Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Delusions and auditory/visual, hallucinations.
Disordered thoughts and speech.
Sloppiness of dress and hygiene, and loss of motivation and
judgment.
Pattern of emotional difficulty, for example lack of
responsiveness.
Paranoia.
Social isolation.
Substance abuse.
Stigma of Schizophrenia
A survey of attitudes towards schizophrenia showed that:
80% expressed discomfort with the prospect of dating someone
with schizophrenia.
77% would feel uncomfortable working with a schizophrenic
person.
60% think that violence is a symptom of schizophrenia.
71% would be afraid for their safety around a schizophrenic
person.
This leads to the exacerbation of the symptoms of
schizophrenia, increasing social isolation and worsening paranoia and
delusions.
Experience of Schizophrenia
Here is a quote from someone's experience of having
schizophrenia in a discriminative society which does not understand the
symptoms. After the school shooting in Northern Illinois University on 14th
February, surrounding areas and also the nation as a whole increased their
suspicious attitude towards schizophrenia sufferers. He documents the behaviour
which was conducted towards him, all of which explains why schizophrenic people
can feel isolated:
"I was diagnosed with schizophrenia just a month after
Steven Kazmierczak (quickly identified as “schizoaffective”) shot six people to
death on the campus of [Northern Illinois University] … Undoubtedly primed by
this shooting, wary, uncertain, without enough time to think, my doctoral
adviser suspended my graduate assistantship, banned me from the university, and
alerted all faculty, graduate students and staff to forward all emails [from
me] to her and, under no circumstances, respond."
This quote portrays the thoughts and feelings of a
schizophrenia sufferer after finding out about their illness. This explicitly
shows how the stigma of mental illness can have the effect of worsening one's
own perception of their illness, and how it can cause sufferers to feel as though
there is no hope for them. I thought the language in the passage could be used
in our trailer to express the sheer hysteria and depression of someone after
being diagnosed with a mental illness:
"Everything I have ever been told was a lie. My one way
out — of poverty, desperation, madness — was never more than an illusion. And
then disbelief. And then, how will I ever explain this to anyone, to family, to
old mentors? And then betrayal. No language this time, no thoughts; crying,
crying for hours. Alcohol, unconsciousness, unbidden dreams. Even there: repeating their words, over and
over and over again. Isolation so intense, there is no way I will ever bridge
it. I am lost. Days go by, weeks."
The quote goes on to explain how they are forced to feelings
of violence and murder, using graphic imagery which we could replicate in our
trailer to display the harrowing thought process:
"I fixated on a single vision, me, sometimes hanging,
sometimes with gun in hand and a pool of blood on the floor, outside [her
former adviser's] office. Suicide, yes, obviously, but also something more:
revenge."
Living with schizophrenia
Watching this documentary, named "Living with
Schizophrenia" helped me understand fully the illness and many aspects
surrounding it. It featured four characters, three with Schizophrenia and one
with schizo-affective disorder who each in turn spoke about their experience of
the illness. It taught me many different things which previously I may have not
thought to explore. Firstly, the interviewees spoke about medication. They
discussed how the usual perception of society is that by taking medicine one is
instantly "cured" however, one character in particular discussed how
mediation was only one answer for her, and that many other processes had to be
undertaken before she was able to feel stable in her daily life. They also
expressed how they felt that doctors and psychiatrists did not understand them,
and how they felt too insecure to ask questions about their medication and the
side effects attached to them, which were abundant.
Many of them spoke too about how the stigma surrounding
their illness was almost as horrific as the symptoms themselves. One discussed
how the internalisation of stigma was extremely dangerous and that it caused
incredible despair, confessing to the audience that he has had a multitude of
schizophrenic friends who have been led tocommitting suicide. In fact, 15% of
schizophrenia sufferers will commit suicide in the first five years of being
diagnosed. The character said how he believed that the lack of someone to talk
to was one of the major causes of this.
The many stages of acceptance after diagnosis, including
anger and denial, were discussed profoundly in the documentary. One showed the
audience how drawing was a method of
catharsis for him, allowing himself to express his complicated and sometimes
dark emotions. Another spoke about the negative social effects the illness
caused, saying that the memory problems which came with it meant he had
increasing trouble getting jobs. It was also obvious that sufferers found
getting back into relationships and work a lengthy and enduring process as
isolating themselves from society seemed a much safer and more appealing option
to them.
Child Schizophrenia
This documentary was about a rare case of childhood schizophrenia,
found in seven year old Jani. The illness causes the young girl to hallucinate,
and she is constantly telling her parents about her imaginary friends
"Wednesday the rat" and "400 the cat", both seeming scarily
real to her. These delusions and also voices inside her head cause her to be
violent and sometimes disturbed.
The illness is very rarely found in children, and a doctor
from UCLA psychiatric hospital claimed to have only come across a handful in
his lifetime. However, it is extremely crippling for Jani's family and forced
the parents into buying two apartments, one for Jani and another for her
younger brother in fear of the violence she could be capable of inflicting upon
the toddler. The parents were insistent that they did not want Jani taken away
from them, and put into special care. However, Jani's illness makes her
incredibly tiring as her parents must engage with her at every moment during
the day or else she may slip into psycosis and her hallucinations will
overwhelm her.
Ideas for our trailer
- We could include many aspects of this research in our trailer for instance by having:
- One main character with a mental illness.
- Character suffering from discrimination.
- Character forced to violence by stigma replicating that quoted earlier.
- Complex fractured editing to illustrate the mind of a schizophrenia sufferer.
- Graphic dramatic shots to mimic the horror of mental illness.
- A Link with social isolation research on Joyce Vincent and give character a morbid end somehow.
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