Mental Health Discussion

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I got diagnosed a few years ago and I am interested to know how I am perceived by society. Do you think schizophrenics are just people who have lost touch with reality and always speak to themselves?

For what it's worth, I think it's a copout when people do bad shit and blame it on their mental illness you still know what is right or wrong. I am not looking for sympathy or anything like that. Honestly, I rarely talk to anyone about it because I don't expect them to understand.

One of my best, long term (40yrs) mates is a schizophrenic. I don't claim to know much about it but I know that he has a particularly severe form of it. Straight jacket, padded cell, all in a foreign country. I can only imagine how frightening it would have been.
He is now stabilised by an assortment of medications although I can still perceive his ups and downs. I think I'm one of his go to contacts for both the tops and bottoms of his rollercoaster ride. I really enjoy all of my conversations with him and enjoy his completely independent perspectives on things. In some ways I think he is the sanest person I know.
I do know, because he talks openly about it, that he sometimes has difficulty relating to workmates etc because he thinks they think he's weird. He seems to cope ok though. If I didn't know about his schizophrenia and met him socially, I would probably think he is a bit different due to some of the things he comes out with, but I doubt I'd pick him as being a schizophrenic. Anyway to me he's just a good mate and a funny bloke.
Only big problem is he's a rabid Raiders fan.
 
upthetigers said:
I am in a good headspace now I was absolutely shattered when I first got the diagnosis I won't lie. Especially because most people get it in their late teens or early twenties not at 35.

If this thread achieved anything, it's that I brought some awareness to schizophrenia which is widely misunderstood and I am happy about that.
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I/we have been told by attending professionals that their is often a gender difference in the age of onset, with males generally as you said being late teens to mid twenties, whereas women are more likely to experience onset in the decade or so from mid twenties onwards.

Of course that is just the most common timing and In my wife's case I started to notice around when she turned 31.
 
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formerguest said:
I/we have been told by attending professionals that their is often a gender difference in the age of onset with males generally as you said being late teens to mid twenties, whereas women are more likely to experience onset in the decade or so from mid twenties onwards.

Of course that is just the most common timing and In my wife's case I started to notice around when she turned 31.
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Spot on I read the same thing. Did the onset happen very quickly with your wife? Mine was very subtle to begin with but it became progressively worse and eventually I had a psychotic break which landed me in a psych ward. I never want to go back it was like being in a prison.
 
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Sorry to hear your struggles upthetigers. Massive kudos for fronting it head-on mate and talking about it.

I can only say personally, I've never had exposure to too many mental illnesses, but I certainly don't judge people with them. I can imagine it being really tough. If someone breaks a bone, we can see it, know what causes it and how to fix it. But with the mind, it's just an absolute different beast that is invisible to the naked eye and still has lots to be discovered in modern medicine.

So I hope you find the right medication to help you manage for the moment and I hope that more are found mate. I know strides are being made in these areas. Keep the spirits up!!
 
upthetigers said:
Spot on I read the same thing. Did the onset happen very quickly with your wife? Mine was very subtle to begin with but it became progressively worse and eventually I had a psychotic break which landed me in a psych ward. I never want to go back it was like being in a prison.
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Actually they kept pressing me to find out if I had noticed anything earlier because they were trying to connect it to a possible extension from post natal depression, with the birth of our son some 2 years prior. As you alluded to above, for me it was subtle and I only really noticed it as a collection of abnormalities, so it may well have been there on occasion

Thing is most of us in society have differing levels of many of the traits that lead to diagnosis of the condition, one which itself has many forms. As paranoia is one of her primaries, it is something that I have to keep checks on my now hyper vigilant self when assessing the now long treated her. In so as to whether expressions of such and the anger often associated with it are within 'normal' expectations of us as humans and not be overly concerned.

It's odd in that as she got progressively worse gradually over some 7 years, 5 of which I was asking her to get help, it just became the norm until our son became suicidal as a result. I feel guilt every day for allowing it to get to that stage, but your ultimate sentence was a big part of the reasoning as to why I never called the authorities.
 
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upthetigers said:
I got diagnosed a few years ago and I am interested to know how I am perceived by society. Do you think schizophrenics are just people who have lost touch with reality and always speak to themselves?

For what it's worth, I think it's a copout when people do bad shit and blame it on their mental illness you still know what is right or wrong. I am not looking for sympathy or anything like that. Honestly, I rarely talk to anyone about it because I don't expect them to understand.
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Keep hanging in there upthetigers,an ex mum in law was very schizophrenic,she was constantly on meds....the best thing we could do was treat her as a normal person and help get her through the days of depression,we would take her shopping or for a drive to meet relatives that she couldnt get to see often and mostly we were there for her when needed...cheers mate God bless and stay strong .....
 
Idk if this is the right place for this, but considering it’s mental health related, it will do. I am really struggling right now. I don‘t know why, but I’m definitely not myself. Not to go into great detail, but my job performance has improved 200% the last 6 months and my boss is very happy. However for some reason I still don’t feel like it’s good enough and feel ashamed. Today is a good example of me not feeling myself. Usually if I find myself in a sparring match, I tend to give as good as I get. For some reason lately, any time anyone has had a go, I have found myself instead trying to de-escalate, which really is a good thing and should be a sign of maturity, and maybe that’s part of it. But also because I am in a frame of mind atm where I feel pretty fragile and getting into big arguments is not something I can deal with. I know after 11 years and 35 000 odd posts, it doesn’t leave much room for people to be on the fence in regards to you. You kind of build a reputation. And 99% of the time I’m fine with that. Lately though, idk why but it’s really affected me. And no hard feelings to anyone who has had a go at me lately. You can’t expect people to be mind readers when it comes to these things. And I’m not even saying they should stop. If anything, I feel like the onus is almost on the person who is struggling to step away if things are too much for them. Its cliche, like you can’t control other drivers on the road, you can’t control other people on the internet. Some might just not give a shit about whats going on with someone. Thats the way of the world. I’m really not fishing for attention or sympathy here, but society tells us over and over to speak up if you are not ok, so I’m speaking up. I’ll probably feel embarrassed in the morning waking up knowing I opened myself up like this, but atm i don’t care. If it encourages others to speak up if they aren‘t feeling ok either then that is a good thing.
 
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GNR4LIFE said:
Idk if this is the right place for this, but considering it’s mental health related, it will do. I am really struggling right now. I don‘t know why, but I’m definitely not myself. Not to go into great detail, but my job performance has improved 200% the last 6 months and my boss is very happy. However for some reason I still don’t feel like it’s good enough and feel ashamed. Today is a good example of me not feeling myself. Usually if I find myself in a sparring match, I tend to give as good as I get. For some reason lately, any time anyone has had a go, I have found myself instead trying to des-escalate, which really is a good thing and should be a sign of maturity, and maybe that’s part of it. But also because I am in a frame of mind atm where I feel pretty fragile and getting into big arguments is not something I can deal with. I know after 11 years and 35 000 odd posts, it doesn’t leave much room for people to be on the fence in regards to you. You kind of build a reputation. And 99% of the time I’m fine with that. Lately though, idk why but it’s really affected me. And no hard feelings to anyone who has had a go at me lately. You can’t expect people to be mind readers when it comes to these things. And I’m not even saying they should stop. If anything, I feel like the onus is almost on the person who is struggling to step away if things are too much for them. Its cliche, like you can’t control other drivers on the road, you can’t control other people on the internet. Some might just not give a shit about whats going on with someone. Thats the way of the world. I’m really not fishing for attention or sympathy here, but society tells us over and over to speak up if you are not ok, so I’m speaking up. I’ll probably feel embarrassed in the morning waking up knowing I opened myself up like this, but atm i don’t care. If it encourages others to speak up if they aren‘t feeling ok either then that is a good thing.
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Almost always best to talk about it when able, so good on you for doing so. It is certainly not the first time that you have expressed thoughts along these lines and please feel free to continue.

Without calling anyone in particular out on it, I have seen unhelpful remarks on here this year questioning the bona fides of a person and accusation of feigning a mental health condition or using it as a shield. I trust that we will not see such again.
 
Better to talk about it on here instead of paying some psychologist an absurd amount of money when all they're thinking about is the amount of money they can extract from you.

You mention your improved job performance. Has this affected your work/life balance? Do you feel more stressed out? I feel like stress was a huge trigger for my psychotic break which is why I ask.

I reckon stepping away from social media for an extended period of time can be a good thing. It's so easy to get caught up in all the likes looking for validation.

Some days will always be shitty, if you ever need to talk fell free to message me. Good on you for speaking out.
 
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