This former paranoid-schizophrenic denounces the blaming of schizophrenia.

[howard112211]

Some of us a have "ethical sub-routines" that prevent us from harming others while in delusion. Even during the high point of my episode, would I have not gone out and murdered someone. Killed one of the people out of self-defense who were factually tormenting me? (fact as in these people existed and were really doing it) Very unlikely but possible. To go out and murder a stranger? Nope. Besides, it requires a lot of determination and focused effort. Something that most paranoid schizophrenics don't posess. Schizophrenia doesn't turn one into a killer. It might bring a person who is already a killer beyond the edge of actually killing. But turning a person without any tendency to violence into a violent person? Not from what I have seen or experienced. Most schizophrenics are just scared and run away. If one becomes a right-wing extremist asshole while in a schizophrenic episode, it is likely one already was that before the episode.

[TheDebbieDee]

1. I'm not trying to be a smart-ass, but how can one be a former

schizophrenic? Aren't you still a schizophrenic, but maybe because you are on medication, you are not currently experiencing/exhibiting these symptoms?

I mean, an alcoholic that isn't drinking is still an alcoholic, right? Or a person with cancer, in remission still has cancer, right?

[BlueIris]

7. Helpful.

Not.

[TheDebbieDee]

8. Since you had no real information to share, why did you even bother?

[Rex]

9. They were cured and don't suffer that mental illness anymore?

Series. :eyes:

[LisaL]

10. There is no cure for

schizophrenia.

[howard112211]

16. One can have psychotic episodes, and yes, one can be cured.

I had mine at the age of 17. Now I am 29. The right medication can make it go away. One out of three can be totally cured. I drew the lucky number.

[Maru Kitteh]

20. Cured or recovered? I don't think anyone could definitively say, but I'd be

inclined towards crediting a sustained symptom and medication-free period to spontaneous remission, since we really have only a marginal understanding of the disease to begin with, and the medications we target it with are akin to using a fire truck to extinguish a tea light.

[TheDebbieDee]

21. :^ ) Thank you for sharing your very useful information. So, I take it

that you are no longer on any medication?

From what little I understand about schizophrenia, it can be contolled by the right dosage or type of medicine in many people. The problem comes when some patients think they are "cured" or suspect that their medicine is "poisoning" them and go off their meds.

[snagglepuss]

2. That must have been a very difficult time in your life, thank you sharing.

I am surprised by what you hvae described. I have often wondered whether people caught it the throes of schizophrenia had any awareness of their shifting into an altered state and whether any degree of control was possible. Would you agree that hate radio, repuke commentators, palin etc poses a real danger to people who are pyschologially vunerable. It sees to me that the barrage of hate filled speech can not be good for people who are on the edge.

[HereSince1628]

5. You might be interested in Mark Vonnegut's book

Just like someone without mental illness only more so. A collected memoir of his experience with schizophrenia that was remitting and relapsing.

[snagglepuss]

6. Thanks I'll definitely check that out. nt

[Manifestor_of_Light]

12. The Eden Express.

Published in the 70s. I have a copy.

[howard112211]

15. My experience is that psychosis affects your reasoning, but not so much your values.

Psychosis leads you to misinterpret external reality, but it does not fundamentally alter "who you are beneath". It will hardly turn a pacifist into a warmonger, or a non-racist into a racist. Of course, I can only speak for people with an akute phase, and not a chronical condition, but I don't think it is any different there. If a person is driven to rampages of racist hatred by psychosis, once that person is cured, if he becomes cured that is, that person will likely still hold such views. He might have enough common sense not to act them out. My two cents. The schizophrenics I encountered who were thuggish assholes, were such before the episode as well. The ones who were "sensitive artist" types also were such already before the episode.

[Odin2005]

3. K&R

[undergroundpanther]

4. Actually people with mental illness

are more likely to be hurt by violent people,than be violent people.

Schizophrenia can be induced by bullying by violent people.Schizoprenia does not erase a person's sense of right and wrong. I think the fucker is another authority worshipping narcissist turd manipulating by pulling the mental illness card to get sympathy/leniency.Legally he is in serious trouble.

I don't think he's schizo,I think he's an obedient asshole. The hate rhetoric is cultivating a "true believer" mindset on purpose.Every bully needs a posse.

[Maru Kitteh]

11. Yeah. He's (Loughner) been planning this schtick since high school. Brilliant.

Amazing.

[Spider Jerusalem]

13. No such thing as a 'former paranoid schizophrenic'

[Hannah Bell]

14. there is.

Beautiful-but Not Rare-Recovery

Moviegoers who have watched the cinematic metamorphosis of actor Russell Crowe from the disheveled genius who furiously covers his office walls with delusional scribblings to the silver-haired academic perfectly at home in the rarefied company of fellow laureates in Stockholm might assume that Nash's recovery from three decades of psychosis is unique. But mental health experts say that while Nash's life is undeniably remarkable, his gradual recovery from schizophrenia is not.

That contention is likely to surprise many people, including some psychiatrists, who continue to believe the theory, promulgated a century ago by Sigmund Freud and his contemporaries, that the serious thought and mood disorder is a relentless, degenerative illness that robs victims of social and intellectual function, invariably dooming them to a miserable life in a homeless shelter, a prison cell or, at best, a group home.

The belief that recovery from schizophrenia occurs only occasionally is belied by at least seven studies of patients who were followed for more than 20 years after their discharge from mental hospitals in the United States, Western Europe and Japan. In papers published between 1972 and 1995, researchers found that between 46 and 68 percent of patients had either fully recovered (they had no symptoms of mental illness, took no psychiatric medication, worked and had normal relationships) or were, like John Nash, significantly improved but impaired in one area of functioning.

http://www.healthyplace.com/thought-disorders/articles/beautiful-but-not-rare-recovery/menu-id-64/

[howard112211]

17. Yup.

As for Nash, if he had stayed on the meds, he might have done better.

Yes, it can completely go away. The hospital I was in contacted me a few years ago and asked whether I wanted to be part of a study. I agreed and made an appointment with them. After some discussions, though, they sent me home. Said I wasn't suitable for the study because there were not traces of the condition left to study.

[renate]

18. thank you so much for your first-hand viewpoint--much appreciated

And I'm really glad that you "drew the lucky number" and are so well now. :hug:

[old mark]

19. Certainly no insult was meant. Most people I know with schitzophrenia are far from violent....nt