Posted on Jun 13, 2007 - 1:04am by John P. in Health & Fitness, Videos
A few years ago NPR did a story called “The Sights and Sounds of Schizophrenia” which tells about a training program created by Janssen Pharmaceutica, a pharmaceutical company that specializes in treatment for Schizophrenia.
I watched the 5 minute video just one time 5 years ago and it literally changed me. It was such a powerful and moving experience that I cannot forget it and it altered my perception of mental illness forever.
I’ve tried to tell people about it over the years, but it’s just something you have to see, so finally I searched and searched until I found it again so I could put it on the blog. The only problem is that the original was a crappy RealMedia recording. So… I had to convert it to a format that could be uploaded and embedded here so you can watch it without having to install the RealPlayer.
The textbook description of schizophrenia is a listing of symptoms: delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and behavior. But what does schizophrenia really feel like? NPR’s Joanne Silberner reports on a virtual reality experience that simulates common symptoms of the mental illness.
Silberner, who experienced the simulation, says it works this way: “For five to 10 minutes, someone wanting to know what it feels like to have untreated schizophrenia puts on goggles and headphones, and sees and hears a range of hallucinations. You can choose your virtual reality — what happens on a trip to the doctor’s office, or on a ride on a city bus.” In the program she experienced, a caseworker takes the schizophrenia patient to a grocery store with a pharmacy in the back, to refill a prescription.
To create the virtual reality project, technical director Stephen Streibig consulted a group of people with schizophrenia, including Daniel Frey, 26. Frey describes what he and Silberner experienced in the program: “When you first walk into the pharmacy, you’re walking through the aisles and there are people staring at you, just staring at you from every aisle. And there’s one instance where there is a woman sort of protecting her children from you when you walk through the aisle.
Even though schizophrenia patient Frey consulted on the project, he found the simulation too disturbing to sit all the way through. When Silberner tells him she was terrified by the experience, Frey responds, “Yeah, you ought to be… Imagine not being able to take off the goggles, the helmet.”
Here is the simulation video. Please be aware that this is disturbing. It’s going to creep you out and you won’t be able to get it out of your head, but it’s just a taste of what this disease does to people and at least YOU can stop it at any time…
If you found this as informative as I did please help spread the word by using your favorite social bookmarking site (at the top of the post – Digg, Technorati, etc.), e-mailing it to a friend or just show it to a colleague in the office. I think the more people that see this, the greater the tolerance we’ll have for those less fortunate than ourselves.
If you happen to have RealPlayer installed and would like to see the original version, which is just slightly higher quality, here it is. I do NOT recommend installing the RealPlayer just to watch this however.
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i nearly threw up and could hardly make it throught the vid when i watched this video considering that it is how most of my days are like. i never knew what was wrong with me until now i have some sort of an idea. thank you for posting this video thing
I feel really sad about people with this illness. I’ve only read about it until now. Actually being “inside their head” was something of an eye opener. I wish I could help treat this disease and make it just a thing of the past.
I wouldn’t wish this illness on my greatest enemy.
peaceloveunity,
S. Baran.
I found out just a few weeks ago..
My best mates got this..
I felt so sorry for her!
She told me the voices are telling her to kill herself..
She hasnt been online for two days now.. hasn’t contacted me..
I feel sorry for anyone and everyone who has this..
Lets make it a thing of the past. x
This video is enlightening and disturbing at the same time. It brings a whole new perspective to schizophrenia jokes.
I am very interested in the schizophrenia disease and am currently in school now and will hopefully graduate soon and become a psychiatrist and scientist in schizophrenia research
I reccommend that you check on NAMI National Alliance for Mental illness provider course.
My head hurts after experiencing this. I would have done anything to make it stop, but then again i know i can turn it off just by pushing pause or closing out the browser window. But if you live with this illness every day, how do you know you can trust the people outside who say you can turn it off with medicine? How do you know who to trust when all the voices seem so real? I think the scariest one was the man cackling while saying “they” were going to poison me, i’m gonna die, etc. That’s the part I still can’t get out of my head.
that is the worst quality video and sound ever.
Thank you for the video. I loved to see that there is people like me. I would hear worse. Like now there telling me not to post this.
Seems ALOT to me like being under the influence of marijuana
Come to think of it, its almost identical to the feeling, only you keep telling yourself its not real.
You get that same feeling. Like everybody knows youre acting strange and youre the center of everybody’s attention, but youre really not and nobodys really paying any attention to you.
I don’t like marijuana for that reason, but did you know most people DO NOT experience what we do on marijuana and just feel pleasant? – I tried LSD at 17 and I will tell you, the voices came and wouldn’t stop talking to me until the LSD would wear off. I have to say if anyone wants to experience Schitzophrenia, try LDS and be terrified. It is horrible.
This was sooo creepy!..I still got goosebumps from the video..I wish there was something we can do for these people..
This is crazy! Does this kind of stuff really happen to people. Really weird, but sad at the same time.
Interesting post.
It also reminded me of an exercise I had to do while in Grad school.
While in class, our professor wanted to give us an idea of what it feels like to have Schizophrenia. (Currently I’m a Clinical Social Worker in an Out Patient Mental Health Clinic.)
The class was broken up in groups of 4: one person was a therapist, one person was the one suffering from schizophrenia, and the other two were ‘the illness’.
Two of the students (illness) were situated on either side of the ill person whispering into their ear. One of us was told to softly sing ‘Row, Row, Your Boat’ over and over and over again. And while that person was singing in one of her ears, the other person was told to softly repeat (in the other ear) ‘your mother hates you. your mother hates you, your mother hates you’. And while all this was going on the person in the role of the Therapist was to conduct a complete Mental Status Exam.
It was enlightening to say the least. We all had to switch so that all of us experienced this from both the patient and the therapist perspective.
This is very scary for people. Very scary. And even know we ‘non-ill’ people know it’s not real, the person experiencing the auditory hallucinations, it feels VERY, VERY Real to them.
Excellent article. Thank you.
~ZZ
My dad suffers from Schizophrenia. My mom doesn’t let us contact him anymore, because he got so bad. But now I can halfway understand what he goes through.
I want to cry.
Jessica,
I’m sorry that your father is experiencing this illness. It is a terrible form of torture for the human mind, but if you understand what he is going through then you can know that he still loves you very much, but he has some personal demons that he struggles with every day.
John
My son suffers from schizophrenia .I asked him to watch the video and give me his opinion. I felt so bad when he told me that the video is a mild view of what he lives. He said if this example was the only thing I had to deal with it would be cool .
This disease a awful , devastating real hell.
I feel so much sympathy for anyone who has to live with this . I feel empathy for the relatives who have to watch their loved ones suffer and feel so helpless.
My partner who is paranoid schizophrenic watched this so she could help me understand what she goes through. She at this time was hearing voices so I was interested in how she would feel. I was shocked and sickened and had a terrible headache after that five minutes. It is amazing she said that someone could actually get it pretty close to what she feels. Thank you for sharing this I will forward this on to many.
I’ve always found Scizophrenia terrifying yet fascinating, (i don’t suffer from it) and I want to do my photography portfolio based upon it. However I would really like it to be accurate and sensitive, so if anybody has any advice or ideas on how to approach this it would be greatly appreciated. This video helped in itself.
I didn’t really find this disturbing at all. Is there something I’m missing here? I understand that it’s supposed to be like having Schizophrenia but everyone keeps saying it’s disturbing or terrifying, and it’s not that way to me. :/