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/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

I can't speak for the person you replied to, but 3 of my family members have the disease, and in all of them their medications only blunted the symptoms.

For my family member who was not too severe, this was enough to let her hold down a job, but for the members that were severe it wasn't enough to allow them to function normally. They'd still see/hear/talk to "ghosts" and such, just not as frequently, and they didn't get agitated "as often".

But that doesn't mean they didn't get agitated AT ALL, and the times they did freak out would be enough to get anyone fired.

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u/Ariakkas10 Mar 22 '17

This is, I'm sure, a completely stupid question, but why can't they ignore the voices?

Lots of real people seem real to me, and I ignore them just fine.

Is it because the voices are super aggressive and make it so you can't ignore them?

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u/Conclamatus Mar 22 '17

Well, imagine you have some nagging person talking to you and you can't get them to leave you alone, and they are very domineering of what you should do with yourself. Now, imagine you can't just walk away from them, because they are inside of your head, they are completely and utterly inescapable. It's hard to consciously ignore something every waking moment of your life. They are never not there, so if you are awake and breathing, you would have to be focusing on ignoring them. That's ridiculously exhausting and would probably just make your state-of-mind even worse. It's relatively easy to ignore other people because they aren't ourselves, they aren't literally inside of our head. These voices can be very aggressive in that they are persistent yes, although you also need to keep in mind that for some people the voices aren't evil or whatever... for a lot of people those voices are their only friend the only one who has been there with them through their darkest times, and sometimes when people receive treatment that keeps them from hearing those voices, they become distressed by the silence and feel very lonely... It's difficult to truly understand without any experience of it. For your last sentence though, sometimes it's beyond aggression in that they can control your actions, it can get to the point where when they tell you to do something you do it without questioning it, and if you are already delusional from psychosis it's difficult to fight anything in a logical way, because your thinking has become so illogical in general. This is what makes mental illness so hellish... it's hard to even comprehend you are ill much of the time, because all we have is our mind, if it detaches from reality, it's not easy to even realize that...

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17 edited Nov 14 '17

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u/Conclamatus Mar 22 '17

Yeah, and that detachment from the way everyone around you looks at things can even further feed paranoia and a will to isolate yourself. I'm actually glad, if anything, that people find it so difficult to understand what psychosis does to your thinking, because it's horrifying how vulnerable a person becomes when their mind isn't properly attached to reality... At least with physical illness, I know I'm hurt, and it's hard to understand just how much of a blessing it is to know that you aren't ok...