One of my friends who I haven't seen all summer suddenly starts talking really strangely to me over MSN. He was talking about people having an intervention with him. I hear through others that he was diagnosed with scizophrenia. But I don't really understand what it is. I thought it was a split personality thing, but apparently it has to do with hallucinations and not knowing if anything is real. He would keep asking me if I thought he was being an asshole, and all I can say is that I haven't seen him in a couple months so I wouldn't know, which should be obvious to anyone in their right mind. I also started talking about Bush being a faggot and the anti-christ and I refered him to a site which draws logic on those facts, but it's just a comedy thing. I thought it was funny. It scared the fuck out of him. He told me to he couldn't handle that shit, which is weird casue it wasn't intense at all. So how does this come along? How does one of the most seemingly normal and happy people suddenly have a breakdown like that? Does anyone else know anyone who has had that diagnosis? Was it brought on by something or did it just happen. I wonder if he's been over-indulging in some chemical drugs, or if it's because his parents split up 2 months ago. Is it a lasting thing, or is it up in the air if people recover from this kind of thing?
I am well aquainted with a few people that are schitzophrenic and it affects then all a bit differently although there are some similarities as well. It usually shows symptoms in late teens and early adults. I don't know if it affects men more than women, but all the people I know that have it are men. It often gets misdiagnosed at first as depression or bipolar because somon doesnt have a noticable schitzophrenic episode at first as a rule. I wish I could find the old links my ex bf gave m on it. He has it and wanted me to make a well imformed decision when we started our relationship. From what I remember ...theres too much dopamine in their system for one....He had a full blown episode when he was diagnosed and it took him/them quite awhile to finally find medications that work for him. He is on Rispradol (sp?) and that leaves him able to function, not all knocked out and not alot of side affects. He has to take meds everyday. Some people actually get better and can stop meds too from what he told me. My daughters ex bf also has it. He doesnt take any meds at this point. He just figures out whats bs noises or situations in his head and whats not, whats real. My ex didn't like alot of external stimulation...too much input, too distracting to keep track of, like large parties with lotsa ofe peopl all talking at once. They all seem to tend towards being a bit paraniod. Here is a link that seems like it has some decent info. Hope it explains a bit btter than I did. If you ever feel the need to talk, feel free to PM me and I will get back to you promptly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception p.s. If theres any typos, my keys have run amok, they are skipping half the timee, and sticking th other half...most "a" and "e"...hadda be keys I need alot, sheesh!
Schizophrenia can be brought on by many different things. The two main things are 1. a traumatic event; 2. overindulgence in drugs. Sudden dramatic changes in personality and behaviour are a common sign of schizophrenia. PLEASE be very,very kind and supportive to your friend because schizophrenia is a very difficult,life changing illness. You have to be very careful or he may have trouble trusting you. Never,ever say anything about him being crazy,and don't talk about 'crazy' people around him. My personal belief is that schizophrenia isn't really a mental illness,but a dramatic change in someones mind that causes them to think differently. There are different types of schizophrenia-catatonic,paranoid & disorganized. I'm not going to go into this in great detail. Visit http://www.schizophrenia.com/index.php for information...but please remember what I said-treat him very kindly and never say anything about insanity around him...
schizophrenia in one sentence A person with little or no grip on reality. now that is over simplifying it hugely, but it is the most basic answer that you can get
And every man under twenty thinks with his penis.... All blondes are stupid... The white race is superior.... and add you comment here please because it makes as much sense and is as offensive as all the others I have just typed. Hmmm....one of the people I referred to that is schitzophrenic is going to Shenandoah University, has at least one job, his own apt and car is amazing fun and he is very good family to me. He has been adopted into ours for life...boy I wish more freaking people had such little to no grip on reality. My other friend can converse on many subjects and is rather fond of phylosophy and things I can barely keep up with him on. He is an artist and writes some amazing poetry. Another I know last I saw him was playing lead guitar for a living and had a beautiful family. Do they all have their own hurdles to jump, yeah... Nothing like a stereotyper.
my brother has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. he's 24 today and is in a mental hospital. of all the possible causes I can think of, with him it had to have been drugs...eating an ounce of magic mushrooms at most, doing enough coke to get a heart-attack at 23, smoking weed in the hospital when he was in for the heart-attack...I mean it just goes on and on. there's been a huge difference in how he acts, what he talks about. some (maybe most, I dunno) schizophrenics believe there is some outside force in control of their lives. whether it's demons or witches or whatever else doesn't matter, but they believe they cannot continue their normal lives because of it. my bro was always talking about ridicilous things, but the scary part is that he believes them to all be true. almost like any random paranoid thought that came to his mind became his reality. "I think I am in hell, therfore I am in hell"-Arthur Rimbaud Happy Birthday Bro!
Much of that can and will abate if they can find an anti-pyschotic drug or drugs that work well for him. This mental illness is NOT the same in everyone that has it and from what you are descibing, he is having episodes and hopefully they will figure out what drugs work for him. But to make blanket statements about people that have the illness is wrong IMHO. The symptoms can and do happen during episodes, but not all schitzophrenics get those symptoms either. My one friend told me his long and horrid path from hell till they finally got some meds that worked. It took him quite awhile for the fog to clear and it took a very long time to find a drug that worked extremely well and was less invasive to his life where he wasn't in a stupor most of the day. He is taking Respridol and that seems to work quite well all in all for him with little side affects, especially since he has to take it long term.
no no I was just really talking about my brother. that's what HE has to go through, those are the things that HE does. as for the anti-psychotic drug(s), well what can I say...he's been prescribed them before and, again, he treated them like they were recreational drugs and took them by the handful because they got him high (some med called Tri-Hex or something). if he stays in the hospital and is supervised, and is given the right medication I don't doubt that he would get better. but there have been so many different drugs tried already and none of them worked. some of them gave him seizures among other side effects, and so they were discontinued. the right treatment hasn't been found yet.
a cousin of mine was diagnosed with schizophrenia (that's a helluva word...couldn't they have called it summit simpler? ) when in his early 30's...it was a scary time for his family, and it took a while to find suitable meds (ie, the meds that reacted in the right way for him, every schiz sufferer is different, it seems). he seems to be gettin' along ok now....when he bothers to take his meds....one of the curses of schizophrenia seems to be that sufferer's convince themselves that they don't need the meds....often with disastrous results....
The two main contributing concerns to developing schizophrenia are family history and environmental factors. However, there's a slew of studies out there tying marijuana consumption to schizophrenia (especially in those who indulge during developmental stages), or at least showing a correllation. LSD has also been researched a little and has a connection to schizophrenia as well, but it's a little less clear what type of connection. But basically, it's like this: if you have someone in your immediate family who's schizophrenic, your chances of getting it are about 10%. Add the variable that, if you were a regular smoker of marijuana when you were fifteen, your chances of developing schizophrenia increase by 1000%... you're all but guaranteed. As far as dopamine is concerned; it's shaky ground. Schizophrenics have abnormaly high levels of dopamine, but they don't know if that's a cause or effect. They also have different serotonin levels than most people. There's some more recent studies that show that some of their brain canals are larger than others. Basically, we just don't know specifically what causes it.
