Reading Time: 3 minutes
She was a young woman, energetic in her pursuit of life until that fateful day. She was walking out of college, when she suddenly heard a few middle aged men talking about her. “Look at her” they said, “walking down the stairs”. She began running, and the voices kept up with her, “she cannot run very fast ! , why is she even running”
She couldn’t identify the people who were speaking but assumed that they were not going to be friendly. Despite what she did, or said, these voices did not stop. It was an incessant commentary on every little move she was making. She wondered how these people were watching her, cameras ? mind reading ? She did not know !
Could she trust her friends and family ? She did not know. She spent days on end inside the house, afraid of the worst. Hygiene did not seem very important, school even less so. She dealt with her friends with caution, what if they were also involved ? Was the whole world plotting against her, the voices told her so !
Most people believe that the voices in schizophrenia or any other psychosis are imagined. Quite the opposite is true, hallucinations cannot be consciously controlled and arise from abnormalities in the brain.
What would you do, if you suddenly started hearing voices, which reflected your every action and constantly read your mind out aloud?
You would look for explanations right ? That is what she did. “How do they know what I am thinking ?”, “This news paper article, looks like it is about me”. “Why are all these people looking at me ?” Over time, she answered these questions by herself, these answers were carefully derived from her memories of the world. Was it that boy, she had turned down in high school ? He seemed pretty disappointed at the time !
It all seemed clearer now, this guy who she had turned down in school, was trying to get back at her. Was it black magic ? Or something more ?
This is the seed of a “delusion” forming.
She gradually began reinforcing her persecutory beliefs by misinterpreting stimuli and events. It only takes time to convert doubts and suspicions to unshakable beliefs. By now, friends and family began noticing her behavior, and a number of impromptu diagnoses from stress to drug abuse were made. They reached out to the god men first, and then the medical men.
A good doctor ruled out all the easily treatable causes of psychoses , before a diagnosis of schizophrenia was made. The meds were unpleasant and caused her to gain some weight,but the hallucinations were slowly dying down and her beliefs weakening. Over the period of a year, our storyteller was able to go back to college, carefully watching to see if the voices returned.
If you did read what is schizophrenia, you might begin believing that schizophrenia is one of the worst diagnoses that can be given to anyone.
Despite the poor prognosis, there are a large number of people, diagnosed with schizophrenia who have fought back, living their lives to utmost normalcy, right beside their schizophrenia.
Elanor Longden was 27 when she first began hearing voices, voices that were constantly commenting on what she was doing and what she was about to do. Initially, finding it difficult to deal with this constant intrusion, loosing insight at times, however coming out victorious !
Her story here
Schizophrenia and other psychoses can be managed effectively if help is sought without delay. People need to learn to recognize mental illnesses and also need to know treatment is available.
Spread the word ! Help someone out !