Jezebel 
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New York, 1:28 AM
Tue Nov 24
65 posts in the last 24 hours
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07/30/09
07/29/09
It's really weird being around someone who is psychotic because some of what they say is true, some true and garbled, some flat out nonsense. I think, sadly, psychosis is really terrifying for everyone involved. And yes, he doesn't remember what all happened or what he said or did. He does remember that when he "hears voices" it's more like an echo of his own thoughts in his head rather than some higher power talking to him through the TV.
I'm no medical expert, but I do have a degree in psych, and this anecdotal experience. I hope is sheds some light into psychosis!
07/29/09
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07/29/09
Limbaugh, STFU. What is your point, exactly? Not only are you fat-shaming a woman who died 4 years ago, but you are insulting John Stoltenberg, a gentle, sensitive man who loved her.
He goes on to proclaim about AARP, mind you: all this group is is a bunch of uber-ultraleftist radicals. I'm not saying that they're cracking up yet but, folks, they're unrestrained, their hubris, their arrogance is breathless to behold.
I. Am. Baffled. And he's probably a member of AARP.
07/29/09
07/29/09
I can't even comment on that part, my mind is racing too much. However, how sis this the first time I'm hearing about this!? I live in Texas and read/watch the news every day! DALLAS MEDIA FAIL.
07/29/09
large scale, epidemiological studies show that a diagnosis of schizophrenia is not an independent risk factor for violence. In terms of mental illnesses, substance use has the strongest statistical link with past violent acts or is predictive of future violence behavior.
however, like the case in canada on the greyhound bus, when someone with schizophrenia commits a murder in the context of being floridly psychotic, it can often be bizarre and terrifying. Delusions and hallucinations can be shockingly real and when people clear with medication the fallout is devastating.
not everyone with schizophrenia who kills someone is delusional to the point of not knowing what's real and what's not - like anyone, they can be violent not in the context of psychosis.
it makes me sad that cases like this become shorthand for mental illness, and that people with schizophrenia (who again, are not that much more violent as a group than the general population) are viewed with suspicion and fear.
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07/29/09
Some atheists don't have a strong personal philosophy, some do.
And you can't underestimate the difficulty of being a hated minority if you're an atheist kid living among religious fundies.
I used to get taunted and pushed around in the girls' bathroom in elementary school for being an atheist kid. It's not the tragedy to end all tragedies, but it does suck. Having friends my own age who were raised with a similar world view would have been really cool.
07/29/09
That was my point, by the way - that people find different things meaningful, and what's annoying to some is very meaningful to others, but I guess that's too condescending an idea, eh?
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so every time someone sees you on the street, you notice. then whenever you hear a sound, it sounds like your name. then you see a tv show and it's so laden with stimulus it's meant for you. delusions are ways of understanding this world - maybe everyone's looking at me because they are government agents, maybe the tv is talking to me because there's a chip in my head, etc.
there is certainly a link between the types of delusions people have and their beliefs and experiences at baseline. so a religious person (or a person exposed to religious stimuli) may understand voices as religious in nature; someone without a religious background may attribute it to extra terrestrial beings, or the government, or a dead family member, or monsters and demons etc. however, when someone gets to the point that they are so disorganized and terrified that they would commit violence, it's not any more likely that they are experiencing religious delusions or any other type.
i think that mental illness doesn't exist in a vacuum - schizophrenia is certainly biologically based but is culturally and socially mediated and when people are well it's cool to figure out - if the person is interested - what their hallucinations and delusions mean to them when they are not psychotic.
07/29/09
07/29/09
It seems like such a common trope in pop culture (the gov't is sending me messages!) that it must have happened in real life.
07/29/09
I don't know how different it would be for an atheist with schizophrenia. Generally atheism is the result of a very logical evaluation of religion, but when people hallucinate, their perception of reality becomes so incredibly altered, I don't think it would be that improbable for an atheist to start hallucinating that he/she is speaking with the devil or God.
And of course as the other posters responded, even religious people with schizophrenia often have non-religious hallucinations. My mom's most common was that she and I had ESP, and could reach each others' minds. Also, as others have mentioned, any celebrity, politician or character on tv is an easy source of delusions/hallucinations.
07/29/09
07/29/09
Andrea Dworkin died in 2005.
Also: you are very fat.
Andrea Dworkin was a smart person. You are not.
Please fuck off
Love,
KLondike5
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07/29/09
I don't even have words for this. We need more people in this world exactly like you, Scott W. Buchholz. Asshole.
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07/29/09
Without getting too far into it, my mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia after a bout with post-partum depression. My grandparents and father both intervened when there were warning signs.
Advocating for the death of a woman who TOLD the father she had schizophrenia, and spent time in a hospital for PPD is just really cruel. Even though she was ultimately responsible for the child's horrible death, she wasn't necessarily the one who had the ability to prevent it.
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Yay!
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07/29/09
He will now have to settle for being the weatherman in prison.
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