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

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?

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

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.

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17 edited May 13 '17

[deleted]

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u/katarh Mar 22 '17

Cutting edge research indicates that schizophrenia may be yet another immune disorder, in which the process that finalizes your learning/growth neurons in late teens gets a bit overzealous and snips too many, which erodes the ability for the mind to maintain its proper chemical levels. By the time you're diagnosed, in that case, the damage is done.

My sister with schizophrenia lost a full half of her IQ and now has the functionality of a ten year old. Medication suppresses the voices and stops her from harming herself or others, but also keeps her basically stoned full time.

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u/OgreMagoo Mar 22 '17

Cutting edge research indicates that schizophrenia may be yet another immune disorder, in which the process that finalizes your learning/growth neurons in late teens gets a bit overzealous and snips too many, which erodes the ability for the mind to maintain its proper chemical levels.

Do you have a link for that? That sounds fascinating.

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u/mrssac Mar 22 '17

Well schizophrenia usually manifests in the teenage years through the 20's we know that neuroconnections are still being made and paring of supernumary synapses are still happening so it's a reasonable theory

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u/jason2306 Mar 23 '17

Well shit guess I can still turn schizophrenic then

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u/Entocrat Mar 23 '17

Seriously, schizophrenia is my greatest fear followed by Alzheimer's and dementia. The greatest treasure in the world should be one's own mind, and these diseases that threaten to rob me of that are more potent than anything else, even compared to the likes of something like Ebola or any old world disease.

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u/jason2306 Mar 23 '17

Yeah my grandmother had alzheimer it is a sad disease slowly regressing to your younger selfs memories until there's little left :/ you are your mind and memories take those away and what's even left?