Schizophrenia

 

I was watching a programme last night about these two people who both have Schizophrenia, and how they are trying to help themselves without the use of drugs. It was incredibly interesting from many angles, including them revealing that they believe that their issues are actually the same as most other peoples, but in them the issues have grown to huge proportions and have taken on a life of their own, how people who have no experience of an illness have no right to treat others with it, how insecure and easily angered most people are when you challenge them, and how Schizophrenics have polarised weak Vs strong views and how most of the time they consider themselves incorrectly weak and punish themselves for it.

Anyway the point I wanted to make was that the guy would help the girl by talking to the girls alternate personality and asking questions that the medical authorities would never consider safe. She would verbalise the voices for him and because he had been through the same thing it did not shock him to hear her say that her voice wanted to kill her, and take him with her. The girl told how people would normally get scared if she verbalised these thoughts in public, so although it was cathartic for her, she could not do it. He also demontrated that doctors use drugs just to shut mental patients up and make them stupid, and in his opinion this didn't help anything.

The thought once again crossed my mind that most of us are mentally insane, only we are able to contain our mental outbursts, where as these few are not.

We all present a common front to the world but we are all in need of help inside and talking about it is one of the best ways to help. In fact there is an interesting correlation between the seriousness of the issue and the anger that people demostrate in an attempt to deny it. This was nicely illustrated in the programme, and it is something that I have witnessed in normal people, you know, those who are easily upset by everything, and if you touch a nerve, it is truely revealing there issues about a subject.

Getting people to open up may be the hardest thing in the world to do, but if they do, then you're on to a winner that doesn't require drugs or treatment.

It's like i dressed up in my mothers clothing,
It's like i'm talking to a voice that doesn't exist,
It's like i've got a wire crossed upstairs,
But all i want is just a little truth, and that's it
.
Eels, Mental

 

22/04/08

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