August 7, 2012
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Schizable (Help Wanted)
Specifically your help. Today Jared Laughner pleaded guilty to the crime he committed in Tucson Arizona last year. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and the article on the netscape news reel did not hold back that fact. So why do I need your help? Because the comments I saw in there have me very distressed. I need to know what I am dealing with here if I am going to proceed to raise awareness about this disease. So this post is your chance to lay it all out there in terms of what your opinion is of the disease and what it means for the individual who has it, the family members who deal with it, the caretakers, society as a whole, mental institutions, everything. What are your pre-conceived notions about the illness?
You can rest assured that I won’t bite your head off for your point of view. I want to hear every single opinion that there is about schizophrenia. The good, the bad, and especially the ugly. Whatever your opinion, if I choose to address it in the future, I won’t say something like, “@personx said this”.Thus far I have talked primarily about myself and how I relate to this illness. I want to start taking on broader subjects and begin to form a vision for where the ‘schizable’ series can go. So let’s have it. Out with your opinions. Please please rec so that I can get as many opinions as possible.
One other thing I would like from you. If you have any experience at all with this illness feel free to post your own views on the subject. Whether you suffer from it and want to tell your story, or you know someone who does and you have seen firsthand how it affects them, please tell your story! All I ask is that you let me know where it’s posted so that I can make some kind of announcement here. That’s it.
Thanks to all of you who comment and rec. I know my page has some difficulty with the recommend button, but if you can’t do it that way, please rec through comment.
-Shadowrunner81
Comments (13)
Well, I understand schizophrenia to be a mental disorder — I honestly didn’t know what it was until I took a high school psychology course. I feel bad for people who have it — they might become ostracized or feel like victims of their own mind. But I’m glad most people can get help without being shut up in an institution somewhere like in the “old days.” Still, it sounds like a really scary disorder to have — for the individual who has schizophrenia and their loved ones. Unfortunately, I think the Tuscon massacre will only make people more afraid of the mentally ill even if they are educated about it. Uncontrolled violence, especially by way of mental disease, is scary.
I don’t know anyone with schizophrenia, but one of my friends was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in high school. She was hallucinating and was in the hospital for months. Her parents were embarrassed and she didn’t tell me for YEARS what had happened to her. She felt crazy and was afraid that other people would view her as “unstable” and be afraid of her. I imagine having schizophrenia produces similar fears.
To be honest, I didn’t know much about it, until some of your posts…
The only experience I had… When I was an apartment manager, we had a tenant who had schizophrenia. My MIL and FIL told us that and that he would sometimes go off his medication and we might know or something. Really, other than complaining about some noises one windy night, he was just like everyone else… I dunno! he’s the only person I’ve known with it, that’s why I brought it up.
So, really, I don’t know much about it.
I will rec, though!
I’m going to be blunt. When I first heard of the illness, I immediately thought of a homeless person that would be talking to themselves on the side of the street. That is just the first image that comes to mind. After experiencing mental illness myself, I began to look more into it and it really catches my attention. There are so many stereotypes with being schizophrenic. My above example is one. Another can be found on the movie A Beautiful Mind. Its much more complex than simply thinking the government is out to get you. I find people with mental illness to be the most creative and passionate of people. I would actually rather associate with a person who isn’t perfect. The conversation is more intense and active and I relate better on a personal level.
I dated (and briefly lived with) a man with schizophrenia, and that is as far as my experience goes. I know he was often unable to control his actions because he could sometimes get lost in delusion and lose touch with reality. My opinion of my very limited knowledge can be summed up with one word – suffering. His moments of happiness were fleeting and always tainted with the question in the back of his mind of whether or not this version of reality is true.
My stepbrother ended up with schizophrenia after doing drugs. It changed him as a person and he even got kind of scary. He would never have done anything to hurt anyone before that and it was saddening to see him change. It’s a horrible disease and I wish it didn’t exist. That’s all I’ve got on the subject.
It’s hard for me to answer this question. Honestly. When I try, my mind tunes out and I just get a blank. I can say that I think the only person that I ever knew with schizophrenia would have been an incredibly caring, intelligent, and funny individual with a few quirks and delusions if he weren’t horribly abused by his parents. I don’t think anyone would have known he was schizophrenic unless he told them. I’ll recommend the post and if I can think of something else, I will.
I know all to well about schizophrenia. Drs have one book they use to describe how it comes about which is a bunch of BS. My husband came home from Nam with a severe head injury, (that left a bright beautiful young man with college scholarships up the butt, who answered the draft and went,) with schiophrenia, secondary bipolar, ptsd, clinical depression and a whole lot more.
What upsets me is when someone unmedicated with a mental illness commits a crime and then every one with the same mental disorder is looked at as a criminal.
My husband is a gentle, sweet man who would harm himself before others. He is this way because he has spent a life time in and out of mental institutions and mental health clinics. Who he was has been torn down, stripped down and rebuilt through the use of medications and mental health therapy.
In the home he feels relaxed and comfortable with himself and being mentally ill. Going out in public he feels ok til people learn he has a mental illness. Then he feels self conscious and ashamed.
People who knew him before they knew he had a mental illness treat him so much differently and stop calling and coming over, as soon as they learn he has a mental illness. He is still the person they liked before they found out he is mentally ill.
Old age has is a blessing for him because no one wonders why he is not at work during the day.
I am not sure what ese to say.
Well, since you asked for honesty, I will say that my immediate opinion of schizophrenia is that it scares me. I think of people unable to control themselves at times and possibly dangerous. I have no firsthand experience with anybody that suffers from this illness but I can only imagine that it is a horrible thing to live with, and frightening as well. I realize that my opinion has been tainted by Hollywood’s version of it, in movies, in books, and the image portrayed is almost always negative, or downright terrifying. And being a person that suffers from bipolar disorder, I don’t like realizing that my judgments on a mental disorder are only based on what I see in the media, since I know that so many things can be exaggerated to the point where it isn’t even truthful anymore. I think that it would be nice to be able to learn more about schizophrenia and the people who are afflicted with it.
@TigerLily_24 - @Megabyyte - @Crying_In_Color - @BoulderChristina - @isitreal_no - @Erika_Steele - @Grannys_Place - @kaitlove__xx -
Thanks to all of you for your comments. Especially you Grannys_Place. That is an incredible story of perseverance. To those of you who are new to the site: Welcome and feel free to stick around!
I don’t know much about the illness either. Hope you find information you need.
I used to work in a nursing home and every morning at 5am he would stand on his bed and crow like a rooster. He would also follow me around telling me that he was an alley cat out on the prowel. However, if you mentioned Republicans, he would go nuts and we would shoot him with Haldol. Apparently he was a Democrat in WW2.
@hesacontradiction - What was his name?
@Shadowrunner81 - I want to say Leonard, but I can’t be sure. It was a long time ago.