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Does anyone here have friends or relatives who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia. I'd be interested in hearing your experiences with it. Someone I know was

by rjett 16y ago

Does anyone here have friends or relatives who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia. I'd be interested in hearing your experiences with it. Someone I know was diagnosed, but later the diagnosis was changed by another doctor to manic depressive with bipolar (we were told that it was too early to say affirmatively what the prob was). Every 9 months or so (for the past 3 years), he has episodes where he or someone else has to check him into the hospital because he's delusional (usually paranoid, having delusions of grandeur, sometimes threatening).

izendejas 16y ago
Read my other post, but I'll elaborate here. People with schizophrenia definitely "hear voices." I've read a bit about this and forget the exact scientific theory for why this happens, but my high-level understanding is that the "self" part of their brain is disconnected from their consciousness so--i'm sure this has happened to everyone when they're very sleepy--when they hear "recordings" of voices, they aren't aware of the fact that their mind is producing them. The person I roomed with heard angels and demons. He was very religious, so it's logical to see how he arrived at such conclusions. They usuallly slip into such "episodes" when under stress. I remember one day, he came in very angry, jumped into the shower, punching the wall yelling at "Satan." It was surreal, but I kept my cool because I had read a lot about this. The most insane part was trying to talk to him about the voices. In his mind they were real. And when I implied they weren't, he would become stressed because I didn't understand him/believe him. At this point you relize, reality is so insanely relative to your experiences and how your mind processes stimuli. Any "bad" wiring in the brain and you're either too religious, or too rational, or too "insane" to hear voices that aren't there.
rwhitman 16y ago
My half brother had his first episode around his 20th birthday. I was 8. His behavior still haunts me, we were very close. On a trip to hong kong I met and was subsequently stalked by a schizophrenic girl for 3 years and I also worked briefly in a psych ward. People with the disorder can drift in and out of health. On some level their symptoms are related to stress (and meds), so you can have a normal conversation one day and the next they can become obsessed with ghosts living in the shower. I guess the hardest part is that when they seem somewhat cognizant at first in a conversation. They initially try very hard to concentrate and can make a fair bit of sense, but after a few minutes they start getting a little fuzzy around the edges, drifting off, mumbling to themselves talking about things that didn't happen etc. Eventually they start confusing you with jesus or a dead relative. I could go on with incidents... It can be incredibly disturbing. I have nightmares about the behavior, its just too much. I once talked to a psychiatrist who told me its better off separating yourself. Its really hard to do (and this comic doesn't help, its misleading) but spending any amount of time trying to cope with it and rationalize ends in frustration and sadness.

by rjett 16y ago

izendejas 16y ago

Read my other post, but I'll elaborate here. People with schizophrenia definitely "hear voices." I've read a bit about this and forget the exact scientific theory for why this happens, but my high-level understanding is that the "self" part of their brain is disconnected from their consciousness so--i'm sure this has happened to everyone when they're very sleepy--when they hear "recordings" of voices, they aren't aware of the fact that their mind is producing them. The person I roomed with heard angels and demons. He was very religious, so it's logical to see how he arrived at such conclusions. They usuallly slip into such "episodes" when under stress. I remember one day, he came in very angry, jumped into the shower, punching the wall yelling at "Satan." It was surreal, but I kept my cool because I had read a lot about this. The most insane part was trying to talk to him about the voices. In his mind they were real. And when I implied they weren't, he would become stressed because I didn't understand him/believe him. At this point you relize, reality is so insanely relative to your experiences and how your mind processes stimuli. Any "bad" wiring in the brain and you're either too religious, or too rational, or too "insane" to hear voices that aren't there.

rwhitman 16y ago

My half brother had his first episode around his 20th birthday. I was 8. His behavior still haunts me, we were very close. On a trip to hong kong I met and was subsequently stalked by a schizophrenic girl for 3 years and I also worked briefly in a psych ward. People with the disorder can drift in and out of health. On some level their symptoms are related to stress (and meds), so you can have a normal conversation one day and the next they can become obsessed with ghosts living in the shower. I guess the hardest part is that when they seem somewhat cognizant at first in a conversation. They initially try very hard to concentrate and can make a fair bit of sense, but after a few minutes they start getting a little fuzzy around the edges, drifting off, mumbling to themselves talking about things that didn't happen etc. Eventually they start confusing you with jesus or a dead relative. I could go on with incidents... It can be incredibly disturbing. I have nightmares about the behavior, its just too much. I once talked to a psychiatrist who told me its better off separating yourself. Its really hard to do (and this comic doesn't help, its misleading) but spending any amount of time trying to cope with it and rationalize ends in frustration and sadness.