Why what we think we know about schizophrenia is wrong

The diagnostic words that start with "schizo-" are a train wreck.

Schizophrenia is characterized by hallucinations, delusions, thought disorder, catatonia, etc. You don't hear much about catatonia these days because it is cleared up by benzodiazepines reliably.

Schizoid people have reduced emotional reactions compared to other people but they are in touch with reality.

Schizoaffective disorder seems to pick a few symptoms from schizophrenia and bipolar but doesn't fit the criteria for either. You might think that sounds less severe but it can be devastating.

The romanticization of schizophrenia of r.d. Liang, "one flew over the cuckoo's nest", szasz and others strikes me as particularly cruel when I see how it keeps people who are suffering from getting help.

I don't think "one flew over the cuckoo's nest" romanticizes mental illness, for me it is about demonizing institutionalization.

It pictures the time when mental illness diagnostic was an easy method to put away anyone annoying or inconvenient (the subject really having a mental illness or not made little difference). It talks about institutional cruelty like torture and lobotomy.

But then I didn't read the book, just watched the movie - perhaps the "romanticization of illness" angle is more pronounced in the book but I'm pretty sure it was not the main theme and the novel did more good than bad for those diagnosed with a mental disorder or developmental disability.

I mostly agree, but I think the movie romanticized the end of institutionalization, making us believe we've progressed "beyond" it, when we merely have people screaming on street corners and sleeping in the gutter. Institutionalization should've been reformed, not all but eliminated (I know it still exists, but only for the most extreme cases).

My youngest brother has schizophrenia, which started when he was 19. He just turned 31, and were it not for his family supporting and caring for him, I'm sure he would be homeless or worse. He's one of the most sensitive, gentle people I have ever known. My wife and others who have gotten to know him would agree.

Although he's "stable", thanks to an injection every 3 weeks, he's not going to ever get better. In fact he continues to retreat further and further away from the world and life. Why don't you go to the bowling group, movie night, job placement, etc, I used to ask him (events organized by a local psych facility for their patients, etc). Those people are crazy, he said.

It's a baffling disease. Besides his hallucinations and delusions, the defining feature seems to be that it resists treatment of any kind that would lead to what you and I would call a normal life.

> It was during my own nursing training that the currently favoured term of “service user” gained traction, as it was deemed more neutral.

Patients overwhelmingly prefer the term patient, and this holds true every time we ask them what they want to be called.

Service user is a term imposed upon them by well-intentioned mental health professionals and academics who don't recognise their own power dynamic and who do a poor job of coproduction.

> while the council of the Royal College of Psychiatrists recently recommitted to “patient”.

...after they asked people what their preferred term is.