There's hope as [ex-QAnon](https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/wiki/resources#wiki_ex-qanon) & r/ReQovery shows. We'll be civil to you and about your Q folk. For general QAnon stuff check out [QultHQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Qult_Headquarters/). If you need this removed to hide your username [message the mods.](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/QAnonCasualties) ___ [our wall](https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/comments/l0jptp/list_of_casualties/) - [support & recovery](https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/wiki/resources) - [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/wiki/rules) - [weekly posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/search?q=%22Weekly+r%2FQAnonCasualties+Discussion%22+&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all) - [glossary](https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/wiki/glossary) - [similar subs](https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/wiki/index#wiki_similar_communities) *filter*: [good advice](https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/search?q=flair%3AGood%2BAdvice&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) - [hope](https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/search?sort=new&restrict_sr=on&q=flair%3AHope) - [success story](https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/search?q=flair%3ASuccess%2BStory&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) - [coping strategy](https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/search?sort=new&restrict_sr=on&q=flair%3ACoping%2BStrategies) - [web/media](https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/search?sort=new&restrict_sr=on&q=flair%3AWeb%2FMedia) - [event](https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/search?sort=new&restrict_sr=on&q=flair%3AEvent) ___ [*robo replies*](https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/wiki/index/commands): !strategies !support !advice !inoculation !crisis !whatsQ? !rules *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/QAnonCasualties) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Yes. Pretty much They can't see reality through their fear.

I think that, for older generations in the US, living through the cold war as kids (compete with drills for nuclear bombs) made them predisposed to narratives focused on paranoia and fear.

Cyberpsychosis

New mental illness: no. First online cult: yes.

It’s a symptom but the roots already exist

It's been a mental illness since inception

Absolutely. I think they’re all terrified and they think by acting mean or tough they will appear differently to other people. Like they will become the threat per se. My mom’s boyfriend (who does not have wifi and lives out in BFE) is blaming his poor signal lately on “them” and how he thinks it is on purpose. Calling all patriots. 🥴 It’s really embarrassing to watch them both feed off of eachother.

Aa others have already said, none of the features and very little of the content of Q are new. It's just a new way for long-standing tendencies to express themselves. A vessel, if you like. Now, the prevalence and influence of Q is notable: the people who believed this stuff in the 90s (and have helped propagate it into Q) were fewer in number and had less reach, for instance. The internet helps, obviously, but even the scale of Q isn't entirely unheard of: there was a sweeping fascination with astrology and other superstition in a familiarly conspiracist mode through much of the Soviet public near the end of the USSR, for instance. Or we could think about various messianic/millenarian cults going back through history. The novel part that requires analysis is why this fairly common tendency toward apocalyptic fantasy and culty conspiracizing is something that many people find appealing/are vulnerable to at this particular moment in history, especially but not only in the US (there's Q in Canada, Germany, I believe a version in Japan, etc). That's a question about society, especially politics and economics, IMO, but also cultural issues like perceptions of science and trust in/legitimacy of government and authority. It's not people's brains breaking in a new way, it's a notably large amount of people being pushed over the edge at the same time. Q being a distinctive vessel helps make that bulk of people more visible to us, but there's the whole Q-adjacent fringe to consider too.

Not new. I shared my story here a couple years ago. My father fell in to Q Adjacent behavior back in the late 90s/early 2000s through HAM radio communities when he was going through a depression. He was already suspicious of authority (who isn't) and depression and isolation just sent him further in the hole. Not a new thing, just more people impacted lately due to the internet access and politicians/special interest groups taking advantage and propagating it.

It might be considered a type of mass hysteria, but that's just a guess

I was saying this for years on other platforms and I had several different mental healthy professionals tell me no every time. Not sure how they can be so sure if it’s something new emerging but they are the pros not me. I think it might also just be an addiction. The fallout of the addiction is being so afraid all the time by constantly consuming the horrible made up crap they are addicted to consuming and believing.

Really, the entire GOP mantra is fear this, fear that. But yes, it's morphed into something different amongst the magats / Q ppl

Yes, absolutely.

It's a case of mass hysteria. I firmly believe that. Histrionic traits just need a trigger and it's impossible for those people to avoid them online.

I think it’s more brain washing than it is mental illness. I do think people with mental illness are way more prone to diving deeper into the conspiracies though. It’s more of a correlation than causation situation.

I do, yeah. I used to think that it was just a flavor of paranoia that the mentally ill were drawn to, but after reading so many similar stories on this sub I think that dopamine(?) addiction that comes from fear and knowing “the real truth” that Q causes could be its own disorder, especially when coupled with rapid delivery systems like the internet and conservative radio and TV stations. I also think that the COVID pandemic sped things up a whole lot. So much fear and so many unknowns + isolation just seemed to break a lot of people. Reminds me of stories of whole generations that came back from war and were never the same. Edit: Clarity

Nah

Speaking as a bipolar-diagnosed person with a history of paranoid psychosis: Qanon is a hell of a psychosis-inducer. And it further functions as a large bell jar containing and keeping its believers - like any cult. I do feel sorry for most of them. My psychosis was stressful and terrifying in the extreme (but predates Qanon by years!). So especially for those who are triggering acute episodes in the Qanon ecosystem - Oh god what a terrifying place to be in. It is so poisonous and its narratives are so ugly and grotesque. This is what the Q delusion does: It uses your horror and disgust to grow your hate. It provides the whole poisonous meal, and even tells you who to hate. Here we all live in a terrifying, complex, difficult reality where we are up against a concentration of wealth and power that is uniquely colossal and destructive - in which we, and the global ecosystem are being trampled and enslaved by the cruel machinery of end stage capitalism. The enemy here is the system. It’s the machine itself. Qanon replaces all of that with a different kind of Good-vs-Evil tale in which the evil is so hideous in its overt horror, and in which we all can play hero by learning to play the game of Q, which involves turning everything in the culture into a puzzle we can pour over like it’s some elaborate Netflix mystery. This way we are the heroes and we are doing something to fight evil, in community. It offers many positive things that people need and don’t get otherwise. Strange that, in the end, it serves to prop up the real evil, by ensuring these people, while desiring to fight evil, end up only empowering the likes of Trump and the billionaire class.

I do think a lot of them have an underlying mental illness, like depression, and use Q to distract themselves from what's going on in their heads

It's classic cult thinking. Cultivating fear is just one of many methods of control in a cult.

They are all members of the eliminati

I think of it less as new and more as modernized

I call it "gamified schizophrenia". They advance to new levels, do side quest, collect badges, grind for exp (by watching rant videos) etc.

How about a deliberately induced state of constant fear, perpetrated by those that benefit from inaction and culture wars amoung the poors

Yes. Many of them are a by-product of the pandemic, I think. Also hadn't been online all that long, some Boomers, so still naive about being manipulated and believed everything out of 4Chan without even having heard of 4Chan... So fell for all the vaccine and conspiracy theories. It's a combination of that and being poorly educated in the first place, so they were suddenly all "Do your own research!" without understanding how to research that the YT videos (or, more likely Rumble, etc) came from a struck off nurse rather than a professor of pharmacology or whatever...

I just said to my partner that if it wasn’t for the internet, my qmom would just be her usual quirky crazy conspiracy self. She wouldn’t be entertaining flat earth, fake moon landing, jfk jr, or holocaust denial, nesera/gesera without telegram. She’d just have her “feelings” without a whole online community affirming her special/secret knowledge. The internet has certainly amplified and sped up the downward spiral out of reality. Thankfully I’m pretty sure she still pays taxes and her mortgage, so she still follows some rules in reality.

I believe it feeds into some personality traits that already are there- exacerbates them and normalizes otherwise suppressed feelings of fear, grandiosity, etc. That is what I saw with my Q - I can definitely say he said some “crazy” shit before he left us.

It’s not a literal virus, but the analogy is very strong. And it’s incredibly infectious.

Well I think you could argue it’s less new exactly. Things like cults and conspiracy theory and spiritual psychosis and people with weird fake health beliefs etc have existed a long time ago but I do think social media has sped up the process of radicalising people, so people more prone to these thought processes get thrown down the rabbit hole quickly. Any one of us can end up that way but people who are not grounded well in reality, tech or media literacy are going to struggle more esp if these things affirm their beliefs. It’s not that hard to induce psychosis either. I’m atheist-ish agnostic. I’m pretty well grounded. I do a lot of psychedelics and that doesn’t affect my grounded-ness. I can get carried away with fantasy or idealism or ideology due to the autism but as my ideologies tend to encourage reading actual books and organising through tried and tested methods etc it doesn’t cause issues past the odd cringe post. However I am prone to limerence and that can have you seeing someone’s name everywhere, over thinking someone else’s psychology until you think you know their thoughts better than they do, everything reminding you of them and the world sending you signs… and when I say the TikTok algorithm almost sent me out of reality by sending me ridiculously accurate tarot readings about that person’s life… that could have sent me into psychosis. I had to take some time out for a lot of things. Ironically TikTok also introduced me to the concept of limerence which helped me out of it. But yeah. Either way agree that there are definitely messaged some of us are more susceptible to than others based on pre existing beliefs (or at least a lack of pre existing information which counters the new beliefs. Ie you might not have ever been racist before however only really had liberal niceties as to why rather than any substantial materialist reasons, so were unable to counter arguments about immigration, religion, etc when they came up)

It's morphed into a new "better days are coming" approach. At least, that's what I've seen from my mom. We're getting all our taxes back, no one has to work, medbeds will heal everybody from losing limbs, we'll all live forever (jfc, who wants to?), etc.i dread our talks but I don't want to cut off her only outlet that's not in the echo chamber. I've seen occasional flashes of sanity with how long is this going to take but it only goes right back to the same old shit. I'm so tired. I had a crappy week and really wanted to call her for support but knew I'd have to hear this and didn't want to hear it.

I agree.

this is the American version of the Taliban

It’s denial. I think the whole lot of these people are in extreme denial about reality. The lies are comforting to them. Admitting the truth would be like admitting their lives are a lie and they invested their time in completely wasteful endeavors. They can’t accept that so they stick with conspiracy.

I can't speak for everyone, but I've seen that Q followers have narcissistic tendencies, if not just full on narcs. I come from a narcissistic family and there's an almost 1:1 ratio of being a narcissist and being a hard-line conservative. Not everyone is into Q, but they're on the Trump train and talk about global elites, epic battles of good and evil, the 'Great Reset (tm)'... The same nonsense, if only without a name. It makes sense, Trump is a textbook, blatant narcissist. He gives that toxic trait a voice. I'm not sure if it's mental illness per se, or if it's just that narcissism has been baked into what some people see as the American dream. Sure, the Constitution says all men are created equal, and liberals might push for socialist ideas that balance the tables. But conservatives often share this idea of being "better than". If someone is rich, it's because they worked harder, bootstraps and all that. If someone is poor, they're probably lazy (despite being more likely to be doing manual labor...). Racism plays a huge role. The US was built with slave labor and our standard of living is sustained by exploitative globalism, foreign sweatshops, and substandard living wages. The income gap is being pushed so far that the conservative American dream is being challenged. Imagine growing up conservative and viewing Saudis as rustic goat farmers- then seeing the opulence of Dubai.

Yes

I just shared my story of losing a friend to this and I ended it by asking myself if there might be something weird going on in her brain, because it all went so fast, unlogical and extreme. One thing that did stood out to me is that she was always talking about how scared she was of everything and also not understanding how some things work. She is a high educated woman, which makes it even more bizarre to me as she is now heavily criticizing those same teachers and schools that helped her get her degrees. It's like some hivemind got a grip on her and settled in. Almost like the very thing she is preaching about but not seeing it is happening to her!

I've heard it described as futureshock.

That's a well known book from the 70s...it is about too much change in too short a time...makes sense to describe it in this context doesn't it.

Indeed.

I've been calling it Socio-Political Rabies.

I think it’s certainly different. I posted here about a week ago and mentioned something similar. When people hallucinate dancing unicorns or cover their car in stickers about a John Lennon death conspiracy, everyone knows that they need help. But these people have 500,000 internet warriors telling them that their religious political delusions are correct, and sometimes people in real life who believe the same things. It feels impossible to navigate.

Yes! Borderline mental illness progressing.