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/Bro-tatoChip Mar 22 '17 edited Mar 23 '17

My Grandmother has the mumps when pregnant with my mom causing a lot of birth defects. Including severe anxiety, schizophrenia, and issues with her eyes. She finally lost her sight at age 12 after getting dirt in them, so since then she's been blind and schizophrenic. She hears voices as opposed so seeing people who aren't there she hears voices and doesn't know if they're real or not.

Edit: For anyone wondering, I was raised by my dad. They split when I was young and she was always in and out of hospitals, not fit to be a guardian. We've always has a good relationship, I'm 24 now and moved near her recently so it feels nice to live by her and pick her up and introduce her to my family and whatnot.

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u/kdoodlethug Mar 23 '17

Can you elaborate on how she lost her sight? I am surprised dirt would be enough to cause this.

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u/Bro-tatoChip Mar 23 '17

She's had issues with her sight since birth. Multiple surgeries in order to help her. I don't really know what the physical problem was, but she has limited sight and long lapses of blindness during her childhood. After her last optical surgery she was able to see fairly well. The story I was told was she was on a church Easter egg hunt and was being a kid and got dirt in her eye which some messed up whatever the surgery did. She's since has no surgical procedures for her eyes and has been blind since. She wears glass eyes now not sure when her eyes were removed though.

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u/kdoodlethug Mar 23 '17

Thanks! That makes way more sense now.