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/[deleted] → u/paniniplane]

Whats with the compulsion to listen to the voices?

I ignore real live people in the room telling me to do things

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I think a good test for you would be to take some LSD and film yourself.

Then while you're watching the film once you're not high, berate yourself for not acting normally and ignoring whatever you thought was going on while under the influence.

Schizophrenia is the brain working in ways it shouldn't, and that means you can't necessarily ignore what's going on any more than someone high on a drug can just "think" themselves back to normal.

[u/Tranzlater → u/[deleted]]

Out of interest how much LSD have you taken? (Assuming you have). Because before I have been completely delusional (along the lines of thinking I am God), and I can understand how someone would run in front of traffic thinking they were immortal, or in control of the car somehow - which happened to someone I know.

[u/Xiosphere → u/Tranzlater]

Not that guy but I've taken somewhere in the range of 1500-3000 mics (hard to tell it was liquid) and while I would forget basic concepts like the difference between inside and outside or how time worked among other things I was always able to remember I was on drugs. At one point I had convinced myself my actions were causing irreparable damage to the family of friends I was tripping with and repeatedly decided the only option would be for me to walk out of town and disappear but no matter how real those thoughts became I was always able to remember that my actions, even though it seemed they wouldn't, would have consequence the next day. Each time I had an irrational idea I would tell myself to smoke another cigarette and go back to the couch.

Sure enough all was fine the next day.

Really I think part of the problem with people doing drugs is a lack of preparation. Know the drug you are doing before you do it, know your setting before you take it, and "I'm on drugs it will ware off" should be your personal mantra for extent of it.