Friend Group Sends Their "Weird" Friend To A Mental Hospital With Their Three-Week Prank That Convinced Him He Was Having A Schizophrenic Episode

"This sounds like an American Horror Story season."

Chelsi

• Published in Interesting
• February 1, 2023

Pranks that do not end in laughter or amusement from everyone involved, including the subject of the prank, are not pranks at all. It's bullying plain and simple.

Intentionally gaslighting someone until she believes she's having a full-blown delusion is not what a prank is but it's what happened to this Redditor. His friends thought it would be funny to dress up in silly costumes and deny they wore them once OP mentioned the odd clothing.

It didn't end there, they would randomly say, "the police like to track people like you," and pretend it was completely normal. OP's friends didn't know he has schizophrenia.

OP has been diagnosed since he was 22 years old. He is active in communities related and groups related to schizophrenia but he doesn't actively disclose his diagnosis even to his friends.

They just think he's weird when he randomly decides not to attend a party at the last minute or when he avoids crowds. When their pranks started, OP panicked because he thought he was having an episode.

He kept asking his friends about the weird things one of them said but they convinced OP he wasn't even there to know these conversations. OP was terrified; he thought it was a delusion that was about to spiral into psychosis.

OP voluntarily checked into a mental hospital to protect himself because he was so scared that his medications stopped working

None of his friends heard from OP for a few days

When he got out, he decided to share what he went through with one of his friends

After the conversation, OP got a long message from his friend who is apologizing for what they did and OP promptly snapped at his friend

Regardless of medical history, this is a cruel joke to keep up for three weeks. It's not funny at all.

It's like these people never watched an episode of Just For Laughs Gags, those kind of confusing pranks are the ones to emulate

What prompted them to play this sick joke on one of their friends as a group? Not one of them voiced an objection to this even when OP was obviously freaked out by it? Or are they just that dense?

It didn't have to come to that but it was good on OP for recognizing when he needed help and actually following through. He deserves better friends than these people.

They kept it up for three weeks, too, even after OP voiced his confusion and panic multiple times

Even for someone without a history of mental illness, this would be a sick joke to play. For OP who is schizophrenic, it could be life or death. It's dangerous.

They collectively suck and their poor attempt at an apology is laughable after what they subjected OP to

It really does

OP posted an update a few months after his original post:

He has since cut his friend group out of his life and has been doing incredibly well since

The milestones you achieve once you cut the toxic people out of your life are infinite and OP proves that

Pranks like these are not enjoyable, even for a person removed from the situation. It's shocking that none of OP's ex-friends felt uncomfortable when they were executing their "brilliant" prank.

They're just that cruel, I guess. It was appalling reading OP's original post, even by Reddit standards, but knowing that he is thriving now offers a bit of relief.

Chelsi