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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Man this is crazy even simply hearing this. I cannot believe what those people are going through. How can they live with all those voices in their heads. God bless them for their patience.
I pray for their health!
At a very young age, I was adopted into a family that suffered much schizophrenia and bipolar. Bizzare and sometimes frightening behavior was a multi-weekly experience. But I cared about those afflicted and that made their woes less alarming. Hence, when my last favorite lady suffered an anti-depressant induced psychosis for several months before many-many doctors figured out their misprescribing was the cause, I was capable of caring for her when no others would or could.
That being said, our healthcare system is a mess. Most doctors don’t even discuss a common patient and when such information is shared, they become defensive. One endocrinologist actually convinced my gal-friend that she wasn’t bipolar and it was just thyroid trouble. Uh-huh, and off into mania-land she went again. The last episode was brought on by her (considered good) p-doc prescribing enough Ritalin to keep awake a narcaleptic. Two psychologists said she never should have been prescribed stimulants. About a week later, that p-doc vanished.
Before it was over, she nearly lost her home and business, convinced others of her delusions and I had to defend myself in court. If a loved one suffers from mental illnes, don’t let the healthcare system ‘cost-shift’ you and yours around. Insist on proper care, education, assistance, and if that doesn’t work, write local judges, your congressman, etc. Most that suffer these illnesses are wonderful and loving people that cycle through problem times. And it’s not their fault.
This one is nothing compared to the new simulation out by janssen:
http://www.janssen.com/janssen/mindstorm_video.html
Nice one, anyone know of others ?
On the surface I must say the audio quality was nigh unbearable, and only in localized cases do schizophrenic patients find sounds physically painful to listen to.
The visuals were kind of interesting though, the bus ride movie however was far better I feel.
Though, taking in to account that I can speak from a lot of experience, in both myself and my mother suffering from the illness, that these are rather poor representations of the illness.
But I am by no means bashing them. For one, the intention was only to present a taste of the illness and it is certainly absolutely great to find that somebody has attempted at creating such a thing. Which is a wonderful thing to see and I commend their efforts.
I merely feel it should be pointed out that the people who view this should take in to account how their other senses are included too, unfortunately the media used to portray these experiences are lacking compared to the sensory complexities of a human and people should consider how a sufferer might often smell rotting things or feel people touch them that really aren’t.
And also, suffering from ths illness cannot really even be defined in this manner. It’s like taking a recreational drug, you can only truly understand the experience via doing it yourself and not merely by word of mouth.
People afflicted with this unfortunate disease don’t merely see black things flying around as depicted in this slideshow, the senses tell the sufferer the truth of what they feel but the mind can’t fully grasp it so the sufferer gets a sort of “overlayed image” of something exceptionally strange without the rational thought to be able to focus on the reality.
Also another aspect of schizophrenia which makes it all the more insufferable which I think should be pointed out, is the way it destroys people and families.
Quite commonly the illness fully develops in later life, when a sufferer has already gained friends, a partner and potentially a family.
Take my mother for instance, she had a great life with a wonderful talent in the arts, a loving husband and three happy, young children. Then as her condition worsened it took all that away from her, now me and my sisters rarely see her as she has to live away in a home and the whole family has various broken mental mechanisms that just can’t resolve.
I myself only suffer from it extremely lightly, if notable at all, and it has developed early so it appears with a bit of luck that I might be ok, my sisters are totally free of it, so really the saddest tale is that of my mother.
It’s all well and good that me, my sisters and my father are able to forgive and forget the loss we experienced many years ago and we can go on to form other positive relationships with people but my mum has to suffer with it for the rest of her life and is always gonna find it extremely difficult to find the social and loving relationships that a person requires.
And it’s the same all over the world, one of my friends suffered exactly the same with his mother being schizophrenic I recently found out.
And hundreds of thousands more have broken families and sad relationships because of it.
An interesting statisitc I have been given before are that the general populace are 1% likely to have some kind of schizophrenic illness.
Consider that on a global scale and you’ll see how devastating it is.
Then consider all other psychotic mental illnesses there are and how many more that they affect.
Don’t even get me started on how the damned psychologists and doctors of the world try and help those with the illness.
Ummm. Not only did I not find this tape “disturbing,” I found it pretty much like my daily life.
YES, technically, I’m “mentally ill”: I’ve been diagnosed since childhood with GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder) plus periodic slides into balls-to-the-wall Panic Disorder…and yet given MINIMAL therapy/medication I’ve managed to sustain a marriage, parenthood, and a six-figure career; founded and for more than a decade administered a virtual support group for folks with similar afflictions; and recently launched what is so far a reasonably successful ‘second career’ as a nonfiction author.
If this is “mental illness,” why on Earth are we so stigmatized?!
you found it to be like your daily life? really? I’m afraid I dont believe you. Do they talk to you? do they keep talking, never shutting up, always telling you how stupid you are? how worthless? how you should just go an die, its all your fault, waste of space, no-one needs you?
had some like that, and then They turned themselves into my family and friends and everyone I see, so ya theres a lot of different symptoms. wow I wish I had yours, they just skipped to Kill yourself. Id rather have that then trust issues.
I’ve suffered from a lighter form since I was 20. Thank God mine does not include voices, but I know exactly what is meant by going somewhere and feeling that people are staring at you and even protecting their children from you. The voices are you talking to yourself really. At some point you panic and then try to squelch hysteria and, believe it or not, you turn up the volume on your own inner talk and babble and once you do it it scares you so badly you cower and wont turn it off. Your fear immobilizes you and the talk won’t go away. I’ve tried to tell my friends, and they think it’s just self-indulgence and weakness to be mentally disturbed, but some of the most terrifying Things that can happen to a human being happen totally inside your own head. And they’re just as damaging as anything that can happen outside your head to your body.
I’ve had much milder experiences like this when under stress for years now. The one thing that strikes me is how mean the voices are in the video; my voices start out just talking about me and pick up steam until they are making cruel remarks about my every thought.
I think it’s also important to mention that there are some of us who function very well despite hearing voices. I am in professional school and doing well; I just know how to titrate my stress and take meds when I need to.
My mother has Schizophrenia, and it is awful. It didnt really bother me as a child, I didnt understand it. But it is a terrible disorder. When she doesnt take her meds, she thinks everyone is out to get her, or hurt her. She goes through fases…all we know is a new person comes out. She can get very nasty and angry with us. There was one time where she didnt eat anything for close to two months. She said there were andacondas and we were trying to poisson her. Everything is poison, food, medicine. Its hard to help her at that point. Its been hell, let me tell u. There giving her a once a month shot now, so she doesnt have to worrie about the pills. Bless the lord!
My son was diagnosed a havng ADHD at 33 they then gave him dexaphetmine he took these for 3 1/2 years before I knew that, he was living with a wife abused hm over 5 yearswho virtually wore him down her words were to him I will make you suffer and top you seeing your daughter (I mention here that he did not deserve or cause any trouble to be told by her sister and husband to get him) out the house) her nastines continues to this day and a settlement she is not happy wityh a she want the lot.
My son finished up in a mental lock down ward mid last year. I travelled 10,000ks to go and pick him up by car. I told the psychiatrist that I want him off that medication and told them he has never had ADHD being a nurse and a degree in disablilities I certanly would have been the first to notice that something was wrong. The psychiatrist that came in by plane once a week was so rude to me and she ddi not take the time to ask questions and history and he was also telling him to take the dexap;that it was good for him! these tablets are cocaine the doctors in W.A. give these tablet out to people and children as if they were sweets, the docotr also told my son to take the tests when we arrived at my home “to please your mother” at this time he was completely had the symptons thanks to the dexa; and mental abuse from the wife. I brought him home and he saw my doctor who repeated to my son that they had mis-diagnosed him and gave him medication that he (doctor) and states in australia (except W.A.) will not prescibe them because of the danger and effects. My son had been taken many tmes to the hospital and told to go home he was fine. My doctor here diagnosed him as having Schizophrenia and after many tablets got him on the right ones.He stayed with me for 3 months and then returned to his job (I thought he was going back too early) I have now found out he stopped his meds and is now detained in the lock up ward again.I phave pleaed with the staff to please have the psychiatrist phone the doctor here my on ha not had any medication for 6 days. I told them what and how much he had been taking they choose to ignore me and I have been told they said he fell of his horse. Absolute rubbish I have 3 people ring me as they were worried about him he was acting strange. I rang the hospital and was told by the staff he does not have schizophrenia he is too young?? I beg to differ and my doctor is an excellent one. For soem unknown reason the medical staff in W.A.are not interested in asking questions to a parent or wanting to know his history in the 3 months he was living with me.
Everything written about people suffering with this disorder I cannot see an age that you may be afflicted with Schizophrenia?
I have a lot more to say about some doctors, their ignorance and dexaphetmine happy. I have wrtten to the doctors, hospital and the medical boards telling them how my son was treated and guess what I did not have one answer from them, doesn’t that tell me something? Keeping him on this meds for 3 1/2 years he is not the son knew for a mother to see her son who was happy, drug free never sick,and a social person compared to what hear and see now is devastating.what can I do to help with the staff who have him at the moment and he has now not had any meds for 6 days??
My brother also has been diagnosed with this label of a disease for the last 30 years. I have witnessed much of his life because I live close to him. The way his life has affected my mother especially, is challenging for us, On the light side, even after witnessing the sometimes frustration that comes with this experience for the affected person; I have also seen my brother make a tremendous accomplishment of living his life more peaceful and with more awareness of what is happening to him without taking the meds that are sometimes being forced on these people. I tend to think there are natural and spiritual alternatives to respond to this challenging disease that affects us all, whether they are our relatives or not.
First of all, to say telepathy doesn’t exist is to limit your scope of reality. And the reality of it is that telepathy is a naturally occuring phenomenon. When schizophrenia was first being studied, one of the many symptoms was experiencing forms of telepathy. (Look up “telepathy and schizophrenia”) Much is not understood about the disease, but further alienating schizophrenic patients by telling them their experiences of telepathy are not real only proves that certain people are incapable of understanding the true experience that is schizophrenia. Honestly, don’t you find it quite convenient that we only use 10% of our brain? Exactly what else is there to discover about the human brain? Have you ever heard of making the unconcious consciouss?
Yea, I buy that there’s telepathy involved in schizophrenia. it hurts like hell. It’s a small plus amongst the minusses.
@ the person that apparently believes in telepathy
I might give a single iota of my attention to your belief if you had so much as the tiniest amount of proof for it.
Saying that disbelief in telepathy is a shrouded view of reality is to be in denial to the fact that there are laws that the universe abides by. To ignore those is to live in a dream world of reality.
If there aren’t rules dictating our actions in this world then what’s stopping us from flying if we believed we could enough? And don’t tell me that that’s possible. Do you see people flying about this way and that? No you don’t no matter how much you wish you did, stop doing drugs and get real.
And, rules to reality being applied, how do you profess that this telepathy works?
Extra-dimensional radio waves?
You don’t think that every kind of electromagnetic wave the brain gives off has already been detected?
Christ, for a neurologist that’s lamens stuff.
And you obviously don’t even know what you’re talking about in the first place with whatever “facts” you try to use to your advantage.
We don’t ONLY use 10% of our brain capacity.
The actual supposed fact is that we only use 10% of our total brain capacity AT ANY ONE TIME. It all gets used at some point.
In future don’t perpetuate every little thing you hear before checking it out and learning about it yourself please.
And before you get started, no faeries don’t exist either.
Hello John, I wrote becaue I was looking for information I could not watch the Video you are talking about, intead I am getting replies that are no help and I do not need any smart comments from the emails I have seen so far. My son was 33 he had nothing wrong with him he had a wife who would daily get online and find disorders so that she could then tell him constantly that he had that disorder this went on for 5 years. At one point she told him he had a terminal disease and that he would die and has now given it to his daughter. Because of the constant mental abuse he saw a doctor who said yes you have ADHD. I am a nurse I a have a degree in Bachelor of Science in (disabilites Studies) mnay other cerificates that I have done over the years including Psychology so I am no dummy but I thought I might learn something from the site I put it on as you said you put it on your site. Getting back to the doctor he prescribed Dexaphtemine (speed) for 3 1/2 years he has never had ADHD and does not have it now he was wrongly diagnosed and given the wrong medication I had doctors and Psychiatrist who begged the differ and would not listen or wanted to know of his passed medical history. I travelled 10,000ks to go and pick him up by car as he was in a very bad way thanks to the medical profession where he lives in a remote outback town (australia) because of their blunder and ignorance he is now Schizophrenia. Beofr eI drove out the town I could see myself that he had Schizophrenia it was a hard ride home let me tell you. I had him see a doctor in my town who got him of the wrong medication it has been a battle and still on going.They have ruined and damaged his life for ever. Before I picked him up his work boss and other staff took him to the emergency dept; 6 times every time he was told there is nothing wrong with him the staff once again did not listen to what a person was telling them re his behaviour and sent him home that was last July07. He returned to his home and this year returned to the mental ward x2 The staff would not give him his medicaton for 8 days and I asked many times please ring the doctor here and get his history while he was living with me, they would not and put him on Dexaphetemine (speed) again after I told them many times not to and he has not got ADHD at this time he had been tested and showed he did not suffer from ADHD but it seems to fall on deaf ears.one nursing staff told me that ‘he is too young to have Schizophrenia’ I and the doctor at my home do know the difference and the Psychiatrist here also. I thought jopining the it might have been helpful to me and I could maybe learn from reading other people’s stories but instead I receive smart arse remarks that does not help me or my problem.
I am his mother trying to find my son again and get him the appropriate help from medical staff you can believe in. There is a lot more to this story he has a daughter, he is now divorced from the rattle snake her words to him was “I will make you suffer and stop you from seeng your daughter’ he worked 80-90 hours a week and that was still not enough for her. She and her father had made plans before she married my son that all she wanted wa a daughter, a property (house/land) and live with her father happily ever after (before she married my son she told him her father had ‘sexually interferred wth her’ she now denes saying that. Why would you want to live with your father who apparently has done that and put her daughter in the un safe situation? with all other problems she has caused my son is spending a lot of money to have his daughter returned to where he lives his ex wife has also breached the court orders and seems to be able to get away with everything right now. Would a woman go to clubs and hotels to find a ‘appropriate sperm donor this is what she was doing. Is she right in the head or have a big medical problem that the doctor here has said and I agree. Yes he has been sucked in and now paying dealy with the diagnoses he now has.
All I wanted was to maybe learn from others and listen to what they had been through. Judith
Judith-
My intention here is not to be smart but your writing shows many signs of a thought disorder, which makes me suspect that your son has a hereditary schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
I watched the video and found it insightful. I appreciate you sharing it with us John.
In college, I lived in the same apartment complex as a girl who developed Schizophrenia during my stay. Evidently she had a family history of the disease. She heard voices and was always frightened and paranoid. I can only hope she has now received the care she needs. It’s a shame things like this can happen.
if you only knew how limited your reality is. Truth is, things exist beyong our comprehension. And no, I cannot prove it. However, I’m sure scientists have already done that. I never claimed to know how telepathy worked nor do I claim to be a scientist. I just stated that it exists. Before you go on with your childish personal attacks, be sure that you aren’t just getting angry that this “telepathy” has never happened to you. Remember the old saying ” If a tree falls in the woods and nobody hears it, does it mean it never fell?”
anonymous is the reason why schizophrenia has been stigmatized. He doesn’t have the capability of understanding that there may be things that he cannot understand or rationalize. People like him are the real reason why most people who do have schizophrenia will never feel comfortable sharing their experiences. Obviously, he is eager to mock, discredit and twist another’s words so that he may feel comfortable in his own little 2-D world. Though, I stand corrected about the ten percent theory , your comment on that subject doesn’ t mean your whole post is filled with “worldly advise and wisdom”.
The thing you’ve gotta realise though, is the tree does make a sound.
No you can’t prove that it doesn’t and neither can I prove that it does.
But fact is, whether you like it or not, the case for it not making noise will never have anything solid and verifiable to it.
Becuase, by that choice’s very nature you’re denying what is logical and verifiable.
Now you can hope all you like that there’s something special and indefinable about the universe but really whatever’s indefinable has to be infinite and so I doubt it’ll “allow itself” to be quashed down in to some kind of telepathy system for us humans.
And a simple bit of logic would dictate that telepathy can’t exist any other way.
Are single celled organisms telepathic? Of course not we can explain their every function and movement down to the molecule. There are certainly no outside influences there.
Well then, where does the evolutionary step come in to play to give us outward reality receptors?
Uuuuhh…nowhere.
Telepathy is just a name that people coin when they don’t understand the implicits of human communication and how two people can express so much with so much as saying a word. People assume they must be picking up on something extra sensory and so perpetuate telepathy.
But really human’s are just far more complex socially communicative creatures than we understand even ourselves.
Deal with reality dude, there’s nothing fantastical here.
Oh and scientists would agree.
Just so you’re not like the rest of the ignorant masses, parallel universes physically cannot influence one another and dimensions are an axis of measurement, not addons to reality or spaces for the paranormal like some seem to think.
Do some research for crying out loud.
As much as there’s not much I can do about it there is something undeniably annoying about debating with somebody that refuses to make the effort on their part. I’m careful to check everything I put forward as fact.
And remember, don’t believe everything you see in the movies kids. (b^-^)b
While I would not disagree that this video is insightful, I want to point out that not all schizophrenics hear voices. When I am at my worst, I am convinced that I can read the secret meanings behind everything going on around me. When people speak to me, I interpret what they are saying, as if it is an intricate code.
I’m going to briefly have a go at my own illustration of a schizophrenic moment:
I walk into a room. I think about which of my feet I set first into the room. I think about what that means to the cosmic order. I think about who is watching me, and am sure they noticed which foot I stepped with first, and I think that they know more about what it means than I do. I think that they and everyone else knows that I cannot read the meanings as well as they can. I think about how my whole life there’s been this sinister underlying meaning to everything, and everyone else has been savvy enough to figure that out and use it but I am naive and I have only seen the surface of things. I think about the things that are hanging on the wall in the room. I think that if I were more savvy I would notice if one of them had been moved. I look at the wall next to me to see if all the pictures are hung straight. I notice one picture slightly crooked, and I think the other people in the room must be able to detect the traces of themselves that people leave, but I am unable to detect this. I think about a teacher passing out papers to a class of students, and how each student touches his paper differently, leaves different almost indiscernable creases in the places where his fingers met the page. I think that a person who understands things would be able to look at a piece of paper and know who had touched it by the creases. I think I should pay more attention to the creases in paper. I worry and worry that I do not pay enough attention to the details. I walk farther into the room. I think about what my posture gives away about what I am thinking. I think that everyone can tell what I am thinking by the way that I move. I approach someone. I am sure I can read this person’s innermost emotions and desires by the way that he turns his head. By the way that he lifts his hand. The person says something to me…says…”How are you?” But I know it doesn’t mean “How are you?” to a person who understands the way things work. I know it means, a thousand things…”Where have you been?” “I love you.” “You have to be careful of the people who are not on our side, because they are always waiting for you to show weakness.” “This is a chess game. It is a human chess game.” “Were you safe out there?” “Did anyone notice that you are beginning to know the meaning of things?” I separate the quotations in explaining because this one sentence means all these things, all at once, but separately, in different layers of understanding. The person who spoke asks me to go upstairs and get something. I know that, although I must actually physically go upstairs and get this thing, he is telling me this for another, more important reason. The upstairs is a metaphor. All directions are symbolic. He is talking about the upstairs of the body…he is talking about the mind. He is talking about HIS mind, because he has asked me to go into the upstairs of his place. He wants me to go into his mind. He trusts me. He is allowing me to drive. We are not always the drivers of our own bodies. We follow the directions of others, but, more importantly, we are controlled by the energy of others. He is giving me a gift of energy. While I am in his mind, he will teach me something. I remember the day that a group of us gave him a gift, a birthday gift, and he said, “I know this is from your heart.” And I realized that what he actually meant was that I am the heart, and that it is from me. I think about the importance, the responsibility, of being the heart….
this goes on. and on. and on. It is constant. To me, this is what it means to be what people call “schizophrenic.” This is what leads me to the point where I have locked myself inside a room thinking that my mind is a castle under siege and I must protect its walls. I am going to stop now, because to go down this path of thought, even reminiscently, is to remember the complex logic I created to support these ideas. It is a way of thinking about things, I think. And when I start actually doing it, it is extremely difficult to stop. In any case, this is schizophrenia, to me. I don’t hear voices. I hear emotions. I reinterpret the things I am already perceiving. Everything means something else, something more.
Cherie,
It’s difficult to issue a reply to you for fear that you will dwell on each word I choose and seek the hidden meaning of my choice. As a result, I must start out by telling you that I am indeed human, so to some extent I – like all other people – do have random thoughts going through my mind both as I write this response, and as I read your story. However, it is important to know that what I am communicating to you NOW are the most important themes.
In other words, right now I am thinking about the fact that I am thirsty. But I would not normally tell anyone that because it is inconsequential. I am not going to dehydrate… I’ll get a drink after I write this note to you! What I am NOT thinking is anything like, “this Cheri person is the greatest / worst person I’ve ever met…” I am a simple man. I like cars, women, electronics, sports, etc. and you may rest assured that I will tell you anything of importance that is actually in my head. If I don’t say it to you here, it is of no consequence.
I can only hope that this preface helps you understand there is nothing to decipher. My most important thoughts follow, and are not here for interpretation.
First of all, thank you for being so open about your own very private form of Schizophrenia. It is eye opening, because the only other thing I’ve seen were these videos. I imagine the private hell of having imaginary people walking around tomenting me, but I had never considered that some people simply dwell on their own thoughts to the point of despair. I’m sorry that this happens to you, and I hope that one day you find peace.
I realize that it’s likely that nothing I can say will make things easier for you, but I would like to make one observation about the story you related above. When I re-read it and strip out all of your random thoughts, what I actually see is:
These were the only facts. Everything else was fiction. So my only advice to you is this:
The bottom line is that at the end of the day some people are going to like you, some people are not going to like you. Your job is just to focus on being happy with who you are.
John P.
Hey, thanks for your concern. I’m not doing that horribly right now; I just wanted to provide you (and people who happen upon your journal post) with a different illustration of what it can be like to be schizophrenic. A lot of the time….at least half the time…I am a normal, functioning human being. I go to school (I am currently on hiatus due to a schizophrenic episode last year), I maintain a 4.0 GPA, I have friends, I party, I read books, I sing…basically, what I mean is I participate in the world.
There are definitely different gradations of severity of schizophrenia. I don’t mean to represent all people who have schizophrenia, although I *do* think that schizophrenics in general deserve to be treated with the same respect that one would treat an adult who is concerned to be “rational” in the conventional way.
I have developed my own way of coping with schizophrenic episodes, and while I do at times need help from professionals, family, and friends, I also think that schizophrenics, like all people, have something unique to offer the world through their way of perceiving. I don’t mean to say that we should treat schizophrenia as a valid “other way” of being in the same way that we see different religions or different lifestyles. It is certainly not a lifestyle. It can be completely debilitating and extremely frightening. But I do think it is important to recognize that schizophrenics are real people, and their ideas and insights should not be dismissed offhand or simply chalked up to the illness. The greatest danger, I think, of giving an entire person a label that means “out of touch with reality” and “irrational” is that we often forget that no person is ENTIRELY irrational, and when we preemptively have the expectation that a person is going to do and say irrational things it becomes difficult to recognize the rational, positive things that this person contributes to the world. I think it is absolutely necessary that we do have this label, primarily to protect schizophrenics from themselves at their worst (and in some cases – I mean with some people – to protect everyone around them, although I think this is much rarer than the common conception would have us believe), but we must also recognize that a person cannot be defined by a disease.
I think it’s great that you are seeking to better understand a way of thinking that is completely foreign to you, and I encourage you to keep that attitude.
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