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 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.”
I also found this other video that is even better, in a creepy sort of way:
If you found this as informative as I did please help spread the word. I think the more people that see this, the greater the tolerance we’ll have for those less fortunate than ourselves.
I never had symptoms till starting antipsychotics. Now I have migraines nausea vomiting, I never I repeat never have appetite. I also developed muscle problems like I have had a cramp in my elbow for almost a year. The doctors did a biopsy and genetic testing they found the medication to have caused a cellular dysfunction in my muscles and most likely throughout the rest of my body and organs that is responsible for my symptoms and their is no cure. The genetic testing ruled out all known muscle diseases caused by genetics or genetic mutations, or inheritance, the medication is probably the cause. Basically this medicine is given to people who don�t have good health care it is billed as a cure. All patients are labeled for life with this diagnosis and there is no way to prove you do not have the illness in that respect is not a very scientific diagnosis. In science for a theory to be accepted and it still doesn�t mean it is 100 percent guaranteed to be true, there has to be the possibility to disprove it, this is not the case with schizophrenia.
actually looks kinda fun…
Wow, I hate how so many people make jokes about this type of thing! That’s terrible! From now on, I don’t care WHO they are (well maybe if they’re a teacher I might not say anything). But yeah, if my friends make jokes, I’ll nicely tell them about this. This is some serious, NOT funny stuff! Kudos to whoever made this video!
I grew up with a paranoid schizophrenic mother so I can really relate to this video. It’s one of the hardest thing to deal with. She has never been medicated, and still isn’t. Been on and off homeless. It’s definitely an eye-opening experience to live through it with someone.
Well, ive been dealing with MDD, PTSD, and BLPD. I just found out that i have Schizophrenia. Just to add on. I am 21 years old. I have been dealing with these’s mental illnesses for 3 years now. And each day gets harder and harder.
Sometimes I feel like my Thoughts are put out there for ever one to here. That every one and every thing is in some devine plan to make me give up and kill myself. I have HORRID paranoia and anxiety. This way of living sucks. I hate it. Everyday I wonder if today is the say I am going to kill myself. But I don’t, bc of my kids.
I walk around with a front, acting calm and collected…but on the inside, my mind is racing, taking everything out of context and twisting it around to make me believe that everything and everyone wants me to fail, and just kill myself. thats it. IT SUCKS!!!!!!!!!! I hate it. I wish I could just live a normal 21 year olds life and not be condemned to this hell within my head.
Major prop’s for putting this on here. I hope it gives some insight to others, so they can see No one choices this illness for themselves.
Nicole,
POSITIVE ISSUES-
I can not even imagine having to live with schizophrenia at the age of 21 years young….as I have been schizophrenic for the last 13 years and I am now 38 years old. When I first became active with the alterations in my brain, I assumed it would be short lived and go away….13 years later, here I am.
Very few people in my family know I have it now, but are all going to find out very soon, as I plan on “coming out of the closet” with it, to assist me with the knowledge that they will now know I have it, even thou they are distant in their relationships to my life now and it may not ever effect my situation.
I have brutally learned to “accept” what I have….and my family knowing actually does very little for me.
They do not suffer. I suffer.
Do not fail to realize that this video was created by a medical / pharmaceutical company and does not show the true depth and horror experienced daily by a schizophrenic…
I PERSONALLY CHOSE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT-
7 years ago, I took it upon myself to begin working on my life’s “dream” of…what might it be???
I chose to begin to INVENT.
Constantly driving by “Hewlett Packard’s” corporate complex in North Houston on the highway which has a massive sign which says, ” HP INVENT” on it and nothing else…
Maybe I went a little over board because of this one simple sign and it’s “meaning”….maybe the voices hit a lucky streak in me!
You might say I went into a “rage” because it took 4 full time professional patent attorneys in Houston, Texas to keep up with me….daily. The financial bills went up to say the least! Smile!
I was so “bad ass” at this that my legal counsel decided to FIRE two lawyers due to the fact that they could not keep up with me or even comprehend what I was working on, and the “widgets” which I had invented were basic hydraulic powered hand tools!
On the fourth year of my “bad ass”….I walked into the lobby of my North Houston patent attorneys offices with a nice little water fall in the front and one of them met me at the front door, having come down the elevator to greet me there in the front lobby.
He actually came down to help CARRY all of the documents up to their offices….
24 independent U.S. and International Patent filings in plastic CRATES!
He almost FELL INTO the water fountain when he saw me coming in !
When you venture around town in any manner these days, do not forget that I am the same as you….
I have schizophrenia.
I have just set a few records that my law firm decided to call me one day and inform me of through their office….in 42 years in the Grand Daddy of Oil and Gas and petrochemical technology of Houston, Texas….I had filed and actually licensed the largest royalty based income deal that their law firm had ever had the opportunity to deal with.
That reclassified me as an “Independent Industrial Inventor.”
My lawyers do not know I am “hearing things” and “working with other people” ! But somehow they always are asking me how I get so much done in such a short amount of time!
What no one knows is that I am “using” my voices and “people” to my advantage…
I am now “teaching” them a lesson in “get it done”!
But for now, I would not trade my “people” and voices for anything in this world…it has created me into one of the most powerful inventors in North America right now and nothing can stop me!
For those who are disbelievers…
I want to thank you for your interest in this mind altering subject matter in which I live daily with what’s called schizophrenia….and this is my first day ever to actually attempt to read up on the subject or topics on the internet….as I now find a need to let all of my new friends on here know that…I do not suffer from some “MILD” form of schizophrenia, mine is as bad as I ever could enter a new Hell….
from the time my eyes open, until when they close every single day here on earth!
Sometimes in my dreams….
This is where the true power of schizophrenia comes from.
I simply refused each and every day to lose this horrific battle and decided to play the part of “General” on this modern day battlefield I call “schizophrenia”…
So, if you decide to fight it out positively….you can just decide that you might as well become the “General” of the battlefiled and get trenched in for the wild ride….
They now call me “GENERAL PATENT”.
It’s on my business cards….
Not “General Patton” as is the old war hero, but “General Patent” as referring to the prospect of U.S. Patents.
I am becoming famous in the patent “game” here in the USA right now.
My sister gave me this title because she always says that I am ” operating on a different plane” than most others out there and I guess I am.
As this condition will not defeat me, but has been turned into a very strengthening empowerment for myself and OTHERS AROUND ME!
The very first day I ever heard a “voice” tell me that I could not “invent”……I simply decided that this battle would not end…
I design and create the graphics for my patent filings, as I am a left handed artist.
I write the majority of all of the technical “text” and “claims” for all of my patents, with various input from my attorneys…
I also spend significant amounts of time on the phone with major manufacturers such as-
Torin Jacks,Inc.
Black and Decker
Buck Knives
CRKT Knives
Gerber Knives
Wilton Vises (Walter Meier Co.)
Suzhou Douson Pressure Control (China)
Cuttway Products (Taiwan/ China)
Swiss Army Knives (Victorinox)
Just to name a few….I know them all personally now, due to my schizophrenia…they fly in from all over the world just to meet me here in Texas…..and guess WHAT….they take me very, very seriously when I contact them. Repeatedly!
I don’t get put on hold on the phone…
(maybe “they” know already! smiles!)
I go through every possible “review” process that they all have, from inspections, international trade shows to final product marketing conditions…
and I am batting a PERFECT average, as ALL of my inventions are being currently licensed and every waking minute is taken up with typing out “licensing contracts” and technical documents for some of these companies!
I found my new home with you people, as I only want to inspire some of you with this horrific “condition” that there is a new life out there for you when you take your “horse racing blinders off” and go out there and show the world that schizophrenia should ONLY be a frightening issue for the other half of the people that now have to COMPETE with all of us!
You may have it solely because you are BRILLIANT….
I went through the maddening temporary psychosis and it never ended…
Saw a tree and a heavy rope….
almost used it.
13 years later, I am still here! To do battle with this illness on my own terms and conditions!
Please understand that this is a hellish nightmare in which you can make it through each day….maybe because of the others on this site!
One of us needs to INVENT the cure…..
I may be contacted at;
madsonbryan@yahoo.com
Best of Luck to you all,
Dane
It was never like that for me. That’s why I got off the medication.
so people with schizophrenia only see things in still images? I am confused.
No One has sayed its terryfing…but what they have sayed is that they feel sympathy for people that have this illness….recently someone has came into were i work having this illness and i was concerned in finding out what it actually was…and this really helped thanks!
Anything that has information or helps people out is usefull!
I watched both of the videos, but the first affected me the most. I don’t know if it’s just me, but throughout the video, I felt really weird. Just imagine how much worse it must be for the people who actually HAVE it. It’d be so irritating and give you some awful headaches on top of everything else. Poor people…
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. :/
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.
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.
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.
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.
I’m fairly certain that a lot of normal people experience this on marijuana. I have never had a mental illness and when I have used marijuana I sometimes over-think every little thing. Paranoia is a common side effect. For example, we had to go to the store when I was really stoned one time and I told my friend I didn’t want to go in there because the large amount of people made me nervous. I sometimes felt like everyone knew I was stoned(they might actually have with my red eyes and herb stink lol) and if my friends were behaving weird I’d be like ” Shut the fuck up and act normal!”.
I must respectfully disagree. I tried LSD when I was 19 and also heard voices from people who weren’t there. I found the voices mildly annoying but really enjoyed the whole experience. I would gladly do acid again only it’s very hard to come by in my neck of the woods.
In fact during the experience I knew I was going to die, I died, and then waited for three hours outside my car at a rest stop because I thought I was in purgatory waiting to be reincarnated (and I don’t even believe in reincarnation). I found death only mildly frightening, and the whole experience was extremely positive and meaningful. I felt very spiritually refreshed afterwards (and emotionally numb for a day or two, of course).
I am not suggesting you take LSD, many people find it very unpleasant. Equally, though, some people do genuinely enjoy it.
Also, I don’t know how LSD compares to Schizophrenia.
Thank you
P.S. Because stories seem to be the motif of this comments section, if you’re curious, here are some more details on the voices, death, and purgatory which you can compare with your own experiences. John P, please feel free to remove this post script if you think it is too long-winded and unrelated to Schizophrenia.
I was in the passenger seat of my car and my friend Ryan was driving. Another friend of mine, Jim, who was not there, kept asking me from the backseat where we were going and when we were going to get there. As I had no idea where I was or where we were going I just kept answering “I don’t know”. It didn’t bother me, and I only found the questions mildly annoying.
I will point out, though, that the only reason I know Jim wasn’t there is because he told me himself two days later. At the time I never thought to turn around and look, and I never suspected that he wasn’t real, even though he kept asking me the same question again and again. Looking back I probably should have realized that he wasn’t real when he got out of the car while we were driving down the highway, only to later get back into the car while we were still driving down the highway :)
Later that night I had the delusion that I was about to die in a car crash like some PSA about teenagers and drugs and that there was nothing I could do. I heard my non-existent friend Jim in the backseat drinking, with glasses clinking and everything. Jim was also talking to a non-existent girl about how we were going to party hard.
The entire car became a cliche, you see, and I was a part of the cliche. I knew this cliche ended with all of us dying in a car crash, but there was nothing I could do except ride it out. I kept looking over at my real friend Ryan like, “aw, man, we’re about to die, bummer.” I wasn’t scared, only mildly disappointed that I hadn’t done more with my life.
We never did crash, but instead parked at a rest stop. Unfortunately Ryan forgot to turn the head lights off, so I thought that we had just crashed and were now dying by the side of the road. I was afraid of what would happen after I died, and I was unsure that I would go to Heaven. The level of fear, however, was on par with crossing a deep stream on a log and being afraid of falling into the water because then you’ll get wet. I literally got bored waiting for the “blinding white light” of death, which never came.
After a while Ryan left with, ironically, the real Jim, who was driving his truck and spotted my car at the rest stop. Jim had been with us before I took the acid but had left. Once I was alone I got out of the car and thought that I had died and was now in purgatory awaiting reincarnation. I thought the empty rest stop was purgatory and that nothing existed beyond that rest stop. I was very happy that I hadn’t gone to Hell and waited patiently for about three hours just staring at the asphalt and the electric light shining on the brick wall next to me and my car’s blue paint job.
Once the acid began to wear off I felt that I had been reincarnated as myself but in a different life (don’t ask me how that makes sense). I got back into my car and felt that I could do anything with my new life and I decided instantly that I would travel to New York City and start my new life in Greenwich Village (several hundred miles away). Before heading for NYC I decided (Thank God) that I would go home and pack some things. By the time I got home the acid had mostly worn off and I knew enough to stay put.
I remember driving home and turning on the stereo and thinking “Whipping Post” by the Allman Brothers was the most emotionally moving song I had ever heard in my life. The whole experience, in fact, had a feeling of being moving and meaningful. Even dying was meaningful because I truly believed that I was dying. There were times when I was afraid (not overwhelmingly), and times when I was disappointed, but also times when I was grateful and even ecstatic.
I vividly remember the experience to this day, several years later, and I don’t regret it for a second. I am very lucky that no cop stopped by that rest stop that night as it would have soured things immensely. As it happened no one stopped by and I had an incredible time.
LSD is definitely not something I would do two days in a row or even two weeks in a row, because of how intense the experience is. If I had the opportunity today, though, I would swallow that blotter without hesitating.
Thank you again.
(I have left out the first half of the trip and many of the more minor sensory effects like the rippling surfaces and twinkling street lights. For the best description of an LSD trip I have ever found read Alan Watts’ essay “The New Alchemy” (1960) which will tell you exactly what it feels and looks like)
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 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.
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
This is crazy! Does this kind of stuff really happen to people. Really weird, but sad at the same time.
This was sooo creepy!..I still got goosebumps from the video..I wish there was something we can do for these people..
I reccommend that you check on NAMI National Alliance for Mental illness provider course.
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.
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.
that is the worst quality video and sound ever.
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.
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
This video is enlightening and disturbing at the same time. It brings a whole new perspective to schizophrenia jokes.
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
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 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
Thanks for writing this Cherie,
have you written anything else that I could read?
You write so clearly and so interestingly, I was wondering
if you have any writing anywhere else.
Thanks anyway
“My intention here is not to be smart..” -Verena
“You are such a stupid person!” -Aso
Look who’s attacking who.
You are such a stupid person!
I cant believe people like you. This lady has gone through alot in her life; she has every right to be angry and twats like you do not have the right to tell her that she may have been the reason for her sons “heridatory scizophrenia”
YOU must have issues to attack people for no reason. Your lucky this is the internet. I would have bloody smashed your face in.
The comment by Did You Know does make a valid point. I’ve gone through psychotic episodes and have been diagnosed with both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. I was medicated for both accordingly. My final diagnosis is PTSD. Having been in therapy for it for six years and no medication I can say I have never been better. To claim that meds are an only option is putting a bleak take on a person’s recovery.
Very interesting to see a video like this brought to light in a great post.
At 16 I was diagnosed with Schizoeffective disorder which has a nice scattering of mood and psychotic elements. Eventually I found a good balance in my life where it doesn’t affect me at all. In fact – this is the first time I’ve even recalled it in years! :)
But simply to echo a few of the comments already here: the medicines used for schizophrenia are (in many cases) worse than the treatment. They simply remove the ability to think. So instead of treating the problem they remove the source. Your a person free of voices, but a person without the ability to think or feel emotion.
One great example of this is that most drugs in use are also used in Autistic children to remove cases of “irritability”. This is a great way to see this medicine acts as a sedative for the mind and nothing else.
A final note is that the answer to finding a solution for most doctors is to up the dosage. Though I had a severely mild case I was taking 4x the recommended amount. Against the doctors wishes I stopped taking the medication, and to this day my mind still feels “numb” from its after effects. I’d recommend those with this illness to find the right balance between their trust in themselves and their doctors. If you trust one greater then the other you’ll surely pay a price…
What is going on in this Video could also be described as a “Psychotic episode”. Which may last for a few hours or a few days and could be misdiagnosed as schizophrenic. I know full well as I went through it myself for a couple of days. I knew what caused it. “Cause and affect”. The cause of it was from where I worked. A Call Center. Seems many who worked at such places have had profound illnesses stemming from the work place. Everything from Depression, anxiety disorders to physical illnesses such as heart problems to arthritis related illnesses. “Psychotic episodes” can also be brought on by drugs given by Dr’s. If you were misdiagnosed with schizophrenia, the drugs could make it permanent.
Just a point of interest.
This is all so sad. This is happening to my son and I am lost. He hears voices angels or avatars as he puts them telling him to do things. He cant get them out of his head and he also has depression. Writes he wants to die and so so sad and lost. He has his masters and cant even hold a job. They put him on medicine but he thinks it will not help or we just dont understand. So he stops taking it. He is in jail for 7 days because the voices told him to go to jail so he went out of his way to do just that. Are you taking medicine and did you fight it and have you found help? Anything else you have to say I am very interested.
Sorry, but the video above does’nt work…
I understand the need to be realistic when it comes to approaching this subject, but a lot of what you are saying on here isn’t constructive. You are tearing down people’s own version of HOPE. Hope can be the last thing that people have in their life to look forward to sometimes. A real question for you now: other than possible ignorance of self pride by being realistic, what other reason do you have to shut everyone’s hope down that isn’t negative and destructive?
Thanks for sharing this. Even if, as those who have commented, that the video going goes so far to explain what it is really like to have schizophrenia, I still found it disturbing and insightful. I cried actually. My brother has schizophrenia, he was diagnosed with it christmas day 1992. It was such a horrible time for him and for the family (Dad & I). We had no idea of how to cope with him, or to help him cope with it. He used to smoke a lot of pot and I reckon that this bought it on. He continued to smoke pot for a while after, no matter how hard we tried to get him off it. He gave it up and took up the alcohol and over dosing on his meds instead. He was in and out of mental wards for years, not taking his meds, and doing all the things he shouldn’t be doing and wanting to kill himself.
But the best thing I ever did was to move us all up to the Central Coast of NSW. They had the most supportive mental health team/set up. They had a case manager come out and see him at home, to regularly check that he was taking his meds and to see if they were working for him, if they didn’t they’d change them. Finally they got him on the right meds and then he went to this community centre and he started working with them with mowing lawns and feeling useful again. Regularly seeing his psych. Dad and I never gave up on him either. He frustrated the hell out of us though.
He went from the blackest of black holes and now you wouldn’t even know he had it. it is controlled by meds. He got back into the light, he went to university to study nursing, he met his wife, has 2 children a house and a great job at the local hospital, plays golf when he can. He is doing so wonderfully and I am so proud of him. I thought he’d be ‘mad’ for the rest of his life. I mean he still suffers it, and has episodes and anxiety, but he manages it everyday.
This video showed me just a small fraction of what brother goes through every day. It’s horrible. I applaud anyone who can live a day like that, because I don’t think I could. I am incredibly prouder of my brother after seeing that. He is an inspiration to me, about how strong he is.
Those who rubbish the doctors/psychologist out there and say meds don’t work are just kidding themselves. They saved my brothers live and sanity. Persevere. Find a new doctor. With the meds, it is experimentation, trial and error. Everyone’s body chemistry is different and the right dose/pill is different for everyone. It did take a while to get the right meds for bro. It is an ongoing process as well. Every couple of years he needs a different med or dosage or a better med comes out.
hi all, i think im schizo? im 28 and seen for the first time profesional help, im been ofered antidepresends but towards 2 week on this med my physicosis has way elevated mayor anxitey, paranoia of the type that start thinking someone coming to get me im now 10 days without antidepresens this simptoms are less heavy but i have expirencing the voices little but its first time, i dont want med from the docs if they offers antiphyicosis ones, my mayor question is can a lifetime of traumas get you to schizophrenic, like childeabuse fisical and sexual drug abuse longterm loss employment all other social aspects of interaction are obviuos. is it me or the more problems you have encounter this schizophrenic disorder manifest more serius?? is it trauma related or only comes with genetics??? ahhh just a quote on the paranormal telepathy or what ever you call it i do experince a lot of dejavu real nasty but that can be me hallucinating?
Where are you GOD!!!
Your post was automatically held for moderation in case it was spam, sorry about that, but I’ve approved it now. I’ve also slightly formatted your comment by simply separating it into paragraphs for ease of reading. However, I did not modify any of your wording.
Your story is both interesting and sad at the same time. I’m very sorry that you are afflicted with this condition. It must be hell, and I imagine that it makes it difficult to even determine if the voices you are hearing are real people or figments of your imagination.
John
I have to say the second video by jannssen is pretty accurate. I heard voices commenting on my life for a while before I went totally psychotic. I would usually hear them in the context of conversations people are having around me. Usually they would occur in the library as I was studying.
They would laugh at me, comment on what notes I’m taking etc. I always thought they were real people just coincidentally talking about what I was doing in a conversation that was almost always strangely out of my view and nowhere to be found actually. Sometimes I would hear voices in a place with no people. Usually it was a conversation and often a female voice.
I believed I may have been schizophrenic for a while before I became floridly psychotic. Helicopters would fly by often, everywhere I went at odd times making me think I was being watched. I soon started hearing people talk about me on the radio. The sirius satellite radio I had would answer my thoughts with songs and song titles (I thought sirius was in on a government conspiracy to arrest me) then one night before I went on vacation all hell broke loose.
I listened to a cd, this voice in my ear commented on the song I heard. I cursed, it repeated my curse. I turned on the radio hoping to find something that would comfort me but all I heard was every station laughing at me, threatening me personally, saying I was poisoned by the water I drank that afternoon. I thought I was dying. I went downstairs to find the antidote to the poison I drank ended up eating a hell of a lot of garlic and pickle juice and pacing around.
I heard the voices saying he thinks he’s dying, that’s so sad. I was like what? I’m not? Did I outsmart them or am I being tricked? Then I turned on the radio again to see what happened. The sun rose (I hadn’t slept a wink that night). I was getting ready to go on vacation I pretended to my father that all was well, not one person knew what I was going through, no one even thought me strange.
Throughout the country people everywhere were watching tv programs where they were talking about me. People were like government agents commenting on my every thought and mood. I thought at this point wow! The government must be god like. That night when I arrived at my hotel I heard voices in the rooms next to me commenting on my evil acts and what I’ve done throughout my life and what I had said in the past. I thought it was only a matter of time before I’d be arrested.
The morning after I woke up very scared. I told my father I needed a high powered lawyer, writing it down with my eyes closed because I was convinced whatever it was could see what I see. He wondered what I was talking about. I was alone in the room for a while and suddenly the misery lifted, I realized the people doing this to me were benevolent and were trying to cure me of a personal problem. I smiled and beamed for a while.
But all was not good. I was later to find out “I am” the antichrist. I saw a program on jetblue about him and realized that was why God did all this (over time I realized this scenario I was in could only be God, and wasn’t really a government plot, so I thought to myself, why is God revealing himself to me, I must be someone spoken of in scripture).
So over time, themes spoken of in the program were applied to me by my siblings, my parents and by television and whispers and small voices I heard. I have more to say but I think you got the point. I just thought I could add to the discussion by giving you my actual psychotic experience.
What is scary is how similar my experiences are to yours. I’m now paranoid reading these stories, because it seems like everybody *was* reading my mind, and are now writing *my* experiences. This is so like what I went through…weird. How come so many perople are going through the exact same experiences???
schizophrenic medication is useless. I used to be schizophrenic and so was my mother. I’ve seen what it’s done to her, it nearly turned her into a zombie. Whereas I was schizophrenic never took medication , and even though it was a horrendous expierience, I recovered. REM sleep
you speak words without knowledge
My son is showing signs of this disease. It hurts our family terribly. We cant think of anyone else in the family who has this disease and this is why it is so hard to understand why he has been afflicted with it. He is 23 years old and now in the Navy, they have been treating him with lots of different medication and none of them seem to help. I feel sorry for his sweet wife of 2 years. She has been through so much. He has tried to kill himself 2 different times and he drinks a lot along with taking all the meds. He called me at 2am this morning to tell me that the CIA was looking for him and he was hiding outside his home….Oh its so hard to be this far away from him during this difficult time in his life…He is scheduled to be honorably discharged from the Navy and our family hopes to be able to get involved in his recovery at that time. We are just now beginning to come to grips with how serious this illness is so needless to say we are overwhelmed…..Good luck in your battle for normality and hopefully we’ll be able to help our son come to a peaceful place in his life very soon…
Heh, riiight.
your comment invalidates itself.
*Cough* I am schizophrenic. Thusly, why would I stigmatize schizophrenia?
Clairvoyancey or telepathy on the other hand…
Yeah yeah it might exist, all things being unprovable and whatnot *grumble grumble* but then so might the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Admitting the possibility is just being pedantic really.
Lol, you gotta invalidate my comment first before you can use a term like that dude. Nice go with the ol’ Thesaurus though eh?
Hell, I’ll retort that as long as my comment isn’t null and void (and I can always cite my sources) then everything that was said about humans “only using 10% of our brains” or whatever, was pseudo-intellectual. Because it was used by a person who obviously never explored or understood the actual idea.
one word- pseudointellectual
Scitzo people aren’t really crazy like everyone may think they are. They are special though. These people were on the other side of the experiment. Yes, that is how our society has advanced today. Unfortunately you probably were some one’s experiment. These peple have a lot of money and resources to study your behavior, and the funny thing is, all the times you thought you were being watched, you were. Neurologists have discovered the presence of what is know as mirror neurons, these neurons are the connection to our spirit and other people’s spirits, a melding of the minds. It is really quite facinating that the biological link or hiway if you will, to the spirit has been discovered. However, they don’t know for sure. Those voices in your head were not really in your head, they were probably in someone else’s head and your mirror neuron activity actually picked up on it. Wow, you could really do alot of good with a gift like this if all those damned voices didn’t have you scarred shitless. With all this psychology and medicine they still caon’t cure it. lindell will rot in hell, praise god Bless, M
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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”.
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?”
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.
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.
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
@ 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.
Yea, I buy that there’s telepathy involved in schizophrenia. it hurts like hell. It’s a small plus amongst the minusses.
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?
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.
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 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!
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.
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.
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.
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?!
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.
Nice one, anyone know of others ?
This one is nothing compared to the new simulation out by janssen:
http://www.janssen.com/janssen/mindstorm_video.html
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.
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!
Egor,
I moved your comment over to my post about Schizophrenia. I’m guessing that you must have seen this article to arrive at the conclusion that I myself am afflicted by this disease. However, I am not schizophrenic nor do I hear voices.
I understand that you have given the concept of Freemason mind control a great deal of thought and that from your perspective it makes sense. I however do not believe you are correct because your underlying premise is that “magic” such as telepathy actually exists. This concept is as fallacious as the Easter Bunny or leprechauns.
Now, I don’t know you – you approached me via my blog – and I don’t care if I influence you or not, so hopefully you will be able to recognize my comments as neutral. But my opinion is that you need to begin taking your meds again. Did you notice that people didn’t start following you and “casting spells” until you were off the medication?
I’m sorry there is nothing else I can offer to assist you. Please take your medication.
John
Hello,
I realize that this has nothing to do with the topic of your post, but I’m assuming that you are schizophrenic. Unfourtunatly, I feel obliged to inform you that more likely than not the symtoms of your “illness” have been manufactured by an outside force. Whether you choose to believe it or not, there exists a global conspiracy on scale almost too large to fathom. The perpertrators of this conspiracy are occultists – they practice the black arts. Now your first instincts may be to dismiss this as complete nonsense, but ask yourself this; if a group of individuals were practicing black magic that inflicted great harm on a great many people, would it not be in their best interests to deceive people into believing that such powers did not exist and were entirely fictional? And if it just so happened that these individuals had complete control over the media, government, and religious institutions, would they not do just that?
The reality of the situation is that more often than not, psychiatric patients have been attacked by “magic spells” (for lack of a better description) cast by warlocks/witches/wizards/etc. that has compromised their psychological integrity. Usually, this nefarious individual is a freemason.
I myself am Bipolar, and in the past I too would have dismissed such claims as ridiculous and that anyone making such claims was in need of some seroquel. But one day, I decided that enough was enough and that I was tired of being bilked by pharmaceutical companies for a product that was making me physically ill from a host of nasty side effects. It made sense to at least take a shot and live without any medication. I mean, I could always go back on if it didn’t work out, right?
So I began the process of weaning myself of my meds, and things proceeded quite smoothly. That is, until I started to see people I recognized from around campus repeatedly, over and over, like they were following me around. Well, I won’t go into the details of my whole experience, but it ended up with a masonic recruiter inviting me into his home asking me if I wanted to be a freemason. This guy made no bones about his group’s interest in the occult and their agenda. I respectfully declined, since I had no desire to be party to the abuse and manipulation of my fellow man.
These people have great power, not only because they control all of our major institutions, but because they have mastery over the spiritual energy that is present in all of us. While this proposition will sound completley insane to you, they do have the ability to control someone’s mind, to communicate telepathically, to manipulate your endochrine system, among other things. For instance, the voices that so many schizophrenics claim to suffer from are almost certainly the result of a warlock/witch/wizard either actually communicating with them telepathically or manipulating the auditory centres of said person’s brain.
You might be suprised, but a A LOT of people hear voices, people you would never suspect. A wall street banker or university professor might hear voices all the time, only they are aware that these voices are actually those of another person who is intentionally communicating with them, so they don’t start freaking out. This is because they are affiliated with the freemasons, and have been properly initiated and trained to use telepathy.
I really hope you’re trolling. Because otherwise the irony of your post would break my brain.
pretty sure, egor, that u r not JUST suffering being bipolar…
Look at this man’s art work as decends further into his mental illness…
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/02/22/schizophrenia_aging_.html
Sarah,
I’m sorry you’re having trouble. Unfortunately this is the only site on the Internet at the moment with this content. :-(
I forgot to mention that you need the Adobe Flash player to view the video, so can you try installing that and then see if you can view it?
Finally, if all else fails, you can go over to the Revver site where I uploaded it and they allow you to download a Quicktime version of the movie. But that is going to mean you’ll have to install Apple Quicktime, which is far more of a hassle than the Adobe Flash.
Let me know if you run into issues…
John
I can’t view the video either, and I already have Adobe Flash Player. And your link to Revver doesn’t work.
I am not able to view the video – is there another site I can view it at?
Lukus,
I don’t think you sound patronizing at all. You raise a very good point. It takes incredible bravery to go through life facing this kind of challenge day after day. Personally, I don’t think I could handle it. I’d probably rather end my life than suffer like this.
So I understand what you mean when you say you are inspired by their ability to keep going.
John
I could never begin to understand or comprehend life with this illness. My brother has paranoid schizophrenia, the respect i have for him and anyone else battling this illness is massive. I’ve seen first hand how soul destroying it is to the effected person while the episodes are at there worst. For these very unfortunate people to still have the strength to fight this after years of predictable torment amazes me. although my brothers not living in my area any more he is a source of constant inspiration to me, as is anyone in his situation. Im sorry if i sound patronizing it was not my intention!
I happen to have been diagnosed with ‘drug-induced paranoid schizophrenia with borderline parkansins, catotania and selective muteism’, some of the worst symptoms you can get with that disorder both positive and negative- I was 17, this was 4 years ago. While, again, I like the idea- and it’s good that he chose a pharmacy, in my opinion; things always seem more for your benefit in public not exactly……….so loud(?).
Kinda hard to explain. (which is why i was very vague before).
Sam, is it possible that you are thinking it is not a brain disease but a brain disorder- maybe thats what you were thinking originally? It certainly is classified as a mental illness, as is Parkinson’s as well as Alzheimer’s and Bipolar Disorder.
I think you sum up my point fairly well, and would add that we dearly need to do physical research int this, and all mental illness, to determine whether it is a causal or correlational connection between symptoms and physical evidence. Is Schizophrenia an actual disease? Or is it a class of symptoms? Like many physical diseases can cause a fever and a headache, perhaps many physical brain/nervous disorders can cause schizophrenic symptoms, and if this is the case, providing the same treatment in all or most cases may not be a good idea. So my basic concern is of a rush to diagnose schizophrenia, and then medicate it may be harmful before we know the root cause or causes. It may be we are doing more long term harm than good. But I fully understand that what is being done now is the best option in a bad situation.
If I may interject before anyone gets too upset here… :-)
My interpretation of Sam’s comments is merely that he is making the point that schizophrenia is one of those rare diseases where one cannot point to actual empirical evidence of the illness. For example, with measles we can see the bumps, but with this disease we cannot detect any physical irregularity. It is truly a “mental” illness.
For this reason, I believe Sam’s assertion is that medical professionals need to be extremely careful about the diagnosis because the disease and treatment may be different in each case, unlike measles where everyone needs the same medicine.
Although I see how Lee’s direct questions could be interpreted as “baiting”, I think it’s also fair to assume he was legitimately searching for clarity on Sam’s position. Hopefully my interpretation of everyone’s statements is correct and this may clarify the matter?
John
i just watched this video and really knew nothing about this illness but watching it made me relize how scary it would be just to enjoy, like a walk in the park.
Lee,
I have no clue why you would ask if I am saying that people are imagining their disease, and frankly am going to have to refuse to rise to that bait.
What exactly are you saying Sam?
That schizophrenics are imagining it, or that there are several different illnesses involved?
Karl,
The voices are heard as if they are coming from different places all around you. It actually sounds like there are people with you, talking to you and making you paranoid.
My wife used to work for a mental health care facility and she told me that one of their clients who was schizophrenic related a story that he used to go to the exact same restaraunt for lunch every single day. He had to stick to routines so he could determine what was real and what was not…
Anyway, he would sit down at a table and sometimes some other person would sit down with him and start bugging him. He knew these people were not real because no one just sits down at your table, but they looked and sounded as real as the people who worked there.
It would be very, very scary to live this kind of existence.
John
WOOOW!!! really weird… but the quality of the video ruins it a little…
are the voices heard outside as other sounds or are they heard like in the head of the schizophrenic person???
John, on a cursory scan of those websites, focusing mainly on the “causes of” sections, the almost all start with “it is not known…” or something similar. And then they go on to say that their “brain structure is different” but then proceed to say that the differences are found in non schizophrenics, and not all schizophrenics have the differences. As I said many of the people diagnosed with Schizophrenia do have mental problems, but many of them do not have the same problems, but get lumped in together as schizophrenics. Basically I think Schizophrenia will go the same rout as Psychotic, which is to say, it’s still on the books, but only describes a wide and vague class of related disorders. The problem is that because we so far have only been diagnosing these diseases on the extremely subjective points of views of the patients and opinions of the psychiatrists, we have no objective way to test for this apparent disease. Once again I must stress I am not saying that the people who are diagnosed have no mental disorders, but I do worry that people are being misdiagnosed with a disease that has, so far, no physical proof of it’s existence.
Sam,
I am in no way qualified to argue for or against your point, but I will say that it seems to be the concensus on the net that schizophrenia is indeed a mental illness.
For example, Schizophrenia.com, Mayo Clinic, National Alliance on Mental Illness, US Dept. of Health and Human Services, National Schizophrenia Foundation, US Surgeon General, and the Library of Congress. For even more, try this Google Search.
John
Schizophrenia is not a mental illness, it is a classification for abnormal behaviour and mental function that doesn’t fit into any of the other classifications. It is basically the ‘Hysterical woman syndrome’ of the modern age. this does not mean that people who are diagnosed with schizophrenia do not have mental problems, but the term schizophrenia is used as a dumping ground for unclassifiable ‘abnormal’ symptoms. Also, I feel that treating symptoms of what is thought of as a disease, when there is, as far as I know, no physical test that can show there is a disease, highly suspect. this is not to say everyone should stop taking their meds, but many psychiatrists say it is a chemical imbalance, when there seems to be no physical evidence of it.
Please note, I am not saying that psychiatry is evil, as is currently in fashion, but I am saying it needs to move away from theory into Neuroscience.
That video is intense. I’ve known many people who suffered from schizophrenia, and known the textbook description, but watching the video makes it obvious how hard that is to deal with.
Did you know it’s being used to train police officers as well?
I’m glad people are starting to learn more about mental illness, which is simply an illness like cancer or diabetes; but sufferers are often treated like demons.
Sechy and Raiden – You may want to find a local councelor to talk to about this subject. It is normal for people to talk to themselves as they think, but if you are hearing other people’s voices that is not normal. There are methods to help you stop being bothered by those other people. If you don’t know anyone to talk to I suggest that you find a local church and tell the minister, or find a local hospital and tell a doctor.
Danja – I certainly can’t speak for people with this problem either but I’m guessing that, like any other disease, there is probably a wide range of symptoms. I would imagine that some people are much worse off than this video portrays and some are less affected.
Take care,
John
Hi John,
I was diagnosed with schizophrenia when I was 33. This is when I began to hear voices. Prior to that I was always wondering what was wrong with me. I just couldn’t follow through on anything. I started lots of things, but quit them when I became fatiqued, frustrated or because I didn’t feel like I fit in where I was. I was schizophrenic from a young age, but the symptoms didn’t peak into intense hallucinations until I was 33. I was in the worste range. I was schizo-effective and homeless for ten years, because I refused medication. I took a few in the hospital and I had bad side effects, such as insomnia and more intense hallucinations. It is much worse than the video. I did before getting medication at age 43 hear other peoples voices in my head insulting me constantly, and I also heard encouraging voices, maybe Angels defending me against the insults. I described it to the hospital as a battle in my head for my soul between good and evil. I lived this way for ten years before agreeing to accept medication. It took me 2 tries to find the right medication for me. I still hear voices, they are just quieter, and kinder. I hallucinate frequently whispers in public, or taking a walk by myself without music to block out the “silence”. I used to talk back to these voices in public. Nobody paid any attention to me because I am told I am very attractive. People that drink and abuse drugs with schizophrenia get much more abuse from the public, than a clean, attractive, woman who just keeps to herself. If I ever asked anybody for money, the answer was always “yes”, and most people were very kind to me. People felt sorry for me, so I wasn’t traumatized by society at all. What traumatizes is the news media and dramatic television portraying schizophrenics as criminals and pedophiles. I won’t tell anybody I have schizophrenia, now that I have been on medication for a few years. People are too cruel and misinformed about mental illness. This film does not hurt, nor help schizophrenics. It does not inform people how to treat a schizophrenic. Most of us appreciate soft spoken kindness, so as to not spook us off. Thanks, goodness bless, and bye. Grace
good idea though
i cant speak for everyone with schizophrenia, but some of that shit was exaggerated and they left out some stuff i would have added.
Ok, first of all, none of its exaggerated, not everyone experirences the same exact thing. Some people can also smell things, as well as have visual hallucanations, amd heard ones.
wow i dont know how they can deal with something that intence
i have this and didn’t know it was a disease
Wow, I hear that stuff all the time :(
that was super intense!