Anderson Cooper, genius that he is, did a Schizophrenia simulator. I showed it to my daughter who said that’s what it has been like for her. For as long as she can remember.
warning Trigger warning… I burst into tears watching this and understanding a little bit for the first time what it’s like for her every day without her meds. This doesn’t even cover the hallucinations and other symptoms.
They do something similar in Family to Family. A couple of people sit and write things following directions while others hover close to them talking at different volumes.
I have not seen it, but if anyone has Amazon Prime, this documentary is free:
I am going to rent it when I have time to watch it.
I will watch it tonight… thanks…
I don’t think it is unfair, to try and replicate SZ if it’s in an effort to understand it. I want to understand what my daughter struggles with each day and things like this help. How else are we who do not struggle with it going to understand? I think it’s unfair for you to judge him so harshly or anyone else for that matter when they are just trying to understand. You want to break the stigma and help people understand? It takes learning and teaching. I commend him for using his platform to try and do some good. He didn’t sensationalize it, he didn’t make a spectacle of himself or worse try to follow around someone who has SZ. He tried to put himself in their shoes. It’s called empathy. And nothing can accurately duplicate SZ as it is different for everyone. But my ten year old was able to. Recognize it as similar which means s its close enough to help others understand.
As someone without SZ, I am desperate to know what my daughter is going through and this helped. She can’t tell me, she doesn’t understand what’s happening to her. If the posting doesn’t help you or whatever, I am sorry, but stop attacking the posting please. That is unfair to me as the OP. I am sorry for having triggered your anger or offending you somehow. It wasn’t my intention. The video helped me and I thought it might help others here.
Why are you having a conversation with yourself on the forum?
Thanks for sharing, I will try to watch when I have some time tonight.
Not attacking you at all, just the fool in the vid…
I get that… It is far worse than this vid depicts…
I’m sure Schizophrenia as a total package is a hundred times worse than the video depicts, but at least the video gives us a glimpse into how distracting and upsetting the symptom of hearing voices is. Of course, then there’s the paranoia, the delusions, the isolation, and all the rest of it…
For me, having even just a small glimpse into one piece of the illness helps me have a bit more understanding and a bit more empathy for the hell our children have to experience. Hopefully, more public understanding will lead to more outcry and more research to find a cure.
Good vid, the mechanics, not really what you experience…
There are hundreds of SZ vids on you tube of SZs telling their story that are MUCH more informative on what the SZ if feeling…
This is a good one (started very young for this woman Maya Imani-Amani, Top Quality series of Vids by this exceptional woman) you should subscribe to her feed… and my vids are very good:
Maya Imani-Amani on the voices:
My wife has about a dozen of them… It is NOT like the fool on the first post vid…
IMO this 33m55sec vid is a MUST watch if you want to understand the voices;
The seclusion of SZ…
I have been watching these vids since the creation of you tube…
Here ya go, 11 minutes in:
There is a clear consistency across the board…
1m55secs in:
One of the best from an adult, 1m10sec in:
My wife talking to her friends;
I saw the Anderson Cooper doc and I thought it was good. I related to the part where he walks down the sidewalk in NY and is being barraged with really negative inner voices. Made it seem like a horrible experience!
Dramatized garbage, no internal coping mechanism that real people with SZ implement. Its more like a conversation than just random crap, the part when he is folding the paper… total bull sht… He is a fake piece of Sht… Yea like a SZ cant fold paper… What a fool…
GSSP, he is not trying to present it like a person with SZ can’t function. He was trying to show how hard and frustrating it is. How devastating, how distracting. How depressing and scary. Especially in the beginning, when it starts. Because they played the recording along with him, I too tried to function normally while listening and really struggled to focus. I tried to write a blog and to tune it out, something I am normally good at but because there were so many and they kept changing, I couldn’t. The whole thing was very startling to me. A person with SZ long term would have coping skills that we couldn’t develop. Maybe the video was more helpful to me because I was mentally wanting to learn where others might not be.
For me, it helped me to understand why it always seemed Libby was never listening when we talked to her. It explains why she never seemed to comprehend things in class or why when teachers would talk to her, she couldn’t understand. And I feel bad for all the times she got in trouble for it and couldn’t understand what was happening or why. It was like she was looking inward. To her we probably just sound like another one of her voices, and she couldn’t distinguish between us and the voices she was hearing. It might explain why my voice is the one she listens to and internalized the most. Now I feel like I can talk to her school just a little more educatedly than before so we can help her succeed in class and in life.
I watched the video of your wife and I am so sorry. I can understand why you would be frustrated to see SZ, such a complicated illness, presented in such a simplistic manner. But for some of us, that’s what we need - simplistic terms.
My heart breaks for you and what your family must endure every day. If I understand the symptoms correctly that looks and sounds like a ‘word salad’ and/or disorganized thoughts along with severe paranoia. It must be so frustrating for her and for you that she is trying so hard to communicate and isn’t successfully able to.
I am grateful that we have caught the signs early in my daughter and can hopefully help her. I have hope that we can help her. The meds seem to be working for the time being and I am so grateful for that. She is so relieved and her spirit is brighter than I have ever seen. I can’t even put the difference into words, especially since I’m still just finding out how bad it was for her. She and I talked tonight about what it was like for her for the first time and internally my soul hurts for her. She’s spent the last five years so very confused! It’s heart-tearingly sad, especially at such a young age. Watching her struggle to describe it and put it into words was horrendous.
I read your profile description and can’t even fathom the frustration, grief, despair, and fear you endure every single day. I don’t think there has been a day in the last two weeks when I haven’t cried. For you, it must be unbearable and I wish I had some comfort to give you. I wish I could give you a hug. I wish I could somehow make it better for both of us.
Thank you for sharing the videos, I appreciate the help in trying to better understand this unfathomably horrible mental illness. I realize I am new to the forum and no one really knows me. I realize my situation is different and horrible in its own way. I just appeared one day and started talking, sometimes very desperately. I will try to post an intro now that we aren’t in such a crisis. But really, there is only one thing to understand about me right now: I want to be there for my daughter and I will do anything and everything I can to do that. And I want to do what I can to educate others. I am a writer professionally and a Paralegal. Mental illness isn’t just part of my personal life, it’s part of my professional life as well. I have PTSD and anxiety. I have been through more tragedy than many people experience in a lifetime, from incest to rape to being almost murdered twice. Even with all of those experiences, and over a decade of counseling to help me empathize with others different from myself, I was completely ignorant and oblivious and I don’t want to be anymore. I can’t afford to be. And I appreciate your efforts to help me so very much. Thank you for taking the time and energy to help me with all that you’re struggling with in your own life.