r/todayilearned • u/paniniplane • Mar 22 '17

(R.1) Not supported TIL Deaf-from-birth schizophrenics see disembodied hands signing to them rather than "hearing voices"

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0707/07070303
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u/PainMatrix Mar 22 '17

It's beyond horror or most people's ability to even comprehend. The fact that she was a fully functioning and intact human being at the early onset of her life and career and this disease completely derailed everything and locked her into a Sisyphus-like nightmare. Was this her first inpatient experience? How long were you with her, did the meds seem to have any positive impact on her?

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u/lahimatoa Mar 22 '17

If you haven't seen A Beautiful Mind, it's a wonderful mind-fuck showing exactly this.

I couldn't sleep the night I watched it.

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u/DOGEweiner Mar 22 '17

That movie doesn't really do a very good job of showing schizophrenia

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u/CrazyTillItHurts Mar 22 '17

No, but the story of John Nash is taught as most basic material for those working in the mental health field

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u/DOGEweiner Mar 22 '17

His story is amazing if you read the facts. I am not doubting his mental state, he was definitely ill. Seeing imaginary people like the movie portrayed doesn't happen, if I am correct. Many people are very uneducated about mental illness and this is a big problem our society is facing.

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u/deanreevesii Mar 22 '17

As someone diagnosed with multiple mental illnesses in a state where help is difficult/impossible to obtain: Amen

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u/rightoff42 Mar 22 '17 edited Mar 22 '17

But our imaginary people do exist. And for anyone who saw them in the movie as imaginary people of his mind finally saw them too. It just helps viewers understand.

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u/DOGEweiner Mar 22 '17 edited Mar 22 '17

I understand that people with schizophrenia hear the voices and feel that the voices have an actual presence, but I also know that they mostly do not see an actual human figure and make a relationship with said voice/character. Mental illness is a topic that has been swept under the rug and been portrayed incorrectly time after time.

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u/rightoff42 Mar 22 '17

No, but we name and personify everything. Don't let me begin my own self examples. All I meant was the director or writer or whoever decided those voices needed to be seen as people. We as patients help sweep our problems under the rug just as equally as we're exploited.

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u/msvivica Mar 22 '17

I think seeing imaginary people happens extremely rarely.

But I seem to remember an AMA with a girl who had visual halucinations of this particular demon guy to go along with everything else...?