Ask A Schizophrenic Anything

I am fascinated by your dream experiences.

I am "normal" (whatever that means) but have a whole other world in my dreams. I often sense that I know specific people really well only to find as I wake up these people do not exist and I only conclude that I am a serial dreamer with these people. Likewise with places:
+ There is a specific hill with a lake near the top that I have visited on occasions in my adult life.
+ There are specific houses and streets, I instantly recognise and have had some connection with - again only to realise that they do not exist in the real world.

When I was young, I had many vivid dreams - there were some horror dreams but I found having control of the dream I could release myself from a dream by simply falling asleep in my dream. Also knowing that you are in a dream is a great release - you can do what you want to vanquish the bad dream. Even now (actually last week) if I get abad dream I wake up and visualise getting control back - getting rid of the "evil" while awake and about to fall asleep

Not sure if this helps - if you dream a lot, you may be able to use visualise techniques stringly as well.

ALl the best

Originally posted by CleverNameHere
reply to post by harvib

 

"It was very weird but very cool."

Hah, that's a great way to put it! It IS very weird, and very cool.

For me, though, I can't control what I see. I can make it do funny things, or make it leave, but I can never control how it shows up.

I'm unsure if it's the same for people without schizophrenia, when they have vivid dreams. Perhaps you're able to control everything in every way?

I don't have schozophrenia, and I can control my dreams. I have been able to throw things across the room. I can control almost everything in my dream just by thinking about it. It dpends on how aware I am of the dream though.

Originally posted by templar knight
I am fascinated by your dream experiences.

I am "normal" (whatever that means) but have a whole other world in my dreams. I often sense that I know specific people really well only to find as I wake up these people do not exist and I only conclude that I am a serial dreamer with these people. Likewise with places:
+ There is a specific hill with a lake near the top that I have visited on occasions in my adult life.
+ There are specific houses and streets, I instantly recognise and have had some connection with - again only to realise that they do not exist in the real world.

When I was young, I had many vivid dreams - there were some horror dreams but I found having control of the dream I could release myself from a dream by simply falling asleep in my dream. Also knowing that you are in a dream is a great release - you can do what you want to vanquish the bad dream. Even now (actually last week) if I get abad dream I wake up and visualise getting control back - getting rid of the "evil" while awake and about to fall asleep

Not sure if this helps - if you dream a lot, you may be able to use visualise techniques stringly as well.

ALl the best

When In preschool, I could control my dreams by going to an, in the middle state between dreams and reality, and I would have a remote, and I could change the channel on a TV that was my dreams, it was really cool. I never thought about trying it in my dreams again.

reply to post by SaturnFX


There is a issue/chemical imbalance in schizos brain that makes them proccess information different than normal persons, having delusions, disordered thinking, if the severity of disorder not be much "high" so they can disting fact from fiction, they can choose what "delusion thoughts" can be logical or not, because many delusional thoughts have some truth there so a great benefit is being able to "filter" them and make interesting conclusions. Usually schizophrenics proccess raw data better than normal people. For example most schizophrenics aren't fooled by hollow mask illusion like this video

[edit on 24/8/09 by Puls4r]

reply to post by CleverNameHere


HOW does it FEEL??

Originally posted by Puls4r
reply to post by SaturnFX

 

There is a issue/chemical imbalance in schizos brain that makes them proccess information different than normal persons, having delusions, disordered thinking, if the severity of disorder not be much "high" so they can disting fact from fiction, they can choose what "delusion thoughts" can be logical or not, because many delusional thoughts have some truth there so a great benefit is being able to "filter" them and make interesting conclusions. Usually schizophrenics proccess raw data better than normal people. For example most schizophrenics aren't fooled by hollow mask illusion like this video

[edit on 24/8/09 by Puls4r]

Interesting video. I couldn't understand what was happening there, I only saw the mask as a mask, and the back looked like the inside of a mask, concaved. It was only towards the end of the video after listening to the speaker did I all of a sudden see the illusion and when I did finally see it I got dizzy!

What is your take on the Orwellian like state of world affairs?

I would like to know what your room looks like since you seem to spend a lot of time in there. Is there anyway you could post any pictures perhaps?

Thanks

JT

Holy Kimono! I'm starving but can't leave until I post. Read every page.
You are so brave to write this thread and it is so interesting.

I have experienced being paralyzed..and feeling a presence but was too afraid to open my eyes. I kept trying to roll away from it but could not.

I have seen a ghost..looked like a real person. It was so cool!

I woke up once and ran around the house trying to find the radio that I could hear but could not find.

I've smelled perfume while watching TV. Just someone passing thru I guess.

When you are in this other world, do you have a silver thread attached to you to help you return?

I have heard that many psychic people have been treated as a schizophrenic. Perhaps you are one? Have you ever discussed this possibility with your shrink? If so, what did he say? Does he believe that someone could be psyhic or just ill? When you begin your travel do you have to go thru a bit of darkness and scary things?

I am bi-polar and my step-father told me before I knew about my disorder, I have had false memories but I think he was lying...we did not get along. Lots of mental abuse from this jackhole. He told me he employed people who were biopolar and didn't act like me.

I have tried to "OFF" myself 3 times before they figured out my condition...thought I was just depressed. I still think about it...meds or not...even to making many arrangements. I still think about it not daily but often.

Do you ever think of suicide to escape what you see and hear? Probably not as the world you see is beautiful. Personally I just want to croak and have wanted to do so since my 20's. I'm 57 tomorrow. I feel bad for my shrink as I may be the first person he'll lose.

Can you believe I am a professional clown? Been faking all my life...and now for a living.

Love and laughter...

reply to post by Patoote


Have you tried exercise? I get depressed a lot too, exercise really helps to get the neurotransmitters flowing.

I think diet is essential when depressed too. Vitamins. If those things don't work then have you tried prozac, zoloft or wellbutrin?

reply to post by CleverNameHere


Your perpective is so almost more facinating to me than my own.

I too have experienced a demonic precence during sleep paralysis, although it was fleeting and dreamlike for all its realness. I felt compeletly lucid and aware at the time, but looking back on it its hard to differenciate between that experience and any other dream, or memory for that matter. Ive had dreams that feel as real as myself typing these words right now, and days that feel like dreams I forgot because I hardly cared to remember, and might aswell be one of those dreams you forget 5 mins after you wake up.

What is reality? When you awake in these rooms, which sounds so incredibly horrible to me, do you regard it as some 'kind' of reality? Can you feel you body, take note of your enviroment, be self aware in these situations? Do you sit there in your 'room' and logically decide, after taking stock of your world, that it is unreal? If it is as real as this moment is, how can you tell that this isnt the surreal world and your 'room' isnt the real one?

The fact that you can reason yourself into differentiating tells me you have some mental or spiritual anchor in this world that you and I share. You somehow regard this world as more real than your sleeping world, due to references that really only exist in this world we are in now, like logic and memory. But are these concepts just creations of this system and have no bearing on the other? And if so why can the formers rules trancend the later, and not vica versa? Why doesnt the other worlds rules override the ones were governed by right *now*? Why am I any more real than whoever you might meet in the dream world?

Perhaps I shouldnt be presenting you with these ideas?! But the fact that I have thought them puts some of our thought patterns along similar vibes, which scares me a bit because it might make my mental state a little bit closer to your 'condition', uncomfortably so. Are you mad? Am I? What is mad anyways?

My question to you: are you sick? Unbalanced? Viewing a world that always exist but inexperienced human minds have no busieness experience, yet? Like babes in the jungle? Do your experiences have and external reference point, or do the exist purely due to your own imagination? Are you being acted upon, or are your acts due to a mind out of control? Are your experiences another version of the infinite, or a delusion of your finite weakness as a sick human being?

I guess what im asking is, what is real?! Am I?

To the OP: Good for you, on a great many levels. No questions from me.

For all who are curious regarding schizophrenia, there are some interesting nuggets in the Wikipedia article. In discussing causes, here is very interesting conundrum:

There is little doubt about the existence of a fecundity deficit in schizophrenia. Affected individuals have fewer children than the population as a whole. This reduction is of the order of 70% in males and 30% in females. The central genetic paradox of schizophrenia is why, if the disease is associated with a biological disadvantage, is this variation not selected out? To balance such a significant disadvantage, a substantial and universal advantage must exist. Thus far, all theories of a putative advantage have been disproved or remain unsubstantiated.

So basically, it is clear that Schizophrenia causes problems for people who bear it. What is not so obvious is why exactly evolution does not seem to be avoiding the continuance of these traits, particularly when reproduction is less common amongst people affected by this. The only answer consistence with evolutionary theory is that the condition renders some sort of advantage as well.

Also in discussing causes, somewhat of a dissenting view within the psychiatric community:

An approach broadly known as the anti-psychiatry movement, most active in the 1960s, opposes the orthodox medical view of schizophrenia as an illness.[70] Psychiatrist Thomas Szasz argued that psychiatric patients are not ill, but rather individuals with unconventional thoughts and behavior that make society uncomfortable.[71] He argues that society unjustly seeks to control them by classifying their behavior as an illness and forcibly treating them as a method of social control. According to this view, "schizophrenia" does not actually exist but is merely a form of social construction, created by society's concept of what constitutes normality and abnormality. Szasz has never considered himself to be "anti-psychiatry" in the sense of being against psychiatric treatment, but simply believes that treatment should be conducted between consenting adults, rather than imposed upon anyone against his or her will.

I sympathize with this fellow. Schizophrenia used to be a real lock-you-upper of an affliction and I think he's correct that this was more about our society trying to maintain comfort levels than it was about the health of the person experiencing these things. For those advocating that the OP throw themselves into the arms of the mental health establishment beyond the assistance the OP has already sought, I advise you to consider this perspective.

In regard to shamanism, here is another interesting causal hypothesis:

The concept of schizophrenia as a result of civilization has been developed further by psychologist Julian Jaynes in his 1976 book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind; he proposed that until the beginning of historic times, schizophrenia or a similar condition was the normal state of human consciousness.[74] This would take the form of a "bicameral mind" where a normal state of low affect, suitable for routine activities, would be interrupted in moments of crisis by "mysterious voices" giving instructions, which early people characterized as interventions from the gods. Researchers into shamanism have speculated that in some cultures schizophrenia or related conditions may predispose an individual to becoming a shaman;[75] the experience of having access to multiple realities is not uncommon in schizophrenia, and is a core experience in many shamanic traditions. Equally, the shaman may have the skill to bring on and direct some of the altered states of consciousness psychiatrists label as illness. Psychohistorians, on the other hand, accept the psychiatric diagnoses. However, unlike the current medical model of mental disorders they may argue that poor parenting in tribal societies causes the shaman's schizoid personalities.[76] Commentators such as Paul Kurtz and others have endorsed the idea that major religious figures experienced psychosis, heard voices and displayed delusions of grandeur.[77]

Finally, in regards to effective treatment:

In many non-Western societies, schizophrenia may only be treated with more informal, community-led methods. Multiple international surveys by the World Health Organization over several decades have indicated that the outcome for people diagnosed with schizophrenia in non-Western countries is on average better there than for people in the West.[119] Many clinicians and researchers suspect the relative levels of social connectedness and acceptance are the difference,[120] although further cross-cultural studies are seeking to clarify the findings.

So from the sounds of it, Clever could not be doing a better job of managing things. Further, the better Clever's community does at understanding Clever's experience of life, the better he will continue to do.

reply to post by Neo_Serf


One thing about the dreams, is that if I want to move physically, I have to tense every muscle in the part that I want to move. If I want to walk, I have to tense everything if I want to keep my top half upright, and my legs walking.

I can, however, move without using my body. I've floated above myself, unable to look down, but I could see that my legs were still on the bed, meaning my body hadn't risen.

To me, it's like the scariest 4d virtual game I've ever played.

Originally posted by CleverNameHere
I can, however, move without using my body. I've floated above myself, unable to look down, but I could see that my legs were still on the bed, meaning my body hadn't risen.

Astral projection. Very cool. I wish I could do that.

reply to post by jackieps1975


For the sake of my sanity(hah), I'm not going to go into any delusions in detail.

I am my cousin's guardian angel.
I am the Protector of my family.

They mostly stick to protecting others, which is why I don't fear having any violent psychotic episodes. If I ever do have one, it will most likely be from someone hurting on of my family members.

Still being so early in my condition. I have to be careful with what I let myself believe. That last thing I want is to freak my family out; there are always a lot of young children at my parent's house(neices and nephews of mine). I don't want to get an impulse to tell one of my young neices or nephews anything that would scare them.

It is scary when you believe 100% that if you don't tell someone something or do something in particular, somthing bad will happen.

reply to post by CuriosityStrikes


If he ever seems uncertain about himself, or if he just seems to be acting distant, take him to a place where only you and he can talk, and tell him that it's okay to be scared, and that he can cry.

One of the hardest things I dealt with in the beginning was talking about it more and trying not to cry. It's hard, because you start tearing up, and then you stress too much about the tears and end up forgetting what you were trying to say.

It means the world to us when we know we can break down with someone else. It's a lonely thing, crying to yourself.

reply to post by 2Unknown


Whenever I even begin thinking about it, I take hold of my inner voice and don't stop "yelling" until the voices are quiet.

They are scared of me, but they usually figure out pretty quickly that I'm scared of them, too.

reply to post by lindalinda


I know exactly how to access my subconscious. I can do it instantly.

However, I don't like leaving my body without a logical conscious. I'm afraid that one day, it will learn how to walk on it's own, and then I'll begin blacking out and waking up in fields with dead deer next to my naked body.

You may laugh, yet I'm being serious. The blackouts DO happen, and I haven't had one yet. I'm still waiting for it.

I've heard that the body does weird things when it thinks for itself.

That's why I only allow myself to leave once my body is asleep.

Perhaps I should try laying down with my eye closed, but not falling asleep.

Maybe if I layed there long enough, just thinking, I wouldn't even fall asleep and wake up in my dream world; maybe I'll simply open my eyes and be there.

I'll have to try that. I always have great ideas! Hah.

reply to post by BazzeMan


Thank you very much for your post.

I feel it's an inadequate response for something so good, but I really do appreciate it.

Please describe the sensors that you see on or over human’s eyes. What color are they, that is if they have color? What size and material? Have you seen anyone without these? Do they move or transition?