> Schizophrenia (SZR) is rare or nonexistent in hunter-gatherer populations.
People really bend over backwards to insist that schizophrenia is not iatrogenic.
Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis
61–70 of 128 posts
Re: Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
What you are describing sounds like a protracted psychotic break. Schizophrenia doesn’t just come one day and disappear 6 months later.
Not usually, but schizophrenia is a waxing and waning disease like MS - patients tend to get episodes of worsening symptoms then remission (partial) where symptoms get better. Then they’ll get another relapse and often it’s worse, eventually resulting in a state of chronic symptoms. Treatment with antipsychotic medication can actually “pause” the cycles and prevent the disease from getting worse if started early. It’…
Schizophrenia is a degenerative condition where positive symptoms start to be replaced by negative symptoms over the course of years. I've worked in acute adult mental health, and did a few shifts in the long term wards and the difference between people earlier on in the course of their illness versus the end stages are stark.
Re: Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
It begun for me after smoking weed one night - in a flash I was outside my body with an extreme panic attack and the sudden belief that I was inside essentially a game. This first panic attack lasted around an hour or two. It was horrendous. Your PTSD is something you can manage, I have it too. It gets better and weaker as the years go on. For myself, this all happened 18 years ago but it made me a stronger person.
Cannabis is a very strong (and often unpleasant) psychedelic for someone I know — rivaling LSD if not stronger. I’ve heard of this being true for other people too; I wonder how common it is.
This is why I can only smoke the tiniest bit. And only a couple of times a year - it’s not the same as LSD or mushrooms, but it’s just as intense what it does to my mind.
I always wanted to face my fears instead of run from them. Cannabis definitely gives me super powers, my brain races with a million thoughts and brings out a part of me which needs to escape from time to time - it brings out the best in me (strangely enough).
Re: Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
So Ivermectin for everyone?
I was under the impression that ivermectin wouldn't affect a protozoa. And even if it did, it wouldnt pass the blood brain barrier so it would be useless here. [I am not a doctor and dont know what im talking]
Per this article protozoa could be affected:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8918027/
One would have to administer it in early stages before it passes BBB. Pity it got such a bad rap because Zapp Brannigan mentioned it (despite winning a Nobel Prize).
Re: Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis
#65As someone formally diagnosed with schizophrenia, I would say the worst parts of it are anhedonia and stigma. Anhedonia means we can just rot in our apartments for days at a time getting nothing accomplished and stigma prevents us from working even when we overcome the mountain that is anhedonia. Honestly, I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
I would imagine anosognosia could be worse. I know someone who delayed diagnosis and treatment because they didn't believe anything was wrong with them (although it was obvious to everyone around them)
As an anlogy, consider how hard it would be to convince a random person they have to take diabetes medication if they don't have it. It is the same way convincing a schizophrenic person with anosognosia to take antipsychotic medication.
Re: Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis
#66As someone formally diagnosed with schizophrenia, I would say the worst parts of it are anhedonia and stigma. Anhedonia means we can just rot in our apartments for days at a time getting nothing accomplished and stigma prevents us from working even when we overcome the mountain that is anhedonia. Honestly, I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
What you're describing as anhedonia also includes avolition. At least in my case, there are three components that feed back into each other: avolition - that lack of impulse to do ... anything, even when there are strong stimuli; executive dysfunction - even if you're ready to act, a sense of being overwhelmed by choices and unable to put one foot in front of another; and anhedonia - even if you're finally doing something pleasant or productive, there's absolutely no mental reward or lasting sense of accomplishment to build upon. A row-row-row-your-boat of suck as it were.
Re: Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can share the sentiment. I got stuck in a few loops on psychedelics and it was tumultuous to say the least. Overall it was a net positive effect but it’s certainly not the only way for “enlightenment.” It’s perhaps the most masochist path to enlightenment. Perhaps Alan Watts said that.
Well we have to learn not to lie to ourselves, one way or another.
Ain't that the truth.
Re: Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not usually, but schizophrenia is a waxing and waning disease like MS - patients tend to get episodes of worsening symptoms then remission (partial) where symptoms get better. Then they’ll get another relapse and often it’s worse, eventually resulting in a state of chronic symptoms. Treatment with antipsychotic medication can actually “pause” the cycles and prevent the disease from getting worse if started early. It’…
Schizophrenia is a degenerative condition where positive symptoms start to be replaced by negative symptoms over the course of years. I've worked in acute adult mental health, and did a few shifts in the long term wards and the difference between people earlier on in the course of their illness versus the end stages are stark.
I would so love to chat with someone with your experience. I developed tourettes / ticking a few years ago when I was around 32 and I wonder whether it could be related to the psychosis I once had. When I researched sudden onset ticking I couldn’t really find much about it! There hasn’t been a day in past 4 years I’ve not ticked and it is worse than ever.
Re: Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis
#69"Living in an urban environment during childhood or as an adult has consistently been found to increase the risk of schizophrenia by a factor of two."[0] While city life is as complex of a confounding factor as anything, the fact that they found hunter-gatherers have practically no incidence of SZR is interesting. Is the modern megalopolis simply too intense of a stimulus for the minds of the sensitive to handle with…
I suspect, if this effect is real, it has more to do with social supports, the size of the social group, and maybe also metaphysical/religious beliefs and attitudes. People who have a worldview like "Demonic possession is real! And no big deal! Happpens to everyone from time to time!" skew non-urban. They may well interact, socially and emotionally speaking, with schizophrenic relatives and community members, in a be…
I read an article once about treatment of schizophrenics in an African country. Basically put in a single cage but monitored and treated well. Westerners saw it as barbaric, but the local culture saw them as being possessed in a good or bad way and most recovered in a month and there was a ceremony to welcome them back from their journey. No negative societal MH stigma attached to it.
Medically, not sure about it, but culturally seems more mature than we have.
Re: Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis
#70Fascinating. I self-diagnosed myself with schizophrenia once. A horrible 6 months locked in an alien world where all I could think about was time and space (at about a million miles a second). I would hear chatter in my head and was convinced I was overhearing random conversations people were having and was even certain of the locations they were having these conversations. The idea that we all shared one consciousne…
Sounds like manic psychosis too. My ex loses touch with consensus reality sometimes when she's manic. It's frightening trying to interact with her and it's like she's not there.
I have been in a similar place with a partner too. It is a terrifying state I have never seen in anyone else before… pure catatonic episodes. But there was a level of extreme paranoia and at times I would be accused of conspiring with an ex (who I didn’t know) to ‘get’ her. This particular relationship that I had was extremely tough and left lasting damage on me - enough for me to avoid any intimate relationship for a few years till i could recover. I hope she is doing better now.