Teach Me About Schizophrenia?
I have a friend who I just discovered has schizophrenia. I'm unfamiliar with it. Would those of you who have it please teach me about it? Not just the clinical description, but what it feels like, how you cope, what your daily life looks like, etc. I'd like to learn and understand. Thank you so much in advance! <3
With my schizophrenia I hear voices and suffer from debilitating apathy and depression.
Where do the voices come from?
What causes it? Does anything make it lessen?
@jesusredeemedme2425
for me the voices come from your head- you- your mindš¤I donāt have it severe or anything but from what I know for schizophrenia you could either get voices visions or feelings- none being real- thereās a type where you feel like someoneās always behind you- itās a lot harder than it sounds(I donāt have that thoš) auditory hallucinations can also be from your own internal thoughts and emotions. experiencing auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia is like the externalization of internal conversation(this was said by research and I also just find it accurate :p) I donāt have any experience with visions and hallucinations- seeing things that arenāt really there. Iāve gotten scary hallucinations before but that was just lack of sleep :pš©·ofcourse I still donāt have it severe or anything but I just know that living with schizophrenia is really hard for a lot of people. I think you can imagine it being hard to deal with- get things done and focus on tasksš¤hearing voices is the most common in schizophrenia. I think since voices mostly come from you itās just really hard to fight them. voices can come from fear anxiety anticipation self doubt self consciousness worry. they let you see the weakest side of you.(but again just from me hehe <3 idk about everyone elseās experience ofcourseš©·) for me most of the time I hear voices telling me to(unlive/unalive myself). or voices trying to tell me Iām not safe somewhere or that thereās someone watching me. or that someoneās there. have you asked your friend about their experienceš? I think thatād especially help <3
@jesusredeemedme2425 For me the voices frequently came from people near me, even from my close friends though they were actually saying something else. These voices sounded quite logical at the same time debilitating and easily worsening nearly all aspects of my social circle. I'm still confused what caused them but my friends (yes, most of them are coming back as my symptoms remissed) got astonished and frightened when I told them what I "heared" from their mouth.Ā
I have schizophrenia I know the feelings too well
@jesusredeemedme2425
Iām not sure how to describe it. When I wake up in the morning if feel really frazzled/disturbed. I do relate to someone talking about apathy, like I do sleep on the ground, hear those voices, whatnot. I describe myself as spiritual, but it feels gaslighting to say that my experiences arenāt real at the same time, as someone has phrased their own unique experiences. ā¤ļø š
I don't have schizophrenia but I have read about it so, Schizophrenia is when the brain sometimes gets very mixed up and makes a person hear voices or see things that aren't really there. It's like their mind is playing tricks on them.Ā
Schizophrenia is like having a TV in your head that shows you things that aren't really there and plays sounds that nobody else can hear.
Imagine if your brain played a trick on you and made you think something was real when it's not. That's kind of what schizophrenia feels like.
@jesusredeemedme2425
For me, visual hallucinations come at times when I'm tired and pushing myself (at work or in school).Ā
I'll see blurry and distorted humanoid figures out of the corners of my eyes and sometimes see them right in front of me.Ā
Are you interested learning about in audio, visual, or more touching hallucinations?Ā
I was diagnosed as bipolar type 2 with depression and borderline personality disorder. But only recently realized I have schizoaffective disorder. In simple terms schizophrenia deals with thoughts while bipolar deals with moods. Schizophrenia causes one to have delusions. Anywhere from believing theyāre a bunny and need to eat carrots, to people are watching them all the time, to believing they hurt someone really really bad, etc. when someone is having a episode it can be near impossible, if not, impossible to talk sense to them and convince them itās not true. And donāt try to convince them, youāll just make it worse. Stay calm, keep them calm, if possible.
for me when I would have a episode it was like a full LSD high, as a little kid. I saw some crazy stuff and believed some crazy stuff, but I never acted it out. Unless I felt like I was in danger, then I would fight back, savagely. The only time I would get violent was when I was in actually in danger of harm or my life. I donāt have that crazy LSD like hallucinations anymore but if Iām in really stressful situations, like survival or life or death stressful like situations, I go in auto-mode and I can scare people really bad.
I would sometimes forget and only recently started to remember. I had some crazy stuff happen to me as a kid. In order to remain safe and sane my mind made me forget and did whatever it could to keep me safe even if that meant to be violent. I mainly just scared the living crap out of my would be attackers.
I'm currently going to get an assessment. I've been dealing with this stuff for years and years (33) and I swear this is nearly an excellent telling of my own experience so far, my childhood was far more vivid than my grown years, and then it reduced to less LSD like symptoms. I've grown up being told I had an over active imagination, told I was a chronic liar, that I was day dreaming etc. I can't say whether I was a violent child but I certainly was vocal and had outbursts of panic when I thought something was real and bad was about to happen. But quite normally as a child, my hallucinations were on the fantastical side of things. (I still believe that fairies and ghosts are real though, even outside of any episodes) for the most part i have been managing, but lately the paranoid delusions, and the mood swings from underlying condition are prompting me to seek a better life managing these things.
The positive symptoms make you lose control over yourself. Your brain goes on autopilot and makes you believe random *** and you halucinate. It's like a genjutsu if you watched Naruto. You can't really discern reality from ilusion and you realise it was fake once it ended (via medication of course).
Positive symptoms add things to the mix like hearing or seeing things or experiencing things that are not there
negative things take away things from life like motivation or speech
I donāt personally live with scitzophrenia or scitzoaffective disorder but I live with someone that does and I personally would like to know more as well so I can empathize with them better during hard days
I have schizophrenia, but had some minimal symptoms. Itās really important to be treated because it gets worse if not treated. I am able to work and live a normal life on medication, so am pretty lucky given the diagnosis. I had delusions related to false narratives I believe I had been told in the past. My therapist thinks I misunderstood people, but I think they actually told made up stories that in my stress and isolation I began to believe. I had some very stressful life events that brought out the symptoms originally. At first I was so afraid of the diagnosis that even though I was aware that I was having thoughts others would see as irrational I did not tell anyone and tried to make it go away on my own. I had episodes of delusions. Day to day I functioned, but at some point I believed so strongly in my delusion that I quit my very good job over it. Thankfully it was all peaceful delusions. Sometimes now that Iām on medication I still have fleeting thoughts that I have to dismiss- like is that car with the tinted windows watching me. I have some mild paranoia, that I am generally able to overcome. It helps me to tell my therapist and hear out loud how ridiculous my thoughts sound so I can dismiss them 100% of the way. I believe delusions should not be played along with, but I know all the sites online say not to argue with a schizophrenic. Maybe just a suggestion to bring up the issue with the therapist would be helpful? I am working again and am fearful of having another episode so will never ever go off the medicine. I lean on my religion and read daily devotionals. I hope this helps. Just my story. Sometimes I just want to talk with someone to relieve stress, keeping stress low helps me. Best wishes to you and your friend.
