The Descent Into Madness: Schizophrenia

originally posted by: onequestion
I forgot to mention.

For some reason spirituality seems to really help people who are bi polar or schitzo.

Meditation/ faith/ chakras/ diet/ whatever sounds good to you.

Sorry, but I can't allow this statement to go unchallenged. Spirituality can become the biggest mess up to a bi polar individual when entering psychosis. It can be the very source and cause of a psychotic episode. I still have not forgiven Christianity for my bitter experience of this.

Since I have relaxed myself and not forced all that spiritual hocus pocus garbage upon my psyche my mind has been much more rational.

Please don't make blanket statements like this. They are not informative or constructive.

a reply to: Astrocyte

I find psychiatry to be beneath contempt. It has no right to call itself academic or scientific.

The attitudes of humanity at large to mental health issues is barbaric. The treatment of such people is equally as barbaric. People have no understanding generally and bury their heads in the sand to make it go away and not exist yet that does not work when it is YOUR turn to experience this as SO many people will have to at one point in their lives.

The services available to people, the fact that they are just left on the shelf to rot and are practically banned from social experience and contact, work, relationships, etc because of the utter narrow mindedness and ignorance of society generally all adds up to a big for humanity at large. In terms of attitude to mental health even the attitudes of my own family leaves me cold and disgusted at them.

Boo to you humanity for your constant ignorance and wasting of so many lives just for want of education.

a reply to: Astrocyte

I would just like to add while I can be bothered to say anything at all that ATS is just as ignorant. Every time I have seen a post relating to mental health the response has been "medication" and "danger to yourself or others". This is sooo ignorant and labelling. You kind of people are the trap and the prison for people who have mental health issues. It is your response that is the problem. How it shows in every walk of life with all the horror humanity commits upon itself.

lots of love from a bi polar PERSON who is probably a lot brighter than you, who has a bigger perception than you, who has NEVER EVER been violent and does not even have a criminal record.

Label away...you know you like doing that.

a reply to: [post=19866036]Astrocyte[

Well written and very insightful. It is indeed a very complex process when we try to couple all the variables linked to mental disorders and of course they all have a unique twist on them considering the subjective being that might carry aforementioned conditions. I have a question for you. Was this written with prior research and your own outlook on the matter and do you have any qualifications in the fields of psychology, psychiatry,neurology? You seem to know your terminologies well and you make a very strong point on the healing effects of compassion as I myself have experienced to a certain extent a great amount of psychological turmoil in the form of depressive states and acts of impulsive behavior that may be linked to many of the things you mentioned yet compassion from both friends and family have helped become a more stable person. Regards

a reply to: Revolution9

You have said quite a mouthful here, in a resentful and angry way, so I would ask that you defend your comments. Vast gains have been accomplished with psychoactive medications, and permitted those who would otherwise be isolated, to have full and productive lives.

Please share your own insights; suggestions for adaptations; your solutions. I, for one, would be most interested in hearing them, sincerely.

You do know that the diagnoses in DSM are not firm and without question. They are not carved in stone, but they give practitioners something to refer to, a ballpark to work in and examine, if you will. Nobody uses a cookie cutter to treat individuals, because everybody is different, but when you have repeated success with a particular problem, as it responds to a particular medication, then one considers it's success.

a reply to: ladyinwaiting

All i see is melatonin, dopamine and serotonin.

originally posted by: DeathSlayer
a reply to: Astrocyte


I support most therapies for mental treatment and believe that many have a mental disease HOWEVER not all. When a patient can move items around the room without touching them, tell you specifically of your past, speak out your darkest secrets in detail, speak a dead language with 100% accuracy or float in the room then this is not a mental sickness and attempting to explain the unknown in medical terminology is arrogant and stupid. Nothing more than job verification.

Except you just made all those things up. Please provide evidence to support your claims.

originally posted by: ladyinwaiting
a reply to: Revolution9

You have said quite a mouthful here, in a resentful and angry way, so I would ask that you defend your comments. Vast gains have been accomplished with psychoactive medications, and permitted those who would otherwise be isolated, to have full and productive lives.

Medication should always be a choice, this is not always the case. Not all benefit and many drugs have serious side effects. But the industry hides those numbers, or at least I suspect I would be quite shocked by actual reports. I also suspect there's quite some power abuse going on, I wouldn't be surprised about any sexual abuse scandals.

Then there's the ghostwriting. The lack of scientific evidence. The unspoken public appearence as if they can actually heal any of their illnesses, while in fact they can at best make it bearable to the sufferer and his/her surroundings, they are more like babysitters/jailors of a different kind. The fact mental healthcare workers need patients to earn their living.

Maybe the majority does not care much for mental healthcare but anyone should be alarmed with the fact in many countries a psychiatrist could declare a person mentally ill without any real proof; just by saying so and then using the law lock such an individual up in a warden and force medication to keep them quiet. It shouldn't be possible in any society.

Please share your own insights; suggestions for adaptations; your solutions. I, for one, would be most interested in hearing them, sincerely.

I don't have any answers. But there appears to be little room for any change. Even if there was some revolutionary successful therapy, if it doesn't rely on medication it will not become popular as it would mean a whole industry would lose their income and would have to start learning how to give these new treatments, wasting away previous educations.

a reply to: pl3bscheese

Here ya go, why is it I feel like I'm loosing my mind in a good way everytime I listen to this?

a reply to: FreeThinkerbychoice

I'm in school for psychology/psychiatry. Suffice to say that I am a little more knowledgeable of what I talk about because I've grown through a severe trauma.

I wrote the piece before bed as a way to consolidate some of my basic ideas around the hell-fire reality that is schizophrenia. I am not happy with how it is currently understood, and this is mostly due to psychiatry's misguided attempt to be more like biology i.e. a "real" science.

Psychiatry, or a scientific understanding of the mind, can take and should take from everything; but perhaps nothing is more relevant to understanding the mind then understanding the history of our organism, as well as the subtle non-verbal processes (facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures) that "activate" our recognition-hungry brains.

Imagine how far we can go as a species if we begin to understand ourselves? This is my dream. Get over all the baggage, chaos and unnecessary suffering man has inflicted upon man, and just accept the mesmerizing reality: we need one another, not in any cliche, or arbitrary way, but as a biological reality that emerged long before we developed the capacity to speak to one another (and ourselves) with words.

Once we do this, we can concentrate on more exciting things i.e technology and science. And not waste needless energy on defensive dissociation/projection/and traumatizing others.

a reply to: TechniXcality

Cocaine is a hell of a drug...

a reply to: johnnyjoe1979

The lack of scientific evidence.

OHHH yes! You are preaching to the choir! I could stay on a soapbox for days about pharmaceutical corporations.
Of course they mislead. I once researched a particular medication, and they completely disregarded the trial standard. It was supposed to be something like 80 people over a four month period, and they tried it for four weeks on about 10 people in Haiti. I was so pissed. And then, the FDA approved it anyway. Of course too, many of them are formulated for one symptom, and as a hit or miss, it treats a second symptom, so it's remarketed. Like Lortab. It was originally for depression and anxiety, but they changed it to a pain killer when they saw it helped that, and also it didn't take them long to realize how addictive it is, so it became a no-go for depression.

However, I have personally observed too many people respond favorably to psychoactive medications to ever suggest doing away with them. As far as "forcing' them. hm. I don't really think so, or am unaware of this, outside of institutionalizations. For example, the theatre shooter in Colorado, (was it Jared Loughner") was crazy as a road lizard, but once incarcerated and stabilized on medications, his delusions diminished.

And the SSRI anti-depressants have benefited millions of people, although I do admit they are overly prescribed.

originally posted by: supermarket2012

originally posted by: tony9802
a reply to: Astrocyte

Shizophrenia is nothing more than the government manipulating modern satellite and nanotechnology against chosen individuals-- the government attacks activists dissidents and whistleblowers, and also attacks everyday citizens to cover their tracks;

Mind Control..

The gov is practicing and experimenting with mind control, and people and psychiatrists are easily fooled by this technology;

See videos under psychotronic torture-- lots of movies on this topic as well;

Sorry but that just isn't true. Schizophrenia isn't a new condition, and it has been around far longer than our government or country has.

See history and then see mysticism..


But,

Read 'em and weep honey.. the current epidemic of schizophrenia is government produced and gov. manufactured.. see psychotronic torture with D. Tavares on youtube: you cannot escape the technology..

There is so much literature out there about this, and still you unwise silly geese still you believe the doctor is right: fer shame, fer shame, fer shame! See Lauren Moret: it genuinely, and in all honesty, is entirely and most undeniably here

a reply to: tony9802

There's no epidemic, rates have been fairly steady for decades.

a reply to: Astrocyte

You will be easily fooled by satellite and nanotechnology if you are considering becoming a psychiatrist;

originally posted by: pl3bscheese
a reply to: tony9802

There's no epidemic, rates have been fairly steady for decades.

There is an epidemic of tortured activists, tortured dissidents, and tortured whistleblowers, all of whom are experiencing what the medical industry would call "schizophrenia;" It is a generated and manufactured condition;

a reply to: tony9802

Then that should be worthy of an evidence-filled thread. I look forward to reading it.

Any mental disorder is scary.... the mind is very complicated.

I lost my father at 12 which began my anxiety. I then had a health scare at age 18/19 which took my anxiety to all time heights. At this point I developed Derealization (DR, a dissociative disorder). It's at that time (for around 5 months) I began to be taken back by the power of our minds. I didn't feel real. Nothing around me felt real... It was all familiar and I was aware of what everything was. But there was something "off" ... Reality had changed. And it was a direct response to stress.

I sit here now and I don't have DR anymore. I sometimes feel it, but it is fleeting as I know what it is and how to deal with it.. you ignore it. Which, at first, is near impossible. How can you ignore something that IS your existence?

The mind is fragile. I'll always know that now. I will always sympathise with anyone who has a mental "disorder" because they are victims of a complex neurological system. I hope one day we can manipulate our brains in to removing things like Schizophrenia from people's lives. "Mental" issues are truly a scary and debilitating problem.




NOTE: If anyone has Depersonalisation or Derealisation (very similar issues) and you want to speak. Please feel free to talk to me. I don't know if I can help you but.... I've been through it - big time! Maybe I could help in some way? I know the internet and it's people helped me through mine

originally posted by: Astrocyte
a reply to: FreeThinkerbychoice

I'm in school for psychology/psychiatry. Suffice to say that I am a little more knowledgeable of what I talk about because I've grown through a severe trauma.

I wrote the piece before bed as a way to consolidate some of my basic ideas around the hell-fire reality that is schizophrenia. I am not happy with how it is currently understood, and this is mostly due to psychiatry's misguided attempt to be more like biology i.e. a "real" science.

Psychiatry, or a scientific understanding of the mind, can take and should take from everything; but perhaps nothing is more relevant to understanding the mind then understanding the history of our organism, as well as the subtle non-verbal processes (facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures) that "activate" our recognition-hungry brains.

Imagine how far we can go as a species if we begin to understand ourselves? This is my dream. Get over all the baggage, chaos and unnecessary suffering man has inflicted upon man, and just accept the mesmerizing reality: we need one another, not in any cliche, or arbitrary way, but as a biological reality that emerged long before we developed the capacity to speak to one another (and ourselves) with words.

Once we do this, we can concentrate on more exciting things i.e technology and science. And not waste needless energy on defensive dissociation/projection/and traumatizing others.

Mesmerizing reality to say the least. I am a mere lament in the realms of psychology and psychiatry but one thing I feel very strong about is the inherit curiosity that we possess as a species and in this modern world, it feels as if people are being forced to focus their attention on materialistic gain rather than self development.

Not the egotistical type I might add but rather the conquest towards a better understanding of ourselves and how we can improve. I had a great conversation with a dear friend last night and he gave me some great advice on thoughts. Our minds can be very busy and also delude us into a type of false reality. Being a person that has struggled with depression from adolescence I have learned to observe my thoughts form an objective point of view rather than reveling in those negative and defeatist thoughts.

I suppose it is a natural coping mechanism to be able to process everything my mind thinks of and not taking it seriously. Almost as if I have this watcher from above delegating the more primitive mammalian instincts in the form of thoughts as well as regulating insecurities and keeping them from manifesting in my interactions with other people on a daily basis. I feel the ego can be a very dangerous thing when you begin to think you are above the trials and tribulations of those around you and although each individual is unique ,thinking you are more special than others is a great illusion that keeps this separatist society from working together.

I sometimes feel that self awareness is such a lacking attribute in my daily interactions with other people although I could be completely wrong as I'm not actively in the minds of others but conversations tend to be very superficial and focused at self gratification rather than speaking of things that are in my own opinion interesting. But that is just it, my own opinion versus 7 billion others and finding common grounds seems to be a endeavor that is doomed to fail when one can regard all the cultural, social and linguistic barriers of this diverse world. Perception is a key factor , one mans hell is another mans heaven.

Regards I wish you the very best in your quest and I truly hope you can make a massive contribution to the understanding of the mind and how it interacts with the physical world.

originally posted by: AstrocyteThe Descent Into Madness: Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is what 'thought/imagination' (not produced by the brain) does, it is all dual!
Schizophrenia is the fragmentation of that which is One!
That is what 'thought' does.
A 'schizophrenic' is one who 'believes' what he imagines!
It is 'belief' that is the insanity.
A 'belief' is a consistently pathologically symptomatic infection of the imagination, the ego!
The id-entity.
We humans have been schizophrenic at least for the last 130,000 years!
We will be known as 'schizo-sapiens', before we are completely forgotten.