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Several childhood friends developed either a full-blown schizophrenia or "just" psychosis - as in not auditory or thought-based communication with "entities fro
by voytec 2y ago
Several childhood friends developed either a full-blown schizophrenia or "just" psychosis - as in not auditory or thought-based communication with "entities from behind the Moon" - but a tendency to produce irrational fears based on made-up threats: "I need to park 2 miles away from my workplace and walk the remaining distance as someone is looking for my license plate there", or other made-up stuff with a pattern of being surveiled.
It's fucked up for the ill and for their beloved ones in every single case. How much I can appreciate what I believe the article tries to "sell", western societies are not capable of accepting schizophrenia as an enlightenment like Hindus do.
Richard Alpert, later known as Ram Dass, became spiritual guide of a few "tech bros" and other famous personalities. But how he, as a psychology professor from Harvard, described his teacher - Neem Karoli Baba - makes me believe that Ram Dass finally got to understand "the thing" that was elusive for him and Timothy Leary at Harvard, by doing crazy macro doses of psychedelics and listening to an "elightened" person quite loosely attached to our reality.
Based on experiences with such people living in western countries, only the folks who accepted the diagnosis and manage their "traits" with medication are living normal lives. Two people have a pattern of ditching their meds twice a year and not telling anyone (they "feel cured", and it happens almost 6 months apart like on a timer in both cases), which causes a repeated pattern of aggression towards the family, causing physical harm to relatives, being taken by a police by force to a mental health facility). One person never accepted the diagnosis and... it's more on the sad than interesting side what you'd hear from them.
From my experience, people sticking to treatment have completely normal lives.
- DiscourseFan 2y agoDoes normal mean great or just OK?
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y agoAnecdata: I had some delusions about ten years ago, diagnosed as schizophrenia at the time and controlled with anti-psychotics for a few years until I was about to come off them. I'm doing okay now. I make a bunch of money as a software engineer, I get my heart broken by lovers now and then, I have depression and wonder why I'm alive. Not too different from before, not too different from an average person I imagine
- sunnybeetroot 2y agoYou’re doing incredible for what you’ve been through. Thank you for sharing your story. Please keep living life, day by day. A beautiful moment could always be around the corner.
- voytec 2y agoI believe that it's the "best possible under the circumstances". Anti-psychotic meds are no fun for someone with a desk job, required to focus, figure new things out on daily basis. It's harder with schizophrenia (larger doses or stronger meds, I guess?) but I've seen both managed up to "normal" by which I mean: no mood swings, being a member of, and taking care of a family, going to the gym or running often, and still present motivation, drive and creativity. It took a few doctor changes for most of them, though, until they found a professional who prescribed some "hitting the spot" treatment and wasn't brainessly testing one drug after another at over-kill doses numbing the ability to think about daily shopping list. EDIT: one thing I forgot to mention: every single person diagnosed with above and having a good life accepted that they cannot touch alcohol, weed and few other things ever again. On the other hand - there are high levels of alcohol abuse present in all the problematic cases.
- DiscourseFan 2y agoHa! >every single person diagnosed with above and having a good life accepted that they cannot touch alcohol, weed and few other things ever again On the other hand, I threw out my antipsychotics years ago, and I still drink, smoke pot...I've even taken psychedelics now and then (almost lost my head doing so one time, hasn't stopped me since!) I say all of you are just afraid--of course you need some level of rational control, but only enough to drive everyone else mad. Its not my problem, its theirs, and I'm here to make sure they understand it. >oh, but you're not insane, you're clearly a highly functional person who wasn't supposed to have been given antipsychotics No, I was and I am an extremely delusional person. I just figured out what to say to keep the world of the sane off my back.
- causal 2y agoI had a friend who developed the same schizophrenic symptoms described in this article, and responding with any kind of acceptance was difficult when he was starting to threaten and act against people who he imagined were after him. Last I heard he's doing much better after getting psychiatric help. I'm all for exploring new treatment modalities but IMO this article downplays these symptoms as harmless beliefs when in reality it can get quite dangerous for those closest.