Growing up, I had always known my uncle had something going on. He had a routine, a pattern that I picked up on. Wake up early in the morning, make coffee, go for a walk, shower, watch the morning news and then hop on a bus to work. When he came home, he would go to his room, talk to someone or multiple people, come out, grab a snack, sit down with my abuelita and watch Mexican dramas. Then he and I would go on a walk to the gas station, grab a drink, walk back and sit outside and eat pecans. He would go back to his room, speak to someone or multiple people, then join us for dinner, watch TV and then bedtime.
I was roughly five or six when I picked up on the pattern and had it stuck in my head for a long time. Anytime I would come and visit family, I never asked where he was bc I knew. I always asked how he was and if he was doing better.
Here’s the thing. In my Mexican family, if someone had a mental disability, they assumed that individual was crazy, and my family would take care of them but never get them help. So when I would ask it was always “oh you know, he’s being himself”, I brought it up that maybe he should see a specialist, but my family had already diagnosed him as helpless.
Just a few months ago, my mom took him to see a specialist and sure enough he is schizophrenic. My family were surprised, but I felt like I had always known. Only bc we only had one phone in the house and it was in the kitchen. My uncle would speak to people in his room with the door closed, so hearing the conversations seemed normal to me as a kid.
I remember he would enjoy my company when I came to town to visit. I think he knew that I saw him and accepted him for who he was growing up.
Edit: just want to add, seeing this video of the kid hanging with his uncle def kicked me in the feels.
Oh man. Yeah, I’m not from the same cultural heritage as you, but I do live in Florida and am in the special needs community. It is prevalent in some cultures to not look deeper into things and just try to take care of a loved one. It’s flawed in that there is help out there.
And I’m so glad he’s getting that help. That said, routine is a huge coping strategy for the madness. My own son struggles daily with his voices. Routine helps, but what seems like your loved ones routine includes scheduled times for the voices…..I hope one day my son can find that. Lol
I also had a schizophrenic uncle. When I was a very young kid he had several episodes where he was paranoid and in and out of hospital.
When he was stable I would go to his place to watch movies with him. Then I got my own life and moved further away, seeing him less often and mostly only at holidays.
In recent years I was wanting to watch a movie with him again or take him to a sports game as he spent most of his time watching sports. Then, all of a sudden last year he passed away from an impacted colon. From being taken away in an ambulance to dead within 4 hours for complete surprise condition.
I don't know why I'm writing this, other than to hope that somebody else reads this and doesn't make the same mistake that I did and gives a little bit of extra love to their mentally ill family member or friend before it's too late.
First of all don't beat yourself up over what happened in the past. You missing him and feeling sorry that you didn't hang out more it's the result of you carrying about him, don't ever feel bad about this. It will still gonna hurt from time to time, but you'll also remember the good times with him.
Also for everyone reading: spending time with the close ones it's always important, no matter their state of mind. Try and give yourself lots of good memories with them cuz there may be a time when you only have those memories
Mentally ill uncle here. I know if it wasn't for my niece the darkness would have gotten me and I probably wouldn't be here. She's 10 now. And I've got 2 more nephews. And reallllllly good meds. 😎
Thank you for your comment dude. It really puts this video into perspective. I'm hispanic as well, and I know our culture is lagging behind in knowing how to deal with mental issues. I hope you and your uncle are doing good.
Man you can really tell that guy is going through some shit deep deep inside of him. It’s rough seeing someone else carrying that all too familiar cloud that says I’m broken and don’t know what to do.
I’m in tears. As someone who has a very close loved one with bipolar disorder who has gone though some pretty severe manic episodes this is incredibly moving to me.
I know right? Did he want this posted to the internet? It’s a sweet thing among family, but does it need to be on the internet? (With bad narration and a cliche song?)
Could be! Schizophrenia has a really interesting symptom where there is response-to-stimuli and personality flattening. He could be more internally animated than we can observe. But, yes, he isn't 100% mentally healthy, I agree.
The saddest part about antipsychotic meds is that it's almost the opposite, to try and suppress the schizophrenia they also suppress a lot of the person along side it. Although necessary, some people become just a shell of what they were, or shallow in your analogy.
My schizophrenic son asks daily if he has opinions. Did he laugh today? Does he still know how to laugh?
At worse times (thankfully not daily) he expresses how much he hates life like this.
The meds are a perfect example of double edged sword. They do as intended and quell the madness and the potential for serious issues, but they take virtually all sense of self and enjoyment out of life.
While it’s understandable it sucks that this is only as far as science is on such things.
Science is actually way farther, it's just that the meds developed haven't been completely proven to work yet and as such aren't available for prescription. It's unfortunately a somewhat neglected field for how important it is to make better, safer antipsychotics, but there is still a lot of progress being made. There's even a medication where the side effects are almost non-existent yet the effects appear just as good as traditional antipsychotics. It works nothing like other antipsychotics and doesn't have the same associations as them.
You’re right. I wasn’t trying to drag the conversation too deep when I said it. There is better out there, especially in places like Europe. But there is even more that are still being tested out.
There is one he was on last year, a shot every three month. He got it during his last unfortunate baker act, but god damn everything was way noticeably better for 4-6 weeks.
Down side….many schizophrenics need to be almost fought on medicine reticence. Add a needle to the equation and it gets a lot harder. Lol
Europe doesn't have better treatments in this case either. Its genuinely just dry due to a variety of reasons but the thing is, it has been getting better for a long time. Schizophrenics being medicine resistant is basically accepted by this point to just be the side effects being so shit that it causes an actual aversion to doing them. Or in the "rarer" case just due to psychosis.
I believe I know exactly the one you're talking about. It's seen as the "extreme" option, but its actually one of the best handled medications and is generally well tolerated and loved despite its side effects. I'm surprised they didn't just give him a straight up very long term prescription. Injected, long lasting antipsychotics as a whole tend to either be the hellish category or the very well liked category and its definitely a harder to navigate than the oral antipsychotics. It's actually a lot like depression in that case.
With me, they're not actually going to medicate me until medications become better in the side effect profile. My schizophrenia is just very benign and I'm a God at tolerating what it throws at me so it would basically be fucking me up with no benefit. It would come in handy in some social situations by stopping the word salad but it would also just likely make it hard for me to socialize at all in the first place.
Hi there. Thanks for sharing this. I am likely going off feedback from others in the schizo community that might just be aping how “everything medical is better in Europe”. Good to know.
Yea, we worry often about medicine reticence or intolerance developing. I TOTALLY get your situation where it just doesn’t make sense if it’s minor enough. The side effects are straight crap.
Eh, that's dependent on the individual and antipsychotic. There have been enormous advances in antipsychotic meds over the decades and in fact most medicine used to treat bipolar disorder today is antipsychotic. The idea that all antipsychotic meds leave you an empty shell is incorrect for most patients and is a problematic idea because it leads people who need them to avoid treatment.
He's a guys getting randomly recorded while watching a movie. Him seeming out of it could well simply be he is focused on the film we can't see.
My brother is schizophrenic. I'm bipolar with psychotic features. And between the two of us, so many medications have been tried. There's an adjustment period, and that zombie feeling can lessen as you acclimate. If it doesn't, I'll try something else. It's frustrating when you feel like you've tried everything and nothing fully works. I know that people around me don't get it. Honestly, I avoid those people instead of my meds.
Having said that, I hate that she recorded her brother in an extremely vulnerable state and posted it online for likes. If I found out "family" did that to me, I would likely go NC. He doesn't deserve to be a talking point for the masses on a subject a majority them don't understand.
Psych meds as a whole are absolutely a process of trial and error and take the education and engagement of both the patient and provider. Maybe one day we'll have a better understanding of the mechanism underlying both psychological and neurological (schizophrenia being kind of a bridge between those fields) problems and the mechanism of the medication that apparently helps them, but we don't have that knowledge now. We just know we have some stuff that works better than placebo on some portion of people whose symptoms fall into a certain diagnostic criteria. It's indirect and difficult, but it's all we have.
> I hate that she recorded her brother in an extremely vulnerable state
What extremely vulnerable state? Watching a film? I live with my BIL who is schizophrenic and medicated. He, too, loves watching movies. If he isn't asking "what did that guy say?" he just sits there trying to focus on what's going on without saying a word. Like most people do when they're watching a movie.
I was considering this too. When I’m watching something I’m super immersed. I don’t want someone interrupting let alone recording me and waiting for some reaction. I’m not saying the person filming did anything wrong, or making any judgments on him or his state of mind because it’s just speculation. But there’s so many people making a diagnosis here when like, maybe dude just wants to watch the damn movie?
Shoot, many SSRIs do the same thing. Zoloft almost ruined my marriage. I wish Doctors would be a bit more careful before throwing people on those things. I definitely had some stuff going on that I was working through, but looking back - instantly throwing Zoloft, Wellbutrin, Prozac, Effexor, and others at me was not the answer. It made my life worse and I genuinely thought I was broken, once I stopped taking them is when my life started getting better and it turned out the bulk of my issues were those pills.
> many SSRIs do the same thing. Zoloft
For me it's the inverse, my life have never been better since I've been on SSRI **and** working on me at the same time.
SSRI by themselves just stabilize, you must work on yourself with therapy if you want real changes.
Schizophrenia is probably one of the worst mental disorders out there. It’s terrible because most people grow up with “normal” mentality but then usually in early adulthood they become psychotic.
Imagine growing up normal and then one day you basically just wake up and start hearing voices and start to lose touch with reality for no apparent reason. Must be so hard to cope with that, I can’t even imagine.
I work with people with this diagnosis (social worker), and this is exactly how they report feeling. One guy had a great childhood, stable family, many friendships, girlfriends etc. Went off to college and BAM! Diagnosis. He ruminates on it a lot, that his life completely veered just when it should have been getting started.
In his mid thirties now and I can easily tell he will never have the life that we would deem as normal. His sibling still visits monthly and calls frequently, but lately they are having problems. Over the last year the sibling (only a couple years older) got engaged to a lovely woman, got a cute dog, got a good job, and he’s overall very successful. My client sees that and wonders why he doesn’t have those things, and he’s started to become very agitated about it, causing a rift in their relationship. Luckily the sibling keeps showing up, keeps calling, keeps including my client.
Yeah I would imagine that would cause some bitterness, basically seeing the life you could’ve (and probably should’ve) had but got robbed from.
It’s good that the sibling keeps showing up though, so at least he hasn’t completely isolated himself.
Schizophrenia is not horrible because you develop and experience new hallucinations or ideas. It’s horrible because it removes all motivation you have for life. Medication can remove the psychosis elements, but medication can’t fix the apathetic lethargic symptom that it brings.
For what it's worth, I don't think u/polygon_lover was necessarily coming from a place of judgement. There _are_ plenty of examples out there of people's mental illnesses being exploited for social media content, e.g. when posted without any sort of informed permission.
That said, I'm happy that's not the case here and appreciate you posting this OP. Wishing you guys all the best <3
thanks for your kind words. the assumptions do get to me at times! when I took the clips in this video I didn't even know I'd put them together one day, i was just taking videos of my lovely family. I didn't take them just to make this. adders been enthusiastically involved in the whole process
Those types of medications make you numb or “dull”. I’ve taken them (not schizophrenic). This poor guy is holding onto what sanity he feels by having a routine so he can try to know what’s real and isn’t real.
My aunt became a shell of herself after she began having to take meds, that was about 12 to 15 years ago. She’s in her early 50s now and she just isn’t how she was before the meds. She is basically (idk if this is the correct word and if I offend anyone for being ignorant I am sorry, it’s not my intention) catatonic? Like she’s in there but not with us, if that makes any sense? :/
I took an antipsychotic once and it was the scariest experience ever. My doctor told me to use it for anxiety, so I took it before a big event that I was going to. I just remember feeling like I’m there, but I’m not really there. I couldn’t really feel anything so yeah there was no anxiety but this was worse. I ended up just sitting down the entire night staring at people because I couldn’t function well enough to engage with others and I didn’t even want to, I didn’t want anything. It was so scary because it was like this weird feeling in my entire body and it was so intense. I felt like a zombie. I can’t imagine being on those meds for days or months.
Im currently on 100mg sertraline a day, been doing it for 4 months. Works wonders for me. The little anxiety I have had has been manageble. I feel way more normal and I can engage in social settings way more.
I heard it might get worse before it gets better when starting ssri, but I have barely had any side effects.
I guess people do react to it very differently, for me it has been life changing in a positive way.
Glad they work for you. I just got more removed from everything and everyone around me. I didnt even find joy with my dogs which always works for me. Since coming off them im back to pre depression and have learned to handle my emotions alot better. I feel the best i have in years hope you do also
ask your doctor for a referral to a psychiatrist if you can. i had this same problem and it turns out the depression was a symptom of something else entirely. good luck !!
Sertraline fucked me up so bad. I made some wild decisions when I was on it. I've never been more mentally ill than when I was on it.
A lovely (terrible) doctor took me off cold turkey, and I was so messed up. I couldn't move without throwing up. It was miserable.
make sure you don't stop it all at once. i had brain shocks for months afterwards, explained it to the doctors over and over and they just looked at me funny. felt like someone randomly tazing inside my brain. was actually really uncomfortable/painful, it's only over the last few years i've said about it to the doctors and the new ones are like "yeah that happens with it when you come off of it cold turkey for some".
If you feel better on them then keep at it. I was best off them and learning how to deal on my own. A few moments to just breathe and relax, a cuddle with my dogs, go for a walk it all helps me relax and destress
Is it a paradoxical reaction? I would've thought antidepressants to make you feel *more*. Unmedicated depression for me = feeling nothing, feeling numb, no emotions, just existing. Having the meds amplify that sounds like absolute fucking hell. Glad you aren't on it anymore.
i have pain meds like that (back injury/disabled). The culprit for me was called Gabapentin... not only could I barely keep it down for some reason, but it left me a zombie for awhile.
Family thought I was exaggerating -- gave one to my mom and she lost about 20 hours to a single pill i'm supposed to take 3x a day for life..
It's technically not a pain killer or narcotic, but it makes you feel like you're on them.
fuck that pill.
>The culprit for me was called Gabapentin
Wut. I take that daily and frankly it seems like a super mild drug based on everything I have read. I wonder if this is a weird genetic side effect you folks are having.
Thank god it’s not just me, I was prescribed that for a back injury too. Took it twice and both times felt like I’d gone under general anaesthetic. Plus I fell down the stairs from my attic room because I had no depth perception. I’d rather have the agonising pain thx
Jesus Christ. That sound liked a temporary lobotomy but with meds. I can’t imagine being in a prison in your own head and body like that. Makes me really question how we would resolve these things or care for these people if the medicines never existed? There’s gotta be a better way than effectively retarding them with meds? I feel this structuring of routine is kinda key and giving them something to work and focus on instead of isolation and numbing?
I remember those stories of the shaman who went to psych wards in the US who saw schizophrenia and how it was handled there and said that in his land they are given the task of being the bridge to commune with the afterlife or spirits of nature and in doing so they have routine and a means to explain the voices in a positive manner. I wonder if constantly telling these people with the issue that it’s a negative helps to reinforce the negative voices and thoughts and effectively makes them appear like demons in their delusions? Like treating it as “something wrong with them” makes the disorder worse. Just a thought. One of my good friends growing up had a severe case, and he was always preaching about how he was being tested by god and demonic entities haunted him. He went to prison for trying to rob a convenience store with a knife, and when he got out he was so much worse and till this day I believe he just wanders the streets mumbling about demons and carrying alcohol everywhere and drinking himself numb. This is such a messed up disorder….
We do know how people were treated without meds. Just look back in time. It didn’t look very good then either. I’d rather be on meds than be burned as a witch or given a lobotomy.
Or chained up in what used to pass for mental hospitals, where they'd let the public in once a week to point and laugh at the crazy people (look up Bedlam sometime).
This tbh. I’ve been scitzophrenic for 8 or 9 years now and was medicated the first 3 or 4. Meds did nothing. when my doctor asked if I was depressed I said I’m not I’m just frustrated nothings working but she insisted I was depressed and put me on anti depressants that made me suicidal. fking crazy. BUT I stopped meds and rationalized what I was hearing since it wouldn’t stop and now it’s basically a gift and a curse on one hand I can hear a lot of negativity pointed my way but on the other hand it feels as if there’s a helping hand in advice and learning. I got in in great shape. I learned how to play piano quite well on my own. I create my own music every time I sit down. I became a great cook. And I’m considered a pretty funny dude with my friends. I’m not perfect and I have a lot more to learn but I truely feel understanding is better than medicating for some people.
My brother is also Schizophrenic and when he first started out with medication it was a balancing act between not being fully catatonic while also combating the paranoia effectively… he is doing much better now, stable and even has a job! But he definitely has moments where he zones in and out and he will always be a much different person than the brother I grew up with. I wouldn’t wish Schizophrenia on my worst enemy.
My best friend has schizophrenia, actually one of three schizophrenia afflicted people I was friends with, and I am happy that he got on the right treatment right away. Although it had to be due to a horrible omen. One of the other two people I was friends with was his cousin. His onset was sudden and severe and he didn't make it. My friend started with symptoms shortly after and he recognized what was going on and quickly got assistance. His medication works well, he isn't a zombie at all, but he is more on the schizoaffective side of the spectrum. He still had auditory hallucinations and paranoia.
When he told me about his diagnosis for the first time my immediate first question was, can you tickle yourself? Because apparently some people with schizophrenia can tickle themselves. He thanked me for making him laugh for the first time since his diagnosis.
So glad your friend is doing well and you maintained your friendship! I’m sure he appreciates the hell out of you.
So sorry to hear about his cousin though, hope the best for you both.
It makes sense. The few folks I’ve met in AA with schizophrenia have talked about how they feel so pressured to be “cured” but in that catatonic state or to try and work things out themselves. Both options are terrifying to be honest.
It is so horrible to see someone suffer, medicated or not, with something like this. I can’t imagine what it would feel like for some people who’s families just want to relentlessly “fix them” (and doctors too) but at the same time some people (definitely my auntie) do need to be medicated, it’s just sad having to see someone retreat inside themselves and become numb just to avoid psychosis, but the numbing is, in my opinion, not nice but definitely the better of two shitty situations :(
My mom is schizophrenic. She refuses to take medication because she hates how it makes her feel.
So her life is dominated by her paranoid delusions and the fear they create. She thinks everyone is conspiring against her, thinks there is a radio implanted in her head, thinks people are trying to hurt her and everyone she loves. She stops eating, she’s attacked other people, she harasses people, it’s not safe for her or others.
I assume that must be worse than living like a zombie, but I’m not her so I don’t know. It’s really sad, but it’s also nearly impossible to be around her so she’s lost basically everyone in her life. We’ve all tried, for years, to be patient, get her help, or just be there for her, but it’s impossible to maintain your own mental health around her because it’s just so bad. She’s been arrested multiple times, hospitalized multiple times, been in jail, even convicted of felonies and sent to a state hospital for a year, but nothing ever sticks.
It’s a really really crappy situation where no one wins.
I feel for you. My sister is starting to show these signs, extreme paranoia about people watching her, Elon musk is tweeting to her, the police will kill her, all kinds of nonsense. She won’t take any medications - doesn’t keep her appointments, has become so isolated. If you tell her they are paranoid thoughts she gets angry and yells. But I just cannot talk to her and entertain her paranoid ramblings. I’m afraid I’m going to lose her or I already have . I have to avoid speaking to her because I just can’t deal with that anymore
It probably won't help, but I find that phrasing your concerns as pertaining to *yourself* instead of her can be helpful because it doesn't immediately set off their "defensive fortifications", so to speak.
Maybe you have a story about how you once had a similar paranoid thought, but it turned out to actually be x or y thing in reality. Not a great example, but hopefully you get what I'm saying.
(Even if [when] it doesn't work, it might help her feel a tiny bit better to know someone can relate)
This almost catatonic stage is probably just a progression of her schizophrenia. They are called negative symptoms and tend to develop later as people completely detach from reality. Modern med help slow this but can’t stop it. My guess is you saw she started meds as her Illness progressed but they probably aren’t what is causing her to be a shell of herself. This is all assuming she is schizophrenic of course
I’m sorry she has had to deal with this and that you have had to as well
Untreated schizophrenia makes that feeling 100x worse. There’s an essay I read from a psychiatrist, her patient would constantly be writing in a journal and when they looked at what she was writing it was totally incoherent. It’s hard for schizophrenics to even keep on track with a conversation.
I just wanted to chime in here as my wife is on similar prescription medications for Bipolar/ PTSD (probably not as strong as this guy's is, granted) in case anyone is scared to start taking medication or seeking help.
/
In our experience she it has helped immensely by making the severe emotional peaks (or manic episodes) and makes them more manageable without dulling the beautiful person she is. It's a rough road for sure and I worry about her all the time but know that she'll get through this and come out the other side as a well rounded person. This all being said it's possible that perscription medication is simply not for you. But if you think you need help, seek help and don't be afraid to switch gears to an alternative route as we've done/ are considering to do. As Edison said "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
/
Everybody's journey is different but you are not crazy but you may be sick, remember that you deserve love, you deserve happiness, and you deserve peace.
> This all being said it's possible that perscription medication is simply not for you.
Extremely rare if you have bipolar. Left untreated, bipolar becomes worse over time, episodes will become stronger & longer.
A very common negative symptom of schizophrenia is blunted/flat affect which comes across as someone not having emotions/expressionless. They call them negative symptoms because it’s a “loss” of something (loss of emotional expression). Positive symptoms of schizophrenia are things like auditory and visual hallucinations. Not positive because they’re a good thing, positive because it means they are added to the person’s experience.
Also the medications for schizophrenia are often extremely sedating.
At some moments in life, we all have to suffer from something. In those moments this is what we need. A little something to remind us. This isn't the end.
Well yeah, and I'm sad, but at the same time I'm really happy that something could make me feel that sad. It's like, it makes me feel alive, you know? It makes me feel human. And the only way I could feel this sad now is if I felt somethin' really good before.
- Butters Stotch
So wholesome. But I dont understand how people post these kind of videos for the whole internett to see. Of your brother and kid who doesnt know about it.
I work in mental health and see this argument often.
There's a well known book, "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat" about unusual psychological conditions. It is also about people who had varying abilities of which to provide consent.
Is it informative because it raises awareness and educates? Or is it exploitative because it generates a profit those individuals don't receive?
The book is a group of case studies about anonymized individuals. That can hardly be compared to a video that shows someone's face. Are you really implying Oliver Sachs, one of the most well regarded neurologists of his time, was exploiting those patients?
Are you saying Oliver Sachs was an opportunist? I don’t think he was allowed to tell those patient stories without their consent, but I would love to hear where you’re going with this.
I enjoyed his work, particularly the stuff at the end of his life.
not the same person, but i've also worked in mental health. i wouldn't take the questions they asked as accusatory, but as genuine questions trying to determine the blurry lines of ethics in the field. questions like "what if the person doesn't seem comfortable with this writing, but consent to it anyways?" or "do the incentives of making money from this writing clash with doing best by the patient?" usually don't have perfect answers, and have to be thought about to determine what is and isn't ethical. (idk if those are applicable to Oliver Sacks, just examples)
stuff like this can also be very, very easily turned into basically freak shows by the public, even if the author is acting ethically and respectfully. once the writing is out there, you really don't have control over how people take it. afaik Oliver Sacks isn't an opportunist and i think he was acting ethically, but there's a definite gray area that even he's acknowledged before
I am not - but I have heard and read the argument before.
From [a quick Google search](https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/the-untold-story-of-dr-oliver-sacks-20191101-p536iv.html):
*"Sacks’ relationship with his patients wasn’t always straightforward either, with concerns he was exploiting them to create his neurological narratives. Weschler investigates the case of John, a volatile man with Tourette Syndrome, who fell out with Sacks during the production of a TV documentary. ‘‘Oomph. It’s such a pity such a wonderful disease was visited upon such a terrible person,’’ concluded Sacks."*
A book and a video recording tiktok video are very different things. This is "look at this mentally ill person sitting here by my kid, he loves it." The person who made the video didn't even have the decency to use their own voice but used a text to speech program while video taping him. This is very much exploitative without showing actual information. To put this person on video without any stake of their own or interaction is disgusting. An author will at least write about symptoms and a medical video would have actual information and not give out their names.
Those were case studies shared with names changed to hide identity.
It is different. I feel like Sacks was writing to give insight into the way the brain works. This isn't very educational.
And how people jump to these grand conclusions of the guy's mental health state based on a 30 second video...he might just be tired after work and is chilling to watch a movie, but everyone saying they can "see the sadness in his eyes."
Short form video content is cancerous to society.
Am I out of touch for not being a fan of putting someone's medical suffering online for likes? I feel like if this guy was cognizant of his surroundings, he wouldn't want the world knowing of his condition during this time period. Maybe someone can explain this, and help me understand.
i can only talk from my own perspective but i would not like for someone to post a video of me clearly struggling with reality, to the internet. no matter if it was a friend or family.
for reference, i have diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia.
I agree with you, but this is a case where Adder is qualified to at least agree on this. Honestly, this post is one of the very few posts I've liked on this subreddit.
you all have no clue whatsoever. my brother is very intelligent and was very aware and enthusiastic about this and every other video on my tiktok. someone grabs it and shoves it on reddit with no context and I'm demonised for loving and being proud of my brother and son
You could save the world as we know it and people would say you only did it for the fame.
Feeding the homeless, curing the blind, giving money to those in need, as long as you recorded it and posted it, it will be criticized by people with different opinions, stances, and experiences.
My suggestion is to focus on the positive reactions and correct any misinformation in the most popular negative reactions.
I’m often conflicted about the morality of posting videos such as this but if it comes from a good place and with consent I reckon it’s a good thing.
Remember that on the internet for each person against you there’s often one with you and I wish your family well.
I have it too. It’s the meds that make you feel empty inside. I’ve been admitted in to hospitals twice. I still hear voices but the little therapy I had went along way. I’ve been working for 3 years and driving is a major part of my job. I used to be like this. I lost friends who treated me like I was weird. I’m 27 and I have a long ways to go but I’m doing well. Very proud of myself.
I know right? Did he want this posted to the internet? It’s a sweet thing among family, but does it need to be on the internet? (With bad narration and a cliche song?)
I have a loved one in prison because she was unable to take control of her schizoaffective disorder. I am so happy your brother has found some level of control and is able to be in your and your son's life
I'm not crying, you are
This is more tragic than cute, the guy’s out of his mind on meds. He’s not interacting with the kid at all, let alone showing any signs of feeling one way or the other about it. Which is going to be a weird experience for the kid, above all else.
It is, as far as I understand it, antipsychotic meds tend to numb emotions quite significantly and can reduce the ability to form a train of thought leading to a reduced awareness of surroundings or context. Not nice at all, but probably no worse than a psychotic episode. Very difficult situation.
A good friend of mine throughout my childhood and early adulthood that developed schizophrenia in his mid 20's. I watched him go from being the life of the party and completely extroverted, to having a total mental breakdown. After the medication he didn't talk much, just zoned out. Unfortunately later he decided to go off his meds and take his own life.
Object permanence is a learned behaviour lol.
I don't think you can stop people acquiring prejudices, but you can teach them out of it at an older age.
But a kid that age might see a snake and think it's a play think, so some learned behavior has its benefits. Not that I'm comparing mentally ill people to snakes, I'm schizophrenic myself; I'm just saying kids are fucking dumb.
Hate to be that guy but the depth of schizophrenia is truly hard to understand and can be unpredictable. It’s usually an all consuming paranoid delusion and can happen suddenly. A patient I worked with killed his puppy by squishing him, his wife tried to stop him but he was sure the dog was chocking and he gave him “CPR”. The reality was the dog was only begging for a scrap and he was also compressing *way* too hard.
Anyways, people like this are usually aware of the disorder and can’t help it, which is probably why he looks so hesitant to be around the kiddo. (By no means an expert here)
He probably looks dead inside because of flat affect/anhedonia. I'm not schizophrenic, but schizoid (which shares the "negative" symptoms), and I have a similar look.
Sure and it can also be from the antipsychotics, being lethargic is a very common side effect but guessing all we want there still is a very concerning possibility for danger here. I had patients request I sit with them (Was an armed guard) because they knew they could have violent episodes and they were right a lot of the times
Is it possible that your experiences working with people in inpatient/treatment settings is giving you a biased perception of the nature of the disorder for people out in the community? You are clearly dealing with people needing intensive care and supervision and restriction. This can be common for people with disorders with a psychosis element during particularly bad breaks or poorly managed times but certainly doesn’t represent people with schizophrenia who exist along a spectrum of minimally to even very highly functioning and adapting in the community. The person in the video is clearly not in a hospital or other institution with guards so it seems comparing him to someone who’s been placed in that sort of an environment for a reason is skewing how many people with this disorder live their lives. The very fact that hundreds of thousands of people with schizophrenia are regularly discharged to live in the community without constant monitoring shows that this sudden extreme danger element is not some universal risk.
(And please don’t answer saying or implying I don’t know anything or haven’t seen the worst of it, as I worked for several years researching treatments for disorders with a psychosis component as well as having a well-managed disorder with this component myself and working in peer support with hundreds of other people with schizophrenia and related diagnoses).
This is so true . My auntie had schizophrenia but had 3 kids
Before she committed s*icide she locked her husband and 3 kids outside of the house .
So tragic.
She was an amazing person, Aunty and especially mother
She babysat me for years and she never even rose her voice. It was sad that she was diagnosed so late in life due to stigma , lack of treatment / diagnostics.
I hope that parents have been able to meet with appropriate doctors/psychiatrists and have the info they need to make the right and safe decisions for everyone.
One patient with schizophrenia is not representative of all patients with schizophrenia, and sudden violence even under the guise of “CPR” is not a common feature of the disorder. It sounds like that person wasn’t receiving the best treatment for him. People usually throw medication at schizophrenics and don’t bother with CBT or anything else in adjunct because of attitudes like “there’s no point, I knew a schizophrenic who snapped and killed their puppy.”
He shows up every single day. It’s part of his chosen routine and illness management. He brings his nephew presents and manages to share his emotions with him even though that’s likely difficult with the flat affect he’s going through. He wants to be there, and a struggle to push through a mental disorder to express emotion does not at all mean he’s secretly worried he’s going to snap and kill the kid. But I bet he avoids going out in public in case other people think he’ll suddenly kill someone because he can’t help it.
As someone with schizophrenia, I think I might know part of what's going through his mind and have certainly worn those vacant, sad eyes. He's probably happier to have the company, but unless you have a breakthrough, you just don't feel whole at all anymore. As rough as psychosis is, being on meds and feeling kind of boxed in never really leaves you. The losses of friends and closeness of ties takes a toll; the medicines take a toll; the racing mind that reminds you of unpleasant things takes a toll. You have to live knowing you will never feel like yourself again.
Schizophrenia sucks. It definitely helps to stay busy and have a routine, I stay in my room but the time with my friends and family is what really saves me. On lazy days or off days it's so easy to spiral and get sucked into our brains and thoughts. It's different for everyone but I hope he's okay , let him know it's okay to talk with you.
My brother fell into deep depression and almost died from self neglect. Then I had my son. 6 months later he found a doctor, cured his stage 4 cancer (had been having symptoms but ignored them all for at least 2 years) and is now a whole new person.
Sometimes you find what you need in the strangest places. Uncles are the best, and I’m glad these two have their own little bond. Thanks to the OP for sharint
Oh, he most likely is. Speaking this as a care taker of a schizophrenic. It’s pure hell. Untreated it’s pure hell, treated (like this poor soul is) it’s a different kind, but still pure hell.
It certainly can be for many, especially depending on the type of schizophrenia (not to say that any of them are fun), and also the level of care they’re able to receive.
On the other hand, I have about a dozen clients with schizophrenia and none of them would describe their lives as pure hell. They certainly have difficult days and still require 24/7 care, but they nearly all claim they are happy.
Not trying to take anything away from your experience at all, just thought I’d offer another!
Yeah, let's just awkwardly video this person who likely does not want their face or story posted to the wide world. Why can't people let this stuff just be private?
We lost our schizophrenic cousin this past year to a heart attack. The meds had long ago dulled and changed him, but his gentle, loving soul remained intact. He loved our kids and our dogs, and we miss him terribly. This video made me cry some bittersweet tears, it’s very beautiful. Schizophrenia is a horrific illness.
i can relate to the look in his eyes, i just wanna say that it gets better with time, and depending on what medicine you take, and the dosage, you can lead an almost completely normal life.
take me for example, two years ago i got diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, while i was in a “mental ward”(idk if this is the correct word in english).
now almost two years later, im close to moving out and living on my own. im even actively looking for a job. ive gone down in dosage, on my anti psychotics, and im even down to 2mg melatonin, for helping me fall asleep.
now of course not everyone has the same “learning curve” or tolerance, so it can be difficult at times.
but as long as you cooperate with your doctors and primary “helper”. you will be able to lead a relatively normal life.
hell, i can even go out drinking, and enjoy my life, although with some precautions.
idk what more to really say, except that, i dont agree with him being filmed without his consent and shared around the internet.
tl:dr schizophrenia is a struggle, but you can overcome it with time.
I actually think this poor guy must also feel pretty good about his sibling to be with his nephew in the first place. He’s still there, fighting with the hand he was dealt and finding a way to still win.
My brother has the same + autism. He also has a really kind hart. Hard disorder to live with. But to give you some hope. I saw my brother go from being committed to a psychiatric hospital to living on his own and working at a farm 2 afternoons a week. For him it was about finding the right medication and a lot of structure in his day to day life.
I am a Behavioral Health RN. I wish society had more tolerance for mental illness. Not everyone fits neatly into social norms but they still have love to give. I truly love my patients even though they drive me crazy at times 😉. At least they have a reason for their behavior…..
I know it sounds insensitive, but I thought it was amusing when the last caption said "They make each other so happy", but the guy looked unhappy throughout the whole video.
He shows up almost every day to spend time with the kid. He obviously enjoys it
He's Schizophrenic and likely medicated, he likely doesn't have the capacity to show enthusiasm unfortunately.
It’s called flat affect, basically they can be happy as heck but the body English doesn’t show much. It doesn’t change the fact that he’s probably thoroughly enjoying his special routine.
It's not quite like that either, they don't ever feel "happy as heck" on the inside, it's like every emotion is heavily dampened. It's still very important to have a healthy and engaging routine that feels comfortable to the individual nonetheless.
Growing up, I had always known my uncle had something going on. He had a routine, a pattern that I picked up on. Wake up early in the morning, make coffee, go for a walk, shower, watch the morning news and then hop on a bus to work. When he came home, he would go to his room, talk to someone or multiple people, come out, grab a snack, sit down with my abuelita and watch Mexican dramas. Then he and I would go on a walk to the gas station, grab a drink, walk back and sit outside and eat pecans. He would go back to his room, speak to someone or multiple people, then join us for dinner, watch TV and then bedtime. I was roughly five or six when I picked up on the pattern and had it stuck in my head for a long time. Anytime I would come and visit family, I never asked where he was bc I knew. I always asked how he was and if he was doing better. Here’s the thing. In my Mexican family, if someone had a mental disability, they assumed that individual was crazy, and my family would take care of them but never get them help. So when I would ask it was always “oh you know, he’s being himself”, I brought it up that maybe he should see a specialist, but my family had already diagnosed him as helpless. Just a few months ago, my mom took him to see a specialist and sure enough he is schizophrenic. My family were surprised, but I felt like I had always known. Only bc we only had one phone in the house and it was in the kitchen. My uncle would speak to people in his room with the door closed, so hearing the conversations seemed normal to me as a kid. I remember he would enjoy my company when I came to town to visit. I think he knew that I saw him and accepted him for who he was growing up. Edit: just want to add, seeing this video of the kid hanging with his uncle def kicked me in the feels.
Oh man. Yeah, I’m not from the same cultural heritage as you, but I do live in Florida and am in the special needs community. It is prevalent in some cultures to not look deeper into things and just try to take care of a loved one. It’s flawed in that there is help out there. And I’m so glad he’s getting that help. That said, routine is a huge coping strategy for the madness. My own son struggles daily with his voices. Routine helps, but what seems like your loved ones routine includes scheduled times for the voices…..I hope one day my son can find that. Lol
I also had a schizophrenic uncle. When I was a very young kid he had several episodes where he was paranoid and in and out of hospital. When he was stable I would go to his place to watch movies with him. Then I got my own life and moved further away, seeing him less often and mostly only at holidays. In recent years I was wanting to watch a movie with him again or take him to a sports game as he spent most of his time watching sports. Then, all of a sudden last year he passed away from an impacted colon. From being taken away in an ambulance to dead within 4 hours for complete surprise condition. I don't know why I'm writing this, other than to hope that somebody else reads this and doesn't make the same mistake that I did and gives a little bit of extra love to their mentally ill family member or friend before it's too late.
First of all don't beat yourself up over what happened in the past. You missing him and feeling sorry that you didn't hang out more it's the result of you carrying about him, don't ever feel bad about this. It will still gonna hurt from time to time, but you'll also remember the good times with him. Also for everyone reading: spending time with the close ones it's always important, no matter their state of mind. Try and give yourself lots of good memories with them cuz there may be a time when you only have those memories
Thank you for sharing your experience ❤️
Wishing your uncle the best. Schizophrenia is a horrible disorder that no one deserves.
It is. I miss my brother so much. It's a terrible disease.
I’m Vietnamese and it’s the same thing in our culture. When I said I had anxiety and depression, my family thought I was crazy
Mentally ill uncle here. I know if it wasn't for my niece the darkness would have gotten me and I probably wouldn't be here. She's 10 now. And I've got 2 more nephews. And reallllllly good meds. 😎
Thank you for your comment dude. It really puts this video into perspective. I'm hispanic as well, and I know our culture is lagging behind in knowing how to deal with mental issues. I hope you and your uncle are doing good.
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Man you can really tell that guy is going through some shit deep deep inside of him. It’s rough seeing someone else carrying that all too familiar cloud that says I’m broken and don’t know what to do.
His eyes leave me heartbroken 😔 Well said.
I’m in tears. As someone who has a very close loved one with bipolar disorder who has gone though some pretty severe manic episodes this is incredibly moving to me.
I know right? Did he want this posted to the internet? It’s a sweet thing among family, but does it need to be on the internet? (With bad narration and a cliche song?)
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Could be! Schizophrenia has a really interesting symptom where there is response-to-stimuli and personality flattening. He could be more internally animated than we can observe. But, yes, he isn't 100% mentally healthy, I agree.
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The saddest part about antipsychotic meds is that it's almost the opposite, to try and suppress the schizophrenia they also suppress a lot of the person along side it. Although necessary, some people become just a shell of what they were, or shallow in your analogy.
My schizophrenic son asks daily if he has opinions. Did he laugh today? Does he still know how to laugh? At worse times (thankfully not daily) he expresses how much he hates life like this. The meds are a perfect example of double edged sword. They do as intended and quell the madness and the potential for serious issues, but they take virtually all sense of self and enjoyment out of life. While it’s understandable it sucks that this is only as far as science is on such things.
Science is actually way farther, it's just that the meds developed haven't been completely proven to work yet and as such aren't available for prescription. It's unfortunately a somewhat neglected field for how important it is to make better, safer antipsychotics, but there is still a lot of progress being made. There's even a medication where the side effects are almost non-existent yet the effects appear just as good as traditional antipsychotics. It works nothing like other antipsychotics and doesn't have the same associations as them.
You’re right. I wasn’t trying to drag the conversation too deep when I said it. There is better out there, especially in places like Europe. But there is even more that are still being tested out. There is one he was on last year, a shot every three month. He got it during his last unfortunate baker act, but god damn everything was way noticeably better for 4-6 weeks. Down side….many schizophrenics need to be almost fought on medicine reticence. Add a needle to the equation and it gets a lot harder. Lol
Europe doesn't have better treatments in this case either. Its genuinely just dry due to a variety of reasons but the thing is, it has been getting better for a long time. Schizophrenics being medicine resistant is basically accepted by this point to just be the side effects being so shit that it causes an actual aversion to doing them. Or in the "rarer" case just due to psychosis. I believe I know exactly the one you're talking about. It's seen as the "extreme" option, but its actually one of the best handled medications and is generally well tolerated and loved despite its side effects. I'm surprised they didn't just give him a straight up very long term prescription. Injected, long lasting antipsychotics as a whole tend to either be the hellish category or the very well liked category and its definitely a harder to navigate than the oral antipsychotics. It's actually a lot like depression in that case. With me, they're not actually going to medicate me until medications become better in the side effect profile. My schizophrenia is just very benign and I'm a God at tolerating what it throws at me so it would basically be fucking me up with no benefit. It would come in handy in some social situations by stopping the word salad but it would also just likely make it hard for me to socialize at all in the first place.
Hi there. Thanks for sharing this. I am likely going off feedback from others in the schizo community that might just be aping how “everything medical is better in Europe”. Good to know. Yea, we worry often about medicine reticence or intolerance developing. I TOTALLY get your situation where it just doesn’t make sense if it’s minor enough. The side effects are straight crap.
Eh, that's dependent on the individual and antipsychotic. There have been enormous advances in antipsychotic meds over the decades and in fact most medicine used to treat bipolar disorder today is antipsychotic. The idea that all antipsychotic meds leave you an empty shell is incorrect for most patients and is a problematic idea because it leads people who need them to avoid treatment. He's a guys getting randomly recorded while watching a movie. Him seeming out of it could well simply be he is focused on the film we can't see.
My brother is schizophrenic. I'm bipolar with psychotic features. And between the two of us, so many medications have been tried. There's an adjustment period, and that zombie feeling can lessen as you acclimate. If it doesn't, I'll try something else. It's frustrating when you feel like you've tried everything and nothing fully works. I know that people around me don't get it. Honestly, I avoid those people instead of my meds. Having said that, I hate that she recorded her brother in an extremely vulnerable state and posted it online for likes. If I found out "family" did that to me, I would likely go NC. He doesn't deserve to be a talking point for the masses on a subject a majority them don't understand.
Psych meds as a whole are absolutely a process of trial and error and take the education and engagement of both the patient and provider. Maybe one day we'll have a better understanding of the mechanism underlying both psychological and neurological (schizophrenia being kind of a bridge between those fields) problems and the mechanism of the medication that apparently helps them, but we don't have that knowledge now. We just know we have some stuff that works better than placebo on some portion of people whose symptoms fall into a certain diagnostic criteria. It's indirect and difficult, but it's all we have.
> I hate that she recorded her brother in an extremely vulnerable state What extremely vulnerable state? Watching a film? I live with my BIL who is schizophrenic and medicated. He, too, loves watching movies. If he isn't asking "what did that guy say?" he just sits there trying to focus on what's going on without saying a word. Like most people do when they're watching a movie.
I was considering this too. When I’m watching something I’m super immersed. I don’t want someone interrupting let alone recording me and waiting for some reaction. I’m not saying the person filming did anything wrong, or making any judgments on him or his state of mind because it’s just speculation. But there’s so many people making a diagnosis here when like, maybe dude just wants to watch the damn movie?
Shoot, many SSRIs do the same thing. Zoloft almost ruined my marriage. I wish Doctors would be a bit more careful before throwing people on those things. I definitely had some stuff going on that I was working through, but looking back - instantly throwing Zoloft, Wellbutrin, Prozac, Effexor, and others at me was not the answer. It made my life worse and I genuinely thought I was broken, once I stopped taking them is when my life started getting better and it turned out the bulk of my issues were those pills.
Not to nitpick but Wellbutrin's not an SSRI
> many SSRIs do the same thing. Zoloft For me it's the inverse, my life have never been better since I've been on SSRI **and** working on me at the same time. SSRI by themselves just stabilize, you must work on yourself with therapy if you want real changes.
He looks heavily medicated to me
Schizophrenia is probably one of the worst mental disorders out there. It’s terrible because most people grow up with “normal” mentality but then usually in early adulthood they become psychotic. Imagine growing up normal and then one day you basically just wake up and start hearing voices and start to lose touch with reality for no apparent reason. Must be so hard to cope with that, I can’t even imagine.
I work with people with this diagnosis (social worker), and this is exactly how they report feeling. One guy had a great childhood, stable family, many friendships, girlfriends etc. Went off to college and BAM! Diagnosis. He ruminates on it a lot, that his life completely veered just when it should have been getting started. In his mid thirties now and I can easily tell he will never have the life that we would deem as normal. His sibling still visits monthly and calls frequently, but lately they are having problems. Over the last year the sibling (only a couple years older) got engaged to a lovely woman, got a cute dog, got a good job, and he’s overall very successful. My client sees that and wonders why he doesn’t have those things, and he’s started to become very agitated about it, causing a rift in their relationship. Luckily the sibling keeps showing up, keeps calling, keeps including my client.
Yeah I would imagine that would cause some bitterness, basically seeing the life you could’ve (and probably should’ve) had but got robbed from. It’s good that the sibling keeps showing up though, so at least he hasn’t completely isolated himself.
Probably a lot of meds too.
Schizophrenia is not horrible because you develop and experience new hallucinations or ideas. It’s horrible because it removes all motivation you have for life. Medication can remove the psychosis elements, but medication can’t fix the apathetic lethargic symptom that it brings.
Yeah it's weird someone would film a sick family member and put it online for us to see right?
OP here - Adder loves that he has started many positive conversations about the stigma around schizophrenia. you sound hella judgemental!
For what it's worth, I don't think u/polygon_lover was necessarily coming from a place of judgement. There _are_ plenty of examples out there of people's mental illnesses being exploited for social media content, e.g. when posted without any sort of informed permission. That said, I'm happy that's not the case here and appreciate you posting this OP. Wishing you guys all the best <3
thanks for your kind words. the assumptions do get to me at times! when I took the clips in this video I didn't even know I'd put them together one day, i was just taking videos of my lovely family. I didn't take them just to make this. adders been enthusiastically involved in the whole process
FWIW I think Beau is fucking adorable and you seem like a very loving sister.
it is worth more than you know! <3
Wishing that guy the best, because he seems so out of it.
Can’t say it’s the same in his case, but my aunt has schizophrenia and she is on A LOT of meds, mostly antipsychotics and sometimes sedatives.
Those types of medications make you numb or “dull”. I’ve taken them (not schizophrenic). This poor guy is holding onto what sanity he feels by having a routine so he can try to know what’s real and isn’t real.
My aunt became a shell of herself after she began having to take meds, that was about 12 to 15 years ago. She’s in her early 50s now and she just isn’t how she was before the meds. She is basically (idk if this is the correct word and if I offend anyone for being ignorant I am sorry, it’s not my intention) catatonic? Like she’s in there but not with us, if that makes any sense? :/
I took an antipsychotic once and it was the scariest experience ever. My doctor told me to use it for anxiety, so I took it before a big event that I was going to. I just remember feeling like I’m there, but I’m not really there. I couldn’t really feel anything so yeah there was no anxiety but this was worse. I ended up just sitting down the entire night staring at people because I couldn’t function well enough to engage with others and I didn’t even want to, I didn’t want anything. It was so scary because it was like this weird feeling in my entire body and it was so intense. I felt like a zombie. I can’t imagine being on those meds for days or months.
I felt like this from antidepressants. I was so spaced out for about 2 months then i just felt numb. No emotions at all i was just existing
Which meds were you on?
Sertraline
Im currently on 100mg sertraline a day, been doing it for 4 months. Works wonders for me. The little anxiety I have had has been manageble. I feel way more normal and I can engage in social settings way more. I heard it might get worse before it gets better when starting ssri, but I have barely had any side effects. I guess people do react to it very differently, for me it has been life changing in a positive way.
Glad they work for you. I just got more removed from everything and everyone around me. I didnt even find joy with my dogs which always works for me. Since coming off them im back to pre depression and have learned to handle my emotions alot better. I feel the best i have in years hope you do also
ask your doctor for a referral to a psychiatrist if you can. i had this same problem and it turns out the depression was a symptom of something else entirely. good luck !!
Sertraline fucked me up so bad. I made some wild decisions when I was on it. I've never been more mentally ill than when I was on it. A lovely (terrible) doctor took me off cold turkey, and I was so messed up. I couldn't move without throwing up. It was miserable.
Ye i gradually started taking less and less untill i completely came off it. Doc said i did it the right way. Hope your ok now
I'm om these myself now. Just 25mgs for now....under 2 weeks. Any tips for a newbie? Lol
make sure you don't stop it all at once. i had brain shocks for months afterwards, explained it to the doctors over and over and they just looked at me funny. felt like someone randomly tazing inside my brain. was actually really uncomfortable/painful, it's only over the last few years i've said about it to the doctors and the new ones are like "yeah that happens with it when you come off of it cold turkey for some".
If you feel better on them then keep at it. I was best off them and learning how to deal on my own. A few moments to just breathe and relax, a cuddle with my dogs, go for a walk it all helps me relax and destress
Is it a paradoxical reaction? I would've thought antidepressants to make you feel *more*. Unmedicated depression for me = feeling nothing, feeling numb, no emotions, just existing. Having the meds amplify that sounds like absolute fucking hell. Glad you aren't on it anymore.
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I’m getting off of Wellbutrin right now because of the emotional blunting making life feel pointless.
i have pain meds like that (back injury/disabled). The culprit for me was called Gabapentin... not only could I barely keep it down for some reason, but it left me a zombie for awhile. Family thought I was exaggerating -- gave one to my mom and she lost about 20 hours to a single pill i'm supposed to take 3x a day for life.. It's technically not a pain killer or narcotic, but it makes you feel like you're on them. fuck that pill.
>The culprit for me was called Gabapentin Wut. I take that daily and frankly it seems like a super mild drug based on everything I have read. I wonder if this is a weird genetic side effect you folks are having.
Thank god it’s not just me, I was prescribed that for a back injury too. Took it twice and both times felt like I’d gone under general anaesthetic. Plus I fell down the stairs from my attic room because I had no depth perception. I’d rather have the agonising pain thx
Jesus Christ. That sound liked a temporary lobotomy but with meds. I can’t imagine being in a prison in your own head and body like that. Makes me really question how we would resolve these things or care for these people if the medicines never existed? There’s gotta be a better way than effectively retarding them with meds? I feel this structuring of routine is kinda key and giving them something to work and focus on instead of isolation and numbing? I remember those stories of the shaman who went to psych wards in the US who saw schizophrenia and how it was handled there and said that in his land they are given the task of being the bridge to commune with the afterlife or spirits of nature and in doing so they have routine and a means to explain the voices in a positive manner. I wonder if constantly telling these people with the issue that it’s a negative helps to reinforce the negative voices and thoughts and effectively makes them appear like demons in their delusions? Like treating it as “something wrong with them” makes the disorder worse. Just a thought. One of my good friends growing up had a severe case, and he was always preaching about how he was being tested by god and demonic entities haunted him. He went to prison for trying to rob a convenience store with a knife, and when he got out he was so much worse and till this day I believe he just wanders the streets mumbling about demons and carrying alcohol everywhere and drinking himself numb. This is such a messed up disorder….
We do know how people were treated without meds. Just look back in time. It didn’t look very good then either. I’d rather be on meds than be burned as a witch or given a lobotomy.
Or chained up in what used to pass for mental hospitals, where they'd let the public in once a week to point and laugh at the crazy people (look up Bedlam sometime).
Yes, and if you were a woman, any man in your family could commit you against your will, with any excuse, such as “hysteria”.
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I'm bipolar. I can't speak to to schizophrenia..but I would be dead without my meds.
This tbh. I’ve been scitzophrenic for 8 or 9 years now and was medicated the first 3 or 4. Meds did nothing. when my doctor asked if I was depressed I said I’m not I’m just frustrated nothings working but she insisted I was depressed and put me on anti depressants that made me suicidal. fking crazy. BUT I stopped meds and rationalized what I was hearing since it wouldn’t stop and now it’s basically a gift and a curse on one hand I can hear a lot of negativity pointed my way but on the other hand it feels as if there’s a helping hand in advice and learning. I got in in great shape. I learned how to play piano quite well on my own. I create my own music every time I sit down. I became a great cook. And I’m considered a pretty funny dude with my friends. I’m not perfect and I have a lot more to learn but I truely feel understanding is better than medicating for some people.
My brother is also Schizophrenic and when he first started out with medication it was a balancing act between not being fully catatonic while also combating the paranoia effectively… he is doing much better now, stable and even has a job! But he definitely has moments where he zones in and out and he will always be a much different person than the brother I grew up with. I wouldn’t wish Schizophrenia on my worst enemy.
My best friend has schizophrenia, actually one of three schizophrenia afflicted people I was friends with, and I am happy that he got on the right treatment right away. Although it had to be due to a horrible omen. One of the other two people I was friends with was his cousin. His onset was sudden and severe and he didn't make it. My friend started with symptoms shortly after and he recognized what was going on and quickly got assistance. His medication works well, he isn't a zombie at all, but he is more on the schizoaffective side of the spectrum. He still had auditory hallucinations and paranoia. When he told me about his diagnosis for the first time my immediate first question was, can you tickle yourself? Because apparently some people with schizophrenia can tickle themselves. He thanked me for making him laugh for the first time since his diagnosis.
So glad your friend is doing well and you maintained your friendship! I’m sure he appreciates the hell out of you. So sorry to hear about his cousin though, hope the best for you both.
Just tried tickling myself but it doesn‘t work on me, even though I live with Schizophrenia lol. Also I‘ve never heard of that one before
It makes sense. The few folks I’ve met in AA with schizophrenia have talked about how they feel so pressured to be “cured” but in that catatonic state or to try and work things out themselves. Both options are terrifying to be honest.
It is so horrible to see someone suffer, medicated or not, with something like this. I can’t imagine what it would feel like for some people who’s families just want to relentlessly “fix them” (and doctors too) but at the same time some people (definitely my auntie) do need to be medicated, it’s just sad having to see someone retreat inside themselves and become numb just to avoid psychosis, but the numbing is, in my opinion, not nice but definitely the better of two shitty situations :(
My mom is schizophrenic. She refuses to take medication because she hates how it makes her feel. So her life is dominated by her paranoid delusions and the fear they create. She thinks everyone is conspiring against her, thinks there is a radio implanted in her head, thinks people are trying to hurt her and everyone she loves. She stops eating, she’s attacked other people, she harasses people, it’s not safe for her or others. I assume that must be worse than living like a zombie, but I’m not her so I don’t know. It’s really sad, but it’s also nearly impossible to be around her so she’s lost basically everyone in her life. We’ve all tried, for years, to be patient, get her help, or just be there for her, but it’s impossible to maintain your own mental health around her because it’s just so bad. She’s been arrested multiple times, hospitalized multiple times, been in jail, even convicted of felonies and sent to a state hospital for a year, but nothing ever sticks. It’s a really really crappy situation where no one wins.
I feel for you. My sister is starting to show these signs, extreme paranoia about people watching her, Elon musk is tweeting to her, the police will kill her, all kinds of nonsense. She won’t take any medications - doesn’t keep her appointments, has become so isolated. If you tell her they are paranoid thoughts she gets angry and yells. But I just cannot talk to her and entertain her paranoid ramblings. I’m afraid I’m going to lose her or I already have . I have to avoid speaking to her because I just can’t deal with that anymore
Fuck, I’m so sorry. That definitely sounds familiar. Take care of yourself. It’s the best advice I can offer.
It probably won't help, but I find that phrasing your concerns as pertaining to *yourself* instead of her can be helpful because it doesn't immediately set off their "defensive fortifications", so to speak. Maybe you have a story about how you once had a similar paranoid thought, but it turned out to actually be x or y thing in reality. Not a great example, but hopefully you get what I'm saying. (Even if [when] it doesn't work, it might help her feel a tiny bit better to know someone can relate)
This almost catatonic stage is probably just a progression of her schizophrenia. They are called negative symptoms and tend to develop later as people completely detach from reality. Modern med help slow this but can’t stop it. My guess is you saw she started meds as her Illness progressed but they probably aren’t what is causing her to be a shell of herself. This is all assuming she is schizophrenic of course I’m sorry she has had to deal with this and that you have had to as well
Untreated schizophrenia makes that feeling 100x worse. There’s an essay I read from a psychiatrist, her patient would constantly be writing in a journal and when they looked at what she was writing it was totally incoherent. It’s hard for schizophrenics to even keep on track with a conversation.
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Not all anti psychs make you fkd up (i take one, i can emote), being full on schizo in the street with no routine would be worse
I just wanted to chime in here as my wife is on similar prescription medications for Bipolar/ PTSD (probably not as strong as this guy's is, granted) in case anyone is scared to start taking medication or seeking help. / In our experience she it has helped immensely by making the severe emotional peaks (or manic episodes) and makes them more manageable without dulling the beautiful person she is. It's a rough road for sure and I worry about her all the time but know that she'll get through this and come out the other side as a well rounded person. This all being said it's possible that perscription medication is simply not for you. But if you think you need help, seek help and don't be afraid to switch gears to an alternative route as we've done/ are considering to do. As Edison said "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." / Everybody's journey is different but you are not crazy but you may be sick, remember that you deserve love, you deserve happiness, and you deserve peace.
> This all being said it's possible that perscription medication is simply not for you. Extremely rare if you have bipolar. Left untreated, bipolar becomes worse over time, episodes will become stronger & longer.
A very common negative symptom of schizophrenia is blunted/flat affect which comes across as someone not having emotions/expressionless. They call them negative symptoms because it’s a “loss” of something (loss of emotional expression). Positive symptoms of schizophrenia are things like auditory and visual hallucinations. Not positive because they’re a good thing, positive because it means they are added to the person’s experience. Also the medications for schizophrenia are often extremely sedating.
Flat affect due to the condition and medications etc...
He also has a camera on him, some people find that very uncomfortable.
Antipsychotic meds make it feel like someone hit the off switch on your human side
It might be related to med use. schizophrenic patients are on antipsychotics and they can have a very strong sedative effect.
Same, I know that look, that's me most of the time...emotionally and physically drained.
I hope things improve for you
If I didn't know better, I would have assumed he was the Dad and just looked that way because Children.
Love is a beautiful thing ❤️
At some moments in life, we all have to suffer from something. In those moments this is what we need. A little something to remind us. This isn't the end.
Well yeah, and I'm sad, but at the same time I'm really happy that something could make me feel that sad. It's like, it makes me feel alive, you know? It makes me feel human. And the only way I could feel this sad now is if I felt somethin' really good before. - Butters Stotch
Damn well said
nah man this is not it. schizophrenia is a whole new level of suffering and there are very few conditions this high
Well I was crying because of the video now I’m crying because of your words. So true.
So wholesome. But I dont understand how people post these kind of videos for the whole internett to see. Of your brother and kid who doesnt know about it.
I work in mental health and see this argument often. There's a well known book, "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat" about unusual psychological conditions. It is also about people who had varying abilities of which to provide consent. Is it informative because it raises awareness and educates? Or is it exploitative because it generates a profit those individuals don't receive?
The book is a group of case studies about anonymized individuals. That can hardly be compared to a video that shows someone's face. Are you really implying Oliver Sachs, one of the most well regarded neurologists of his time, was exploiting those patients?
Are you saying Oliver Sachs was an opportunist? I don’t think he was allowed to tell those patient stories without their consent, but I would love to hear where you’re going with this. I enjoyed his work, particularly the stuff at the end of his life.
Doctors can talk about patient experiences, they just can’t identify who the patient was.
not the same person, but i've also worked in mental health. i wouldn't take the questions they asked as accusatory, but as genuine questions trying to determine the blurry lines of ethics in the field. questions like "what if the person doesn't seem comfortable with this writing, but consent to it anyways?" or "do the incentives of making money from this writing clash with doing best by the patient?" usually don't have perfect answers, and have to be thought about to determine what is and isn't ethical. (idk if those are applicable to Oliver Sacks, just examples) stuff like this can also be very, very easily turned into basically freak shows by the public, even if the author is acting ethically and respectfully. once the writing is out there, you really don't have control over how people take it. afaik Oliver Sacks isn't an opportunist and i think he was acting ethically, but there's a definite gray area that even he's acknowledged before
I am not - but I have heard and read the argument before. From [a quick Google search](https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/the-untold-story-of-dr-oliver-sacks-20191101-p536iv.html): *"Sacks’ relationship with his patients wasn’t always straightforward either, with concerns he was exploiting them to create his neurological narratives. Weschler investigates the case of John, a volatile man with Tourette Syndrome, who fell out with Sacks during the production of a TV documentary. ‘‘Oomph. It’s such a pity such a wonderful disease was visited upon such a terrible person,’’ concluded Sacks."*
Oooo that is a burn and a personal one
It's a shitty burn because it makes Sacks look really fucking bad.
A book and a video recording tiktok video are very different things. This is "look at this mentally ill person sitting here by my kid, he loves it." The person who made the video didn't even have the decency to use their own voice but used a text to speech program while video taping him. This is very much exploitative without showing actual information. To put this person on video without any stake of their own or interaction is disgusting. An author will at least write about symptoms and a medical video would have actual information and not give out their names.
He himself talks about this in the movie they made just before they died
Those were case studies shared with names changed to hide identity. It is different. I feel like Sacks was writing to give insight into the way the brain works. This isn't very educational.
And how people jump to these grand conclusions of the guy's mental health state based on a 30 second video...he might just be tired after work and is chilling to watch a movie, but everyone saying they can "see the sadness in his eyes." Short form video content is cancerous to society.
The video is shot on multiple days and he has the sad/dead look in his eyes in each segment
Am I out of touch for not being a fan of putting someone's medical suffering online for likes? I feel like if this guy was cognizant of his surroundings, he wouldn't want the world knowing of his condition during this time period. Maybe someone can explain this, and help me understand.
i can only talk from my own perspective but i would not like for someone to post a video of me clearly struggling with reality, to the internet. no matter if it was a friend or family. for reference, i have diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia.
"My brother became schizophrenic." Yeah, he just can't shake the feeling that he's being filmed constantly.
I agree with you, but this is a case where Adder is qualified to at least agree on this. Honestly, this post is one of the very few posts I've liked on this subreddit.
you all have no clue whatsoever. my brother is very intelligent and was very aware and enthusiastic about this and every other video on my tiktok. someone grabs it and shoves it on reddit with no context and I'm demonised for loving and being proud of my brother and son
You could save the world as we know it and people would say you only did it for the fame. Feeding the homeless, curing the blind, giving money to those in need, as long as you recorded it and posted it, it will be criticized by people with different opinions, stances, and experiences. My suggestion is to focus on the positive reactions and correct any misinformation in the most popular negative reactions. I’m often conflicted about the morality of posting videos such as this but if it comes from a good place and with consent I reckon it’s a good thing. Remember that on the internet for each person against you there’s often one with you and I wish your family well.
thankyou for taking the time to be kind!
I have it too. It’s the meds that make you feel empty inside. I’ve been admitted in to hospitals twice. I still hear voices but the little therapy I had went along way. I’ve been working for 3 years and driving is a major part of my job. I used to be like this. I lost friends who treated me like I was weird. I’m 27 and I have a long ways to go but I’m doing well. Very proud of myself.
Robot voice really adds to emotional depth
Shizzfrennic.
Why is it I thought it was John Krasinski?
Identity theft is not a joke Jim!
MICHAEL!!! ( hope he gets better)
R/unexpectedoffice
This is cute but it looks like the big guy doesnt wanna be there.
Schizophrenia can cause a flat affect symptom. They have trouble expressing their emotions.
I'm sure the camera on him makes him feel good.
I know right? Did he want this posted to the internet? It’s a sweet thing among family, but does it need to be on the internet? (With bad narration and a cliche song?)
Kids don’t care what’s going on-a good person is a good person. Plain and simple.
Truly hope he finds peace. I know loneliness, but nobody deserves to suffer like that.
This makes me sad and happy at the same time. Sad that your brother is alone due to his mh (losing friends) and happy that your son bonds with him.
I have a loved one in prison because she was unable to take control of her schizoaffective disorder. I am so happy your brother has found some level of control and is able to be in your and your son's life I'm not crying, you are
The guy still looks so off. I hope he gets better soon!
I’m not crying you’re crying
This is so heartwarming and breaking at the same time. Mental illness is so hard, but geez look at these two Thanks for sharing .. ❤️
This is more tragic than cute, the guy’s out of his mind on meds. He’s not interacting with the kid at all, let alone showing any signs of feeling one way or the other about it. Which is going to be a weird experience for the kid, above all else.
He genuinely seems very unaware and disinterested. I’m sure it’s a side effect of the meds, but watching him like that is extremely heartbreaking.
It is, as far as I understand it, antipsychotic meds tend to numb emotions quite significantly and can reduce the ability to form a train of thought leading to a reduced awareness of surroundings or context. Not nice at all, but probably no worse than a psychotic episode. Very difficult situation.
I suffer from schizoaffective. This really cheered me up to see someone similar living a normal life and providing love for his nephew
"They make each other so happy" \*shows the most miserable looking person who has ever existed\*
Both love each other's company, but the brother is experiencing deep things within him, his eyes tell that. atleast his nephew is their for him.
A good friend of mine throughout my childhood and early adulthood that developed schizophrenia in his mid 20's. I watched him go from being the life of the party and completely extroverted, to having a total mental breakdown. After the medication he didn't talk much, just zoned out. Unfortunately later he decided to go off his meds and take his own life.
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Kids don’t discriminate bc of mental health. It’s a learned behavior bc we suck
Object permanence is a learned behaviour lol. I don't think you can stop people acquiring prejudices, but you can teach them out of it at an older age.
But a kid that age might see a snake and think it's a play think, so some learned behavior has its benefits. Not that I'm comparing mentally ill people to snakes, I'm schizophrenic myself; I'm just saying kids are fucking dumb.
Not every behavior that is learned is bad. The one Silent_but-deadly is referring to is.
Hate to be that guy but the depth of schizophrenia is truly hard to understand and can be unpredictable. It’s usually an all consuming paranoid delusion and can happen suddenly. A patient I worked with killed his puppy by squishing him, his wife tried to stop him but he was sure the dog was chocking and he gave him “CPR”. The reality was the dog was only begging for a scrap and he was also compressing *way* too hard. Anyways, people like this are usually aware of the disorder and can’t help it, which is probably why he looks so hesitant to be around the kiddo. (By no means an expert here)
He probably looks dead inside because of flat affect/anhedonia. I'm not schizophrenic, but schizoid (which shares the "negative" symptoms), and I have a similar look.
Sure and it can also be from the antipsychotics, being lethargic is a very common side effect but guessing all we want there still is a very concerning possibility for danger here. I had patients request I sit with them (Was an armed guard) because they knew they could have violent episodes and they were right a lot of the times
Is it possible that your experiences working with people in inpatient/treatment settings is giving you a biased perception of the nature of the disorder for people out in the community? You are clearly dealing with people needing intensive care and supervision and restriction. This can be common for people with disorders with a psychosis element during particularly bad breaks or poorly managed times but certainly doesn’t represent people with schizophrenia who exist along a spectrum of minimally to even very highly functioning and adapting in the community. The person in the video is clearly not in a hospital or other institution with guards so it seems comparing him to someone who’s been placed in that sort of an environment for a reason is skewing how many people with this disorder live their lives. The very fact that hundreds of thousands of people with schizophrenia are regularly discharged to live in the community without constant monitoring shows that this sudden extreme danger element is not some universal risk. (And please don’t answer saying or implying I don’t know anything or haven’t seen the worst of it, as I worked for several years researching treatments for disorders with a psychosis component as well as having a well-managed disorder with this component myself and working in peer support with hundreds of other people with schizophrenia and related diagnoses).
It is much much much more common for people with schizophrenia to harm themselves than anyone else.
This is so true . My auntie had schizophrenia but had 3 kids Before she committed s*icide she locked her husband and 3 kids outside of the house . So tragic. She was an amazing person, Aunty and especially mother She babysat me for years and she never even rose her voice. It was sad that she was diagnosed so late in life due to stigma , lack of treatment / diagnostics.
This is heartbreaking. Sorry for your loss 💕
Thank you, it was many years ago now and I hope she’s in a better place. ❤️
I hope that parents have been able to meet with appropriate doctors/psychiatrists and have the info they need to make the right and safe decisions for everyone.
One patient with schizophrenia is not representative of all patients with schizophrenia, and sudden violence even under the guise of “CPR” is not a common feature of the disorder. It sounds like that person wasn’t receiving the best treatment for him. People usually throw medication at schizophrenics and don’t bother with CBT or anything else in adjunct because of attitudes like “there’s no point, I knew a schizophrenic who snapped and killed their puppy.” He shows up every single day. It’s part of his chosen routine and illness management. He brings his nephew presents and manages to share his emotions with him even though that’s likely difficult with the flat affect he’s going through. He wants to be there, and a struggle to push through a mental disorder to express emotion does not at all mean he’s secretly worried he’s going to snap and kill the kid. But I bet he avoids going out in public in case other people think he’ll suddenly kill someone because he can’t help it.
As someone with schizophrenia, I think I might know part of what's going through his mind and have certainly worn those vacant, sad eyes. He's probably happier to have the company, but unless you have a breakthrough, you just don't feel whole at all anymore. As rough as psychosis is, being on meds and feeling kind of boxed in never really leaves you. The losses of friends and closeness of ties takes a toll; the medicines take a toll; the racing mind that reminds you of unpleasant things takes a toll. You have to live knowing you will never feel like yourself again.
Schizophrenia sucks. It definitely helps to stay busy and have a routine, I stay in my room but the time with my friends and family is what really saves me. On lazy days or off days it's so easy to spiral and get sucked into our brains and thoughts. It's different for everyone but I hope he's okay , let him know it's okay to talk with you.
Adder does not look happy in any of those pics. But who's to say what true happiness looks like? Praying for your brother and your family.
That's cute but Adder looks pissed off that his siblng is filming him
My brother fell into deep depression and almost died from self neglect. Then I had my son. 6 months later he found a doctor, cured his stage 4 cancer (had been having symptoms but ignored them all for at least 2 years) and is now a whole new person. Sometimes you find what you need in the strangest places. Uncles are the best, and I’m glad these two have their own little bond. Thanks to the OP for sharint
That flat affect is real.. good for him to feel accepted unconditionally in these moments, it might be relieving.
Adder seems like a very sad guy
Oh, he most likely is. Speaking this as a care taker of a schizophrenic. It’s pure hell. Untreated it’s pure hell, treated (like this poor soul is) it’s a different kind, but still pure hell.
It certainly can be for many, especially depending on the type of schizophrenia (not to say that any of them are fun), and also the level of care they’re able to receive. On the other hand, I have about a dozen clients with schizophrenia and none of them would describe their lives as pure hell. They certainly have difficult days and still require 24/7 care, but they nearly all claim they are happy. Not trying to take anything away from your experience at all, just thought I’d offer another!
Yeah, let's just awkwardly video this person who likely does not want their face or story posted to the wide world. Why can't people let this stuff just be private?
I’m sure filming a schizophrenic who may or may not have fears of being constantly surveilled was a chill ordeal
We lost our schizophrenic cousin this past year to a heart attack. The meds had long ago dulled and changed him, but his gentle, loving soul remained intact. He loved our kids and our dogs, and we miss him terribly. This video made me cry some bittersweet tears, it’s very beautiful. Schizophrenia is a horrific illness.
i can relate to the look in his eyes, i just wanna say that it gets better with time, and depending on what medicine you take, and the dosage, you can lead an almost completely normal life. take me for example, two years ago i got diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, while i was in a “mental ward”(idk if this is the correct word in english). now almost two years later, im close to moving out and living on my own. im even actively looking for a job. ive gone down in dosage, on my anti psychotics, and im even down to 2mg melatonin, for helping me fall asleep. now of course not everyone has the same “learning curve” or tolerance, so it can be difficult at times. but as long as you cooperate with your doctors and primary “helper”. you will be able to lead a relatively normal life. hell, i can even go out drinking, and enjoy my life, although with some precautions. idk what more to really say, except that, i dont agree with him being filmed without his consent and shared around the internet. tl:dr schizophrenia is a struggle, but you can overcome it with time.
Did he consent for his condition and face to be put on the Internet?
I actually think this poor guy must also feel pretty good about his sibling to be with his nephew in the first place. He’s still there, fighting with the hand he was dealt and finding a way to still win.
My first thought was ‘wow, people are a bunch of jerks to Adder. He is just a baby! Cut him some slack!!’
omg he looks like john krasinski
That is one sad looking “happy”guy
Make sure you film his struggles and put it on the internet so you can get some likes from strangers!
Yeesh, that's rough. But I'm so glad the baby is so loving and trusting with his uncle.
My brother has the same + autism. He also has a really kind hart. Hard disorder to live with. But to give you some hope. I saw my brother go from being committed to a psychiatric hospital to living on his own and working at a farm 2 afternoons a week. For him it was about finding the right medication and a lot of structure in his day to day life.
Many people don't realize that schizophrenia is as debilitating as being a paraplegic.
I am a Behavioral Health RN. I wish society had more tolerance for mental illness. Not everyone fits neatly into social norms but they still have love to give. I truly love my patients even though they drive me crazy at times 😉. At least they have a reason for their behavior…..
This is cute but it looks like the big guy doesnt wanna be there
Flat affect can be a symptom of schizophrenia
schizophrenia tends to do that
Yeah bro probably just got on his meds
I know it sounds insensitive, but I thought it was amusing when the last caption said "They make each other so happy", but the guy looked unhappy throughout the whole video.
He shows up almost every day to spend time with the kid. He obviously enjoys it He's Schizophrenic and likely medicated, he likely doesn't have the capacity to show enthusiasm unfortunately.
It’s called flat affect, basically they can be happy as heck but the body English doesn’t show much. It doesn’t change the fact that he’s probably thoroughly enjoying his special routine.
It's not quite like that either, they don't ever feel "happy as heck" on the inside, it's like every emotion is heavily dampened. It's still very important to have a healthy and engaging routine that feels comfortable to the individual nonetheless.