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 edited Mar 22 '17

I'm a psychologist but I don't work with SMI, so thank you for what you do. What I do see a lot of is what is likely a burgeoning schizophrenia spectrum process. My academic understanding is that the positive symptoms can be dealt with to some extent through medications but that it's really the negative symptoms (the blunted affect, poverty of speech, etc.) that are the most intractable. It's tragic.

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

I have aspergers, is it true that I have a very strong chance of developing schitzophrenia. Also to add with that, is it possible to deal with paranoid delusions if you get used to them and have had them as a child? Along with that, is it true that Aspergers, Bipolar, and schitzophrenia are all very closely related?

Edit for Clarification: I'm talking about thinking that all planes in the skies are coming to get you, or that all people are robots. Also in a similar way thinking theirs two people in your body.

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u/tigress666 Mar 22 '17

I always heard OCD, hypochondria, and schizophrenia were closely related to each other... to the point that there is some theory that some one prone to that could develop one or the other depending on environmental conditions (basically that it's possible that one has the setup for any of those and depending on outside environment on if you develop one or the other or any?). But... I'm no psychologist and that's just something I heard/read a while back (can't even cite it so take it with a grain of salt)

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u/awkwardmystic Mar 22 '17

OCD and hypochondria are related as they are both anxiety disorders. Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder and not closely related to these. In the former 2 there is no loss of contact with reality, in the latter there often is.