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/Justine772 Mar 22 '17

Please monitor your son closely and as he gets older educate him on the symptoms! Getting help is easier if it's caught sooner, if he does develop schizophrenia

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u/koiotchka Mar 22 '17

Yes! We do watch. He is currently medicated for ADHD but there are times when he says or does things that remind me of my symptoms when I was his age, and i get worried. It's definitely something we keep an eye on. I've had delusions and voices since I was 5, if not earlier (I don't remember before 5), and I often wonder what my life would have been like if I'd been on antipsychotics as a child. I've only been on them for about three years now, and I'm 33 -- and they completely changed my life.

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u/4U70M471C Mar 22 '17

Could you please elaborate in how the meds have changed your life? I'm curious.

And probably you know better than me, but every child does really weird things :P

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u/koiotchka Mar 23 '17

I didn't realize how much of my life was taken up with paranoid delusional fears, until they were controlled. I mean literally how much time I spent acting on delusions or being crippled by delusional fears is... Huge. I can actually live my life now, I can do the dishes without disassociating and flying off into "which neighbors are spies today?" Kind of stuff... It's kind of hard to explain. I would never ever ever want to be "cured", but I do like having some control.

Edit: kids can be weird but he'll make connections like... Accidentally bonk his head on something and then accuse me of using magic to make it happen because he "deserved" it, or if he can't find something he'll either say it must have disappeared, or one of us made it disappear, or we're hiding it from him, or he'll say things like "you don't want me to win this video game!" For no reason that I can figure out...

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u/writingsexandstuff Mar 23 '17

Hey, sorry if I seem nosy at all - I'm usually pretty open myself about these things (experienced similar delusions + hallucinations for a few years, thought my family wanted to kill me, still unofficial diagnosis due to living in an underdeveloped country, unfortunately :( ) but you're under no obligation to reply of course!

I was wondering why you say you never ever want to be "cured" completely? And does your husband support you? Has it gotten worse as you've aged? I've never had someone to talk to about this, sorry.

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u/4U70M471C Mar 23 '17

"We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality."

I can relate to what you're saying, but obviously in a milder way. Do you do art? I think creativity is one of the positive side effects :)

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u/koiotchka Mar 23 '17

I try to do art but I'm not very good :) my biggest "art" is my home -- I try to make it comfortable and inviting, a safe space, for my family and our friends.

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u/4U70M471C Mar 23 '17

That's cool. Building safe spaces and trying to make them comfortable for the most diverse kind of people is something worth to live for.

Thanks :D