Schizophrenia is quite possibly one of the worst and misunderstood mental and emotional illnesses in the world, and I wouldn’t even wish it on people whom I hate.
There are times when you wake up in the middle of the night hearing these mysterious voices whispering in your head, saying either unintelligible things or horrible things like telling you the world is evil, the people on the TV or radio or internet can read your mind and are out to get you, or the idea that everybody knows everything about you and are plotting to kill or harm you. No matter how much you might want to rationalise or dismiss these thoughts, they are damned hard to get out of your mind.
You have the ability to see, hear, feel and taste things that are not really there. You can get delusions of granduer believing that you are God, Jesus Christ, or a reincarnation of some historical figure like Adolph Hitler, Genghis Khan, or Attila The Hun to justify the way you talk to and treat other people with your condition.
You become a burden on other people by doing crazy and irrational things, often bordering on anti-social behaviour. Some anti-schizophrenic medications that get prescribed can make your condition worse rather than better such as messing about with your metabolism and causing you to become clumsy, shy, and catatonic for hours.
And it is very difficult for normally healthy people to feel the way you do, because of all these imagined tortures going on in your head and accepting them as reality.
Some schizophrenics are undoubtedly dangerous to society and need to be incarcerated in either prisons or asylums (such as Mark David Chapman who killed John Lennon after years of being involved in drugs and religious cults).
Your concentration skills start to plummet so that you cannot focus on even the most menial and simple tasks for too long without becoming bored or disorientated. There is also a lack of clarity in thinking, so what you are thinking you cannot put into words or what you do say comes out completely wrong and people haven’t got a clue as to what you are talking about.
However, no two people are alike. With the right treatment some people manage to overcome their ailment and return to living a normal life, whilst for others they are scarred for life by it despite all the professional help that they can get.
There are many different factors out there as to what causes schizophrenia. For some people it could be a genetic thing with a family member(s) having had it and passed it down in their genes. For others it could be brought about by negative life experiences such as being dropped by a partner, losing a job or promotion you’ve worked your butt off for, losing a large amount of money.
In some other cases it can be brought on by meddling with occult sciences, religious cults, and alcohol or drug abuse (such as hallucinogenics like LSD, angel dust, ice, and cannabis). Schizophrenics definitely need to refrain from smoking cannabis and drinking large amounts of alcohol because this exacerbates their condition. One of my closest friends is a long-time schizophrenic and is a heavy drinker who has also taken to using cannabis due to wanting to get away from the world following the loss of his job and his long-term band breaking up.
If you really want to see a normal person’s experience of schizophrenia and living to tell the tale, I would recommend you view the TV special “Angels And Demons” by Australian media personality and comedian Andrew Denton. He is an absolute genius and always looks at ways of discovering how the other half live.
