Dear Terry, I just happened to watch a special on a group of individuals trying to relearn their social skills because of having schizophrenia and my heart went out to them. They were saying that when they try to be honest and tell someone that they have schizophrenia, that person usually backs off from them, so on top of having to deal with relearning social skills, they suffer the rejection from others who are afraid of their disease. One poor girl broke down into sobs of despair while relating her experiences with others once they found out she was schizophrenic.
It makes me wonder if they are on the road to recovery, should they even disclose their disease to others while trying to make new friends? I'm all for honesty, but in their case, I have to wonder. Sherelle In a message dated 01/13/2002 12:03:54 AM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2002 11:20:21 EST > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: A Beautiful Mind/Hollywood Sanitizing (NJC) > > I agree, MG. The vast majority of pranoid schizophrenics do not look at all > > like John Nash. They're living on streets eating garbage, filling up prison > > wards, or just pacing in the few after care settings left in this country. > > I worked for 6 years as a therapist to the severely mentally ill in the > heart > of Detroit. We came to realize quite quickly that one of our main goals was > > to keep people on their medicine. Once our patients stopped taking meds, we > > could predict nearly 100% of the time that they'd end up back in the state > hospital. Many ended up in prison because they'd attempted to harm someone. > I > can't tell you how many times my life had been threatened by an untreated > delusional patient. > > Contrary to what was written earlier about people being allowed to > celebrate > whatever type of reality they choose, allowing many schizophrenics to do > this > (read: being unmedicated), created a much worse scenario for them. They > become terrified and act out their delusions to the point of killing > themselves or others. You will never forget what it looks like to see sheer > > terror in the eyes of a pschotic person. And one can only imagine how it > must > feel. > > The sad part too, though, was how the side effects of many anti psychotic > meds were nearly as troublesome as the mental illness. This was back in the > > late 70s, early 80s and though meds have improved greatly, there are still > problems. The shuffling, the muscle spasms, drooling, sexual disfunctions > and > more- it's very sad. > > Schizophrenia is a chronic disabling disease. Few are "cured". So, though I > > did enjoy A Beautiful Mind and love Russell Crowe's acting, it did not show > > the average life of a person with that disease. But then again, Nash was > not > a typical sort of person, even without the illness. > > Terry
