Is Schizophrenia a bad thing? seriously?

I am schizophrenic and I wonder sometimes if it is actually a bad thing. First, I want to specify what schizophrenia is because there is a popular misconception...Schizophrenia is characterized by inability to distinguish \what is real and may also induce hallucinations of sounds or images. Schizophrenic people are known to have high IQ scores and are usually thought to be very intelligent. I have been labeled a 'genius' from an iq test a few years back and sometimes I wonder...I don't know if I am insane or if I am just seeing more clearly than others. I don't think that schizophrenics hallucinate, I think they see things that other people cannot. I also think that the whole thing about perception of reality is actually the result of having an extremely open mind. If you think about it the way I do, schizophrenia is actually a gift. What do you think?

razor

I do have medical schizophrenia as well as many other so called 'disorders' such as paranoia, insomnia, blah blah blah. I think different and people label me insane for the way I look at things. Maybe I am just too open minded?

razor

I read last week that the medical community has decided to discontinue the use of the diagnosis Schizophrenia because it unduly lables people and offers no usable information for treatment. The had a new term, but I don't remember what it was.

i think that u dont have schizophrenia u have something else.

if u do have it then it is not very serious, maybe u have the rain man syndrome, not sure what its called, im sure uve seen the movie

you should watch the movie "Beautiful Mind" you can probably relate. but i think it is a bad thing if it is not being contained... if you are on meds and being helped you are probably fine the only reason it would be considered a bad thing is because you never know what you might do while hallucinating.

this is said in no offense to you, i dont personally know you but i have an aunt with schizophrenia, and i know it isnt a good thing for her because she will go throught stages where she is the nicest loving woman, then out of nowhere shes a witch and shes threatening to kill me and my family. different people are affected differently, there is no condition that is all good or all bad.

Hallucinating is a bad thing. It's dangerous to not be able to distinguish between perceptions created by physical reality and those created by faulty wiring in the brain. So get treatment and stick with it.

I think schizophrenics have the capability to lose grip on reality long enough to cause physical harm to other people. No mental illness is a good thing. They can be managed, but that doesn't make them ok or good.

I do not believe any mental illness is a bad thing as long as the person recognizes the weaknesses of the disease. But i do agree I believe that people with mental illnesses have the Samar abilities as say someone who is blind who can hear better than the common man. The brain redirects and opens up other portions of the brain to accommodate the injured part. So there for we actually use more of our brains than "normal people" I have been hearing voices and seeing people out the corner of my mind since i was little and i firmly believe that i am picking up other dimensions, the other side or what ever you want to call it. I that's what Schizophrenics are adept at doing. We do know that Schizophrenia does damage a portion of the brain so the brain activates another section of the Brain to pick up the slack and in doing so releases that portion of the brains natural abilities which "normal people don't use. Most mental health patients if tested correctly will be found to have a greater intelligence in most or all areas related to intelligence. The perfect example of this is autism. I am not speaking about brain damage though that is not a mental illness. I was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, ptsd, anxiety with disassociation and panic attacks.

people with schizophrenia can lead normal lives. They work, go to school, have families. As long as they are on medication and stay under a doctors care..there should be no reason they can't function. It is a "Disease" just like cancer. People are ignorant to the mental health issues of today..truth be told, most of them probably need to be on medicine and counseling.

Not all schizophrenics have high IQs. None that I know do. There was NOTHING good about the crap any of them went through.

Firstly, in response to "GatorBait"''s comment, there is no imminent move to drop the term schizophrenia. What she is talking about is one psychologist's opinion (note - not a psychiatrist) = a John Read from Auckland see here for an explanation of that http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/newsdetail1....

At any rate, if you do have schizophrenia, I wish you well, and continued health ( from your postings, you don't have the mental status of someone with chronic schizophrenia...


Swami Shyamananda
seductionsalvation.blogspot.com

If you are truely outside of reality (schizophrenic), you wouldn't be typing this, you would be thinking the keyboard is trying to kill you. Your letter sounds too well put together. You didn't mention any meds you may be on. They are expensive!

For society schizophrenia may be a good thing. Many relatives of people with schizophrenia are unusually gifted.

The experience of mental illness may be a good thing for the person involved. A possible example is Mary Barnes ( a patient of R. D. Laing) who wrote a book about it.

The label of schizophrenia can be destructive.

In general, I believe that schizophrenia is a bad thing for the people involved, and for their relatives and friends. By bad, I mean not leading to happiness,

schizophrenia is not a bad thing. It just can be a hard thing to live w/. Many homeless are homeless b/c they were off their meds and went into a delusional/hallucinations state. When people w/schizophrenia are not in a psychotic state they stop taking their medication. then when they are in psychotic state the refuse again. that is the only problems w/not taking medication. if you are a functional person in society, able to hold a job and take care of yourself and have social relationships then you are fine. It is when people cannot do these things that it becomes a "bad thing"

i agree with you!, they really do see things others cannot! It is not a bad thing but people think it is cool to make themselves look great and others bad and show off in predigest ways. They will not win in life!