So just for clarification I am not educated in cognitive science at any level but I am showing early signs of schizophrenic onset and have been suffering from episodes of psychosis for a number of years. Recently I began to research the brain and what could potentially help me if what I have does turn out to be schizophrenia. And I just want to ask actual cognitive scientists to see if some of my hypotheses could actually have some validity or if I’m misunderstanding what I’m trying to research. Basically I have a theory that (granted is based on my limited education) serotonin and its effects on susceptible brains might be a leading cause of schizophrenia and/or psychotic episodes, especially after drug use. How I understand it is many hallucinogens, let’s take LSD for example, cause its effects by binding to the 5-HT2A serotonin receptor and causing some sort of disturbance or reaction causing the information coming in from the optic nerve and eyes to be distorted causing hallucinations. My theory is that when this reaction happens on the Serotonin receptor the brain begins to create Serotonin neurons (which I understand to be cells that send out signals to adapt or produce chemicals.) and especially when taken repeatedly the brain begins to associate the activation of the serotonin receptors and hallucinations (or a distortion of optic information) together because the neurons remember “the last time this receptor detected something I was hallucinating, so that’s what I should do this time too”. This, in my theory, causes the brain to start to automatically diminish or distort the optic information on its way to thalamus, and since that information is not completely accurate or complete, the thalamus and visual cortex tries to make sense of what it can’t recognize or understand, I.e. creating hallucinations. Additionally, schizophrenic brains often have mutations in the genes that code the serotonin receptors and may be predisposed to this process, without the use of illicit drugs, causing them to hallucinate and experience the symptoms of the illness. That’s all I have so far but please remember I don’t have an education in this and it’s just something I’ve been working on as a self interest, and I would greatly appreciate feedback or comments, especially any corrections for me or misconceptions I have. Thanks all for reading!