Many people who deal with schizophrenia, have mastered how to deal with everyday life, so people don’t even know that they are struggling. Media, such as the movie called Secret Window, shows a negative, view like most media. In the Secret Window, the main character plays this part where he is constantly talking to himself and even later going so crazy that he takes a person’s life. This is how the media portrays people with schizophrenia. Since this is what people are shown, like me at the beginning, people only see the extreme and those who are not successfully on medications. Maybe educate them about true effects of the illnesses.
“Another issue is that a person with schizophrenia may be paranoid or believe that nothing is wrong with them, and therefore may not want to go and see a doctor.(2)” The only reason I went to the doctor in the first place was because I was hurting everywhere. My family brought me in. Even for a while after medication, I didn’t truly know I was Schizophrenic. The voices in my head kept on saying things like, “If you are Schizophrenic then we are too.” It was expensive because I had to pay for it, but later I got Medicaid so now it is all paid for. Even though it was hard, the steps that followed were worth gaining a better, controlled, happier life.
“The diagnosis of schizophrenia, according to DSM-IV, requires a least 1-month duration of two or more positive symptoms, unless hallucinations or delusions are especially bizarre, in which case one alone suffices for diagnosis.(2)” I was hallucinating so much that I would talk to everything else instead of talking to my family. My family was really concerned and scared. They really cared even though, at times, I didn’t see it. I would even go out of my way to not be with my family, which is way out of my natural character. The Schizophrenia changed me, at this time for the worse.
“Somatic Delusions are false beliefs about your body- for example that a terrible illness exists or that something foreign is inside or passing through your body.(2)” I was once convinced I was experiencing everything everyone else has been through so that I would understand what everyone was going through, like Jesus does. Yes, I understand more because of what I have been through, but not everything. Now that I look back, I feel it is very important to not be angry at myself because I fell for my delusions.