AITA for not sharing medical history before being pranked?

A Reddit user with schizophrenia shares a story about being unknowingly pranked by friends who were unaware of his diagnosis. The friends thought it would be funny to act strangely—wearing costumes, mentioning conspiracies—without knowing these behaviors could trigger real fears for someone with schizophrenia.

Feeling overwhelmed, he checked himself into a hospital, thinking he was experiencing a delusion or psychosis. When he later learned it was a prank, he was hurt and angry, cutting off contact with the group. Now, he’s wondering if he’s wrong for not having shared his diagnosis with them beforehand. Read his full story below.

‘ AITA for not sharing medical history before being pranked?’

The article has the next update at the end.

Heyo, I’m a schizophrenic. Started when I was 22, and will last till I die. I’m active in schizophrenic communities, go to groups, the works but I am fairly private about it to most people to include friends. It’s fairly common for people to think I’m eccentric (comes with the turf) due to some of my habits.

Those habits include not going to parties or other places with lots of people, suddenly deciding not to do something (I have to be protective not to do or go to certain things if I think a delusion might be coming on), saying the occasional odd quip, normal schizophrenic stuff.

Some friends thought it would be funny to make it seem like I might be going crazy as a group. They would individually wear something silly like a wizard hat or dinosaur costume (TRex blow up costume) to a group event or say something totally out of the ordinary and pretend like it was normal (Police like to track people like you, covid is just a way to microchip you, etc).

These are very real scary thoughts to me. I would ask members of the group if they had heard concerns about these conspiracies or weird garb from the other members, but they all acted like they had hung out with that particular member that day and I hadn’t been involved.

I was really, really scared that this could have been a massive delusion morphing into a full psychosis so I preemptively checked myself into a hospital to stop myself from potentially hurting myself or diving further into the rabbit hole(common in schizophrenic community). I was so scared my medications stopped working.

No one heard from me for a few days while I was in the hospital, and when I checked out I confided in one of them about what had happened. I got a really long apology explaining what had happened and I blew up at them.
I have ignored attempts from the others trying to apologize and have no desire to talk with them again. AITA for not previously stating that I am schizophrenic?

Next update: https://aita.pics/fxbyw

Here’s the comments of Reddit users:

Boliele −  NTA – Even if you didn’t disclose your medical history, they knew enough that saying those things would f**k with you. If a “prank” doesn’t leave both parties laughing, it isn’t a prank, it’s b**lying.
Edit: Thank you for all the awards 🙂

BaddestPatsy −  Oh honey, this breaks my heart. My partner is schizophrenic and it’s hard enough on it’s own without some group of AH’s ***DECIDING IT WOULD BE FUN TO COLLECTIVELY GASLIGHT YOU.*** Please go with your gut and never talk to these AH’s again.

As far as whether not telling them ahead of time makes you an AH, maybe in some alternate reality where schizophrenia-stigma didn’t exist. Also, I have never even heard of a group of “friends” doing this particular “prank” en masse, so I don’t know how you could have anticipated this happening–because for the most part, this doesn’t happen.

I’m proud of you for going to the hospital when you felt you needed to, that’s a hard thing to do. A lot of people look back at the friends they had at your age and can’t believe they ever put up with such an immature pack of AH’s. You’ll meet better people, and hopefully some of your ex-friends will learn a lesson and become better friends in their futures.

[Reddit User] −  NTA. Schizophrenia or not, this wasn’t a harmless prank – this was disrespectful and m**ipulative b**lshit that good friends don’t pull on each other.

ayalseinaj −  NTA. That’s a cruel prank whether you’re schizophrenic or not. I’d never talk to them again.

MyBunIsMyBestFriend −  NTA, your medical history is your own private information. You don’t owe it to anyone. They could, at the very least, tell that you had anxiety about things, and it was wrong of them to try to “mess” with you – especially once they could tell you were starting to get really upset, anxious, and confused. Time for some new friends.

fluidsoulcreative −  It seems like your “friends” actually suspected that you may have been affected by this disorder and completely fucked with you because of it. They are all assholes. Not you.

Jurassic-Jay −  Unpopular: NAH. Not sure what your group dynamic was but that’s a tried and true prank. They seemed to be kindof excessive with it maybe but I respect commitment with a prank. They probably started small, then once you didn’t call them out on something they got more and more confused as to why you weren’t pointing out the wizard hat or disagreed with the c**spiracy theories.

They probably thought you were gullible or oblivious and wanted to see how much you would ignore. Even if they knew you weren’t that oblivious, you were acting like it and the rules of the prank are that you keep doing more and more extreme stuff until the person being pranked notices.

Again, although the extent they went to seems like it became more and more extreme, this is a common prank. I have done this. Others have done this to me. In my experience, it is generally funny- Funny for people to do, then funny for you all to laugh about after.

They clearly did not know you had schizophrenia and this genuinely just concerned you. That is awful and unfair and I am sorry you suffer from this. But how were your friends supposed to know? They were not trying to get you to check into a medical facility and genuinely think you were crazy— They clearly saw you as one of the guy and schizophrenia is uncommon enough I do not ask my friends if they are schizophrenic.

If their apologies seem genuine, I would wait some time but probably forgive them. It is justified you feel upset, but this was one of the oldest pranks in the book. They did it in the office with seeing what Stanley wouldn’t notice, and other versions of it have happened in other shows and comedy skits as well.

This post in particular seems to have fallen victim to a sort of reddit echo chamber or inexperienced respondents. This prank is not an unforgivable offense to cut off all your friends for. It is a tragic misunderstanding and mistake on their part. If their apologies are genuine and you can find it within yourself to forgive, I would encourage it. But there are no TA people here.

Arenty_Nigh −  NTA, you deserve better friends.

doorapennifoot −  What in the everliving f**k. Regardless of whether or not they knew you are schizoprenic, this is cruel. NTA.

KatJen76 −  NTA your friends are horrible, horrible people and I bet some part of you knew instinctively, subconsciously, that you couldn’t trust them with anything personal. That’s not a funny prank. The funny version of that is “Let’s all show up to Dave’s barbecue in dumb hats.” That’s incredibly cruel and vicious, and they cost you several days of your life and maybe even a lot of money.