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Explaining Schizophrenia [comic]

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Re: Explaining Schizophrenia [comic]

#11

Post by asdflkj »

Alex3917 wrote: post #4

"Even with these side-effects, people who suffer schizophrenia are still far better off than if they'd been left untreated." Except for that this directly contradicts the research, which shows that A) In the U.S. patients are doing far worse than they did in the 50s before drug therapy was introduced and B) patients in developing countries where they use less or no drugs at all do dramatically better than patients in…

Link to research? I'd like to see how it was done, being that in so many developing countries mental illness carries a huge stigma. Patients may do better according to their family members, for whom the inconvenience of hiding the patient is less bad than the shame of others' finding out.

Re: Explaining Schizophrenia [comic]

#13

Post by horseass »

horseass wrote: post #7

Some chick in some ramachandran youtube video, if I remember, said a giant black widow told her to cut her shirt with scissors or it'd bite her. And there was a conspiracy against people people who's name started with 'j'. The movie naked lunch is kinda schizophrenic.

Well I rate your rating -1

Re: Explaining Schizophrenia [comic]

#14

Post by Alex3917 »

asdflkj wrote: post #11
Alex3917 wrote: post #4

"Even with these side-effects, people who suffer schizophrenia are still far better off than if they'd been left untreated." Except for that this directly contradicts the research, which shows that A) In the U.S. patients are doing far worse than they did in the 50s before drug therapy was introduced and B) patients in developing countries where they use less or no drugs at all do dramatically better than patients in…

Link to research? I'd like to see how it was done, being that in so many developing countries mental illness carries a huge stigma. Patients may do better according to their family members, for whom the inconvenience of hiding the patient is less bad than the shame of others' finding out.

Check out the book Anatomy of an Epidemic that just came out. The first 110 pages cites at least a couple dozen studies on this.

Re: Explaining Schizophrenia [comic]

#15

Post by rwhitman »

rjett wrote: post #5

Does anyone here have friends or relatives who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia. I'd be interested in hearing your experiences with it. Someone I know was diagnosed, but later the diagnosis was changed by another doctor to manic depressive with bipolar (we were told that it was too early to say affirmatively what the prob was). Every 9 months or so (for the past 3 years), he has episodes where he or someone els…

My half brother had his first episode around his 20th birthday. I was 8. His behavior still haunts me, we were very close. On a trip to hong kong I met and was subsequently stalked by a schizophrenic girl for 3 years and I also worked briefly in a psych ward.

People with the disorder can drift in and out of health. On some level their symptoms are related to stress (and meds), so you can have a normal conversation one day and the next they can become obsessed with ghosts living in the shower. I guess the hardest part is that when they seem somewhat cognizant at first in a conversation. They initially try very hard to concentrate and can make a fair bit of sense, but after a few minutes they start getting a little fuzzy around the edges, drifting off, mumbling to themselves talking about things that didn't happen etc. Eventually they start confusing you with jesus or a dead relative. I could go on with incidents...

It can be incredibly disturbing. I have nightmares about the behavior, its just too much. I once talked to a psychiatrist who told me its better off separating yourself. Its really hard to do (and this comic doesn't help, its misleading) but spending any amount of time trying to cope with it and rationalize ends in frustration and sadness.

Re: Explaining Schizophrenia [comic]

#16

Post by rwhitman »

goodside wrote: post #9

"Sufferers are no more dangerous than anyone else. Don't believe me? Then look in the paper and you'll see most crimes are committed by the sane." This is a fallacious argument. Non-schizophrenics outnumber schizophrenics by a huge margin. Schizophrenics could, hypothetically, be ten times as dangerous and most crimes would still be committed by sane people. This study is somewhat outdated (1990), but: "The crime rat…

Agreed. This comic was incredibly misleading. I've known more than one person with the disorder and they've all had violent episodes.
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