• Question: Do you think there any positive aspects of schizophrenia?

    Asked by steed to Nick on 16 Mar 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Nick Bradshaw

      Nick Bradshaw answered on 16 Mar 2010:

      Not really. Other similar conditions such as bipolar disorder (also called manic-depression) do have highs as well as lows, but this isn’t really the case with schizophrenia.

      There is a theory though that the reason it still exists is because the paranoia that some schizophrenia suffers have is actually an advantage (e.g. if there was a famine they would be more likely to hoard food for themselves and survive). However, I’m sure that pretty much anyone schizophrenia patient you talked to would see it as a bad thing.

Comments

  • Photo: Joe

    Joe commented on :

    I just read a book called “The Professor and the Madman” about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary and the “madman” was a man with schizophrenia and therefore was in an asylum (think late 1800s/early 1900s). As a result, he had masses of time on his hands and was looking for something to help fill that time so when the chance came to help create the OED, he leapt at it and ended up being one of the major contributors to one of the greatest literary projects ever. The author concludes with an odd little chapter where he argues that although his schizophrenia didn’t help him, it was a major help to the English speaking world at large. Does that count?

  • Moderator - Sophia commented on :

    There is a charity called Mind who work with people with mental distress. I asked my friend who used to work at Mind about this question, and here is her answer:-

    It’s true to say that people generally wouldn’t choose to have schizophrenia. It’s often scary (for you and for your family) and messes your life up, meaning it can be difficult to get a job or have a family life etc. People can spend lots of time in and out of hospitals, and the medication is pretty unpleasant, and there’s a lot of stigma about the condition as there are lots of stereotypes about people being dangerous to other people (which isn’t true in the vast majority of cases, by the way). However, people often do become physically as well as mentally unwell, and sometimes harm themselves.

    However, for people who have it, who have found a way to manage it (either through drugs or other ways) they often come to terms with it as part of them, in the same way as other people have different experiences or attributes or disabilities. They may say I am who I am and this is part of me – accept me like that.

    One symptom of schizophrenia is hearing voices or seeing people or things which other people can’t hear or see. (NB !!! Lots of people hear voices. it doesn’t mean you have schizophrenia!). These only tend to come to the attention of doctors when the person is distressed or scared by them or they do things which they wouldn’t otherwise do. However, people often get positive or reassuring voices too – eg the voice of their grandmother telling them they’ll be OK etc. It’s just that people don’t report this to doctors as there’s no need to.
    Also – if you think about it, in other countries and in times gone by, people who heard or saw things which other people couldn’t were regarded as prophets or holy people and it was seen as a great gift. For example, in the Bible, people are always having visions and hearing God talk to them.

    Sometimes people in this country (often if they’re from Africa or parts of the Caribbean) talk about their religious experiences and this is taken to be a symptom of schizophrenia, which is one argument put forward to explain why more people from these backgrounds are diagnosed with schizophrenia.

    More info is on the Mind website on Understanding schizophrenia. Lots of other interereting and useful stuff there too. http://www.mind.org.uk/help/diagnoses_and_conditions/schizophrenia
    Also cool stuff on the Young Minds site http://www.youngminds.org.uk/young-people

  • Photo: Joe

    Joe commented on :

    Hi Sophia,
    Are you suggesting that yesteryear’s prophets are today’s schizophrenics? What would the pope say?! 🙂

  • Moderator - Sophia commented on :

    Without wanting to offend anyone, the pope has rather gone down in my estimation recently, so I’m not too worried about that.