Ask A Schizophrenic Anything!

Scroll to see replies

Reply 20

SnoochToTheBooch

how does it start? Can you cause it to happen yourself just by worrying about it? What age is most susceptible?

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 21

Arketec

Original post by SnoochToTheBooch

how does it start? Can you cause it to happen yourself just by worrying about it? What age is most susceptible?

I think it all started for me when I started taking drugs. Worrying about it doesn't help I felt a lot better once I'd been in hospital and got onto prescribed drugs from the doctor. I think your most susceptible between the ages of 19 & 22.

Reply 22

Xscape

Original post by InternetGangster

What's the name of your other personality?

Joking calm down

Really off-topic but do you know the 'first time on the internet kids' name? I wanna see what he looks like now lol

Reply 23

darthgirlie

How do you feel when people say/think that people with mental health problems are dangerous?

If you could wave a magic wand would you take away your 'illness'?

Do you see your problems as an illness that only drugs can fix?

What are your experience of mental health professionals? What things were good and really helped? Which things were awful?

Reply 24

SnoochToTheBooch

Original post by Arketec

interesting. I've smoked untold amounts of weed since I was 15 (I'm 25) and have indulged in a fair bit of psychedelics too. Fortunately I feel great mentally and I have never had any hint that it is developing, but the media is always banging on about the supposed risk so I do monitor my thoughts. Then I wonder if by worrying about it I will somehow cause it to manifest.

If drugs were responsible in your case, what do you think did it - was it the action of the chemical itself changing something in your brain, or was it what you experienced whilst tripping? I know that people who have had traumatic trips can come away with long-term PTSD.

Reply 25

Arketec

Original post by darthgirlie

I'm a pacifist and understand the argument that mentally ill people are dangerous. I've lost my temper a few times but took it out on things like windows I would go around smashing windows for a bit. If I hadn't been pacifist perhaps I would have taken it out on people-which would have been terrible.

If I had a magic wand yes I would take away my illness. Trouble is I also have an addictive personality and think that I would be a drug addict by now without the limiting boundary of mental illness.

I went a long time without drugs after being admitted to hospital. I am on drugs now but don't always remember to take them. I think drugs help a lot and wouldn't advise anyone not to take them. In answer to your question I think counselling also helps.

At first I hated them. Psychiatrists still scare me. For a long time I thought they were the ones with the problem. CPN (nurses) are the most caring. I hardly trust my counsellor-perhaps trust will come with time. I've heard awful stories about mental health workers I won't go into them because I don't know how true they are. I haven't had any real problems with any of them.

Reply 26

Arketec

Original post by SnoochToTheBooch

I think it's the chemical reaction in the brain caused by drugs. Drugs effect different people in different ways. I only know of one other of my friends who later on suffered from mental illness. The vast majority seem to have turned out fine.

Reply 27

AristoBrat!

Does schizophrenia make having/being in a relationship difficult?

Reply 28

Ankabout

Hello!

1) Are you okay now? I hope so. :smile:

2) A very good friend of mine told me how she has telepathy i.e. has a 6th sense of what people think of her. She thinks everyone man or woman is against her... do you think she has a tendency to be a schizophrenic? Her mother is definitely one so I fear that she has inherited it too.

She is currently seeing a psychiatrist who in their first session said that she has "psychotic depression" and has prescribed her 3 meds for some days.

Reply 29

Arketec

Original post by AristoBrat!

Does schizophrenia make having/being in a relationship difficult?

I have always found relationships difficult and have only ever had one night stands.

Reply 30

Arketec

Original post by Ankabout

Hello!

1) Are you okay now? I hope so. :smile:

1) Thanks, yes I'm pretty much stable now.

2) It sounds as though your friend is paranoid. And yes I think mental illness is genetic/hereditary-my uncle had schizophrenia and died homeless in a park. None of us knew until he died. I never knew him because my father kept him away from our family-it still upset me when I found out.

Reply 31

syrettd

Did you yourself realise you were ill, possibly schizophrenic, or did you think all your hallucinations were real and it was family/friends that took you to the doctor? My old teacher had a schizophrenic friend that didn't realise he was ill, and would often talk to my teacher about how he talked to a well dressed goat about religion.

Reply 32

Arketec

At first I couldn't distinguish between what was and wasn't real and my mother took me to the doctors after I told her about a paranoid delusion I was having. Eventually I did realise I was ill but it was irrepressible and I'm glad I got the worst out of my system. I've never talked to goats but I did attend catholic communion in canterbury cathedral once. Which to me is mad because I'm an atheist.

Reply 33

Ankabout

Original post by Arketec

Thanks for your reply. Sorry to hear about your uncle.

Reply 34

CasualSoul

Did you make any friends in the hospital or a lot of the time where you just by yourself and surrounded in your own thoughts?

Were you put on wards with other people or did you just have a room to yourself. Also on the wards were you just with other children or were you with adults as well and did you speak to them?

Last question, if you could go back in time would you stay as far away from drugs as possible and what do you think could be done to stop kids from taking drugs. For example, is there anything that anyone could have said/done which would have made you stay far away from drugs

Reply 35

TheStudent.

Original post by Arketec

Could you expand on your point about not being able to distinguish what was real and what wasn't? In what way?

Also, have you watched girl interrupted? If you have, how accurate is the movies portrayal of being in a mental institution?

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 36

Arketec

Original post by Ankabout

Thanks for your reply. Sorry to hear about your uncle.

It's ok I never met him it was just a sad story about how schizophrenia is genetic.

Reply 37

Arketec

Original post by TheStudent.

It's difficult to explain. Some of the time I knew I was deluded but unable to control the paranoia delusion etc and other times the delusion was so strong - I knew it was coming on but when it did I got lost in a dream world of which I had no control for example when I was in hospital I started hearing voices saying I was/thought I was the king. I knew I was going to have a grandiose delusion but was unable to stop it coming on. Minutes later I was writing a hierarchy of aristocratic society where I would work my way up to eventually become king. I then got paranoid about someone finding what I had written and went to the toilet to flush it away. I went back minutes later to make sure I properly got rid of it only to find another patient lying in the doorway of the toilet- He'd attempted suicide and I went to find a nurse.

I haven't seen Girl Interrupted and think the portrayal of schizophrenics can never be entertaining because the events are too horrific like what I wrote about above and therefore will never be accurate. Films vary, from Shutter Island which is totally unrealistic to One flew over the Cuckoo's nest which is fairly accurate.

Reply 38

Ankabout

Original post by Arketec

It's ok I never met him it was just a sad story about how schizophrenia is genetic.

Ok so if this is genetic then I guess it isn't curable... you have to take meds for life? Do you still go to therapy? How long does it take for a schizophrenic to be normal again (while still taking meds)?

Reply 39

Arketec

Well I think its a combination of nature/nurture I had a very troubled childhood as well and took a lot of drugs in my teenage years. In some sense it was self inflicted. I probably will have to take meds at least for the forseeable future. It goes up and down at the moment I'm down. Probably all the stress of A levels and trying to start a business. To become normal depending on the severity of the illness takes a long time. I've been out of hospital for a few years now but the way things are going I could end up back inside anytime soon. The worse cases will never leave hospital, but they are really ill and when I first saw one I knew I wasn't too bad and would be allowed to leave eventually.