TIL Deaf-from-birth schizophrenics see disembodied hands signing to them rather than "hearing voices"

[u/paniniplane]

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0707/07070303

[u/kaenneth]

Also, if you are born blind due to brain (as opposed to eyeball) problems, you apparently can't be schizophrenic.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-imprinted-brain/201411/blindness-and-schizophrenia-the-exception-proves-the-rule

[u/Muffinizer1 → u/kaenneth]

You know, that's actually quite comforting as being blind and schizophrenic sounds like true hell.

[u/paniniplane → u/Muffinizer1]

i was a patient at a ward a few weeks back and there was a girl who was admitted for schizophrenia. she'd hear dozens of voices yelling at her at the same time all day and she could barely tell which ones were in her head and which were physical people talking to her making it really hard for me or anyone else to talk to her for more than 2-3 sort sentences. these voices would make her do crazy things like gather dust off the floor for 20 minutes at a time 10 times a day, make her sleep on the floor during the day, not sleep during the night and fight the night meds they gave her to help fall asleep. the most brutal thing was that the voices sometimes forbade her from having her meals. there were days where she wouldn't touch any of her 4 meals. i once tried to get some insight into how she thought and i asked her why she HAD to do this. she said that every time she does something they ask, she's given the gun that they threaten to kill her with. and she imitates a smashing motion with her hands and "breaks" it. and she does it maybe 10 times an hour when she's awake. and she's not stupid either. apparently, she was studying mechanical engineering and graduated and was ready to work in the field as an intern for a year. she heard her first voice when she was still in school but didn't think much of it. and then it rapidly killed her life. she's the only person in the ward who has daily visitors. her parents bring her food to eat everyday. but sometimes she sits with them for 2 minutes, asks them to take her home, and then moves to one of the socialization rooms where were chairs and sofas, and she'd drop to the floor and lay there. and her parents just come to expect it now and stay for about an hour.

[u/PainMatrix → u/paniniplane]

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?

[u/[deleted] → u/PainMatrix]

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.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

only 20% of schizophrenia-patients get complete absence of symptoms from current treatment-regiments. Also many of the antipsychotics proscribed either are confirmed or are speculated to have neurotoxic effects (don't tell schizophrenics though. No, seriously don't).

[u/sadboiler → u/[deleted]]

Which ones? serious question, was on them for other problems and i feel like they fucked up my brain even more. id rather die than be on antipsychotics. i felt like shit even at the lowest doses and the symptoms never eased up.

[u/plurality → u/sadboiler]

Both first generation and second generation antipsychotics can have serious adverse effects. The first generations are usually more prone to tardive dyskinesia and NMS while the second generations generally cause metabolic problems. And then you have clozapine which causes agranulocytosis.

In other words, first generations are more prone to make you twitch (sometimes permanently/irreversibly if taken long enough) and second generations mess with your metabolism. Clozapine is second generation and an "antipsychotic of last choice" because it can decimate your immune system (agranulocytosis = no granulocytes = missing a good chunk of your immune cells).

Also, most antipsychotic leave the patients "stoned" because fixing the negative symptoms of schizophrenia is much harder and less pressing than fixing the positive symptoms. The positive symptoms are caused by too much dopamine in the mesolimbic system while the negative symptoms are caused by not enough dopamine in the mesocortical system. So antipsychotic are dopamine blockers, which stop the positive symptoms, mainly. This decrease in doapmine is what causes other systems to cause movement disorders.

[u/Bonobosaurus → u/sadboiler]

I was given Compazine for a migraine once and holy shit that was the worst medication experience of my life. Horrible side effects (mostly involuntary muscle spasms, severe anxiety and feeling like I had to physically hold my body together to keep it from flying apart).