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Secrets of Schizophrenia and Depression "Unlocked"
Oracle Goddess writes "According to the US National Institute for Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, scientists have discovered a remarkable similarity between the genetic faults behind both schizophrenia and manic depression in a breakthrough that is expected to open the way to new treatments for two of the most common mental illnesses, affecting millions of people. Previously schizophrenia and depression were assumed to be two separate conditions, but the new research shows for the first time that both have a common genetic basis that leads people to develop one or the other of the two illnesses."
i'd like to thank Steve Ballmer for making himself available for this important breakthrough.
No it isn't, you moron. These people are lying. They're all lying.
... how would they determine how they are related in the first place? Especially given the complexity of these issues in their relation to the central nervous system.
But we're all better now.
I know, I know, that's dissociative identity disorder, but you still laughed. Maybe.
But then I realized the cable was blue, so I only gave it one star. I hate blue.
It's an Orientation.
Get with the program.
BadAnalogyGuy (945258) is a scientologist.
If he contacts you about a free personality test, firmly refuse him.
This could be very bad for the tin foil hat industry.
"Achievement unlocked: Secrets of Schizophrenia and Depression!"
There, fixed it.
---- The real Slashdot is still here. You just have to browse at -1 to read the comments.
More articles like this one, please.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Manic Depression's touching my soul,
I know what I want,
but I just don't know how to go about getting it.
Feeling, sweet feeling
drops from my finger, fingers
Manic Depression's captured my soul.
Woman so willing the sweet cause in vain,
you make love,
you break love,
it's-a all the same when it's...
when it's over.
Music sweet music,
I wish I could caress, caress, caress.
Manic Depression's a frustrating mess.
Well, I think I'll go turn myself off an' go on down.
Really ain't no use me hanging around.
Oh, I gotta see you.
... it is not the 'depression' you may be lead to believe.
That would be CLINICAL depression. As in, the type caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain; as opposed to the type caused by your wife leaving you.
"Depression" of "manic depression"(aka bipolar disorder)? These are two very different things.
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
When I on lithium (~15 years ago) I found my creative spark had gone. Sure, the window of emotion had narrowed considerably, but the super-fast mental edge was lost. That made me even more depressed when the time came. Spoke with my doc, dropped all the meds (but can get lithium if I become Superman again)
If you can harness it, manic depression is wonderful thing.
Posted non-anonymously because it's not embarrassing or a big stigma.
Trolling is a art,
The summary seems to confuse being depressive with being bipolar (i.e., manic-depressive). Clinical depression is a common problem, and is generally treatable to some extent with drug and cognitive therapy. Last I checked, bipolar was much less common and a lot less treatable.
So, it isn't going to lead to new treatments for two common problems. It may well lead to new treatments for two problems, one of which is distinctly less common. Those who are clinically depressed but not bipolar may well not benefit at all.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
With three comments, this article has already been tagged with "nutjobs".
Grow up. Chances are you know someone who has (or will develop) one of these conditions to some degree, even if you don't know it (which is likely if you are that much of a jackass, they probably wouldn't tell you).
I don't normally do angry rants, but sometimes I'm surprised by the juvenile and compassionless attitudes of some people on /.
Paul Leader
Schizophrenia is not the same as dissociative identity disorder. It means split mind, not split personality. BUT don't feel too bad, ignorance about mental disorders is normal.
Also, schizophrenics are less likely to be violent than a person without Schizophrenia, except against themselves. Schizophrenics' suicide rate is 1 in 10.
The title is a bit misleading. There is a big difference between Depression and Bipolar/Manic-Depressive disorders.
you're just hearing things...
Anything that sheds new light onto Schizophrenia and related disorders is very welcome. It's heart breaking to watch someone close to you go through Schizophrenia symptoms. It's not the funny Hollywood version of split personalities. People suffering the disorder believe they are incredibly important (on a world scale), that they're on a special mission, they're related to Jesus, that others are coming to commit harm. Most of all, they can't tell you who sent them on the 'mission' or why. They sometimes turn on friends and accuse them of literally giving the disease. The paranoia accompanying the illness can reach critical levels. Saddest of all, a person with Schizophrenia does not believe they have a problem. They believe everyone else is either wrong, out to get them, or 'just doesn't understand.' Getting a sufferer to realise anything is wrong, let alone getting them to accept medical treatment is a real trial.
Awesome. I have saidf for a while that will be the killer app for future devices. uilt in achievments, as well as achievements that can be added.
Achievement unlocked! you ahve walked 1,000,000 steps.
Achievement unlocked! You have run a 10 minute mile! next achievement, 8 minute mile.
You have listened to your 10000 th minute of music.
And so on.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
In order to treat these conditions, ECT is the tool of choice these days. It has its own detractors (me inclusive) for I do not see how inducing a seizure helps an individual.
Worst of all you could lose all your memory. There was a story of a lady who did not remember anything about her clothes and wondered who had put "foreign" clothes in her closet. In another case, a former doctor could not remember who the hell he was after the procedure. Scary indeed.
Just to put this in perspective, this is not a gene, but just a region of a chromosome. And the association with any particular locus is weak, so it doesn't look like it is strong enough for diagnosis or prenatal testing. Even when the gene is identified, going from a gene to a treatment tends to be very difficult. We've know of genes for Huntington's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease for years, and while this has inspired a lot of promising research, so far this knowledge has not yet resulting any major improvements with respect to treatment or prevention.
Moreover, finding that the same genes are involved does not necessarily mean that the diseases are the same, because genes can be "broken" in multiple ways.
The idea that there is a relationship between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder is not actually new, as there are some people who exhibit characteristics of both disorders, and some people diagnosed with one respond to drugs that are commonly used to treat the other. So this basically adds a bit more evidence to a long-standing suspicion.
No it's not!
I hope this brings things closer to a more reliable form of treatment. I grew up with three (yes, 3) women with schizophrenia, and the drugs only muted the symptoms. I (amazingly) don't have the disease myself. My mom and grandma, who I lived with the first ten years of my life, had noticeable symptoms...I'd get told to do things that didn't make sense to me. I'm a rather geeky and analytical girl, and it is very frustrating when the adults in your life tell you things that *make no sense*, and there's nobody around *without* the disease to talk to. They tried to "protect" me from the "ghosts" on one hand, so I'm sure they cared for me in their own way, but on the other hand my mom would attack my grandma because my grandma (who was a heavy smoker and had issues with her lungs) was "talking under her breath". (She wasn't.) Pretty terrifying to see when you're five years old. I wasn't allowed to go to friends' birthday parties if they were in a certain town that, some hundred years ago, had been the former county seat, because apparantly folks from that town were still pissed off at our town and would try to hurt me (this is the paranoia part of paranoid schizophrenia showing). I wasn't allowed to wear the color red, eat strawberries, or get ice cream from the ice cream man truck. My mom would randomly become enraged at my friends dads simply since they were male, so I'd be cut off from friends randomly. My aunt had less noticeable symptoms, but the disease made her a target for an abusive husband, and of course I was exposed to that when I went to live with them as an 8th grader (my mom went back into the mental hospital, and my grandma had died when I was 10). I finally ran away at 16 and went into the state ward system, which was much, much better since I could make decisions for myself, instead of having to obey people who made no sense.
Schizophrenia sucks. It sucks for the person having it, since you can't hold down a job, and it sucks for the family that has to put up with it.
Doesn't everyone know the difference between depression and bipolar disorder? Mod OP down.
poor impulse control, disinhibition, lack of concern for others, overly aggressive emphasis on one's own pleasure
this is the mental condition known as "internet troll"
familiarize yourself with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders entry for this particular disorder, and show some sensitivity to those affected
your anger doesn't help in the care and treatment of the mentally altered. more compassion next time please for these poor suffering souls. thank you
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Anybody who has had long association with a manic-depressive already knew this. I'm related to one. The first time, he went completely manic. Didn't sleep for a week, etc. The last time he went around the bend, he DIDN'T go manic-depressive. He went paranoid schizophrenic. I can't believe any competent clinician hadn't already noticed that the same patient can easily exhibit symptoms of both, even at the same time. Given that both are caused by imbalances in brain chemistry, and given that the same patient can be both, how big of a leap is it to notice that they're really just different manifestations of the same problem?
He's much better now, though he still prefers his own flights of fancy to reality. But at least he's capable of distinguishing the two again. After over a decade of on-again off-again lunacy, he's finally decided to take his meds regularly, and he, his therapist, and his mother have found an effective dosage (of Depacote, for the morbidly curious. The stuff works very well, IF, and I repeat IF the dosage is precisely correct. Too little does nothing. Too much ruins the patient's ability to stay awake, let alone function.) It is perhaps telling that regardless of whether he was manic, depressive, paranoid, or schizophrenic, his therapist wanted him to use Depacote. Practitioners already know that the same drug can treat a patient with any of those symptoms.
So, at the risk of repeating myself... duh?
Score +5, Irony.
Slashdot won't be helped until the secrets of Aspergers Syndrome are "Unlocked"
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits" - Albert Einstein
Yep. That's why they re-named 'manic-depression' to 'bipolar disorder' in the first place. Bipolar disorder is more closely linked to schizophrenia than it is to depression.
Also, schizophrenia != multiple personality disorder. A schizophrenic may additionally have multiple personality disorder, but the terms are not synonymous. Schizophrenia is more closely classified as a disorder that causes a "break from reality."
Full disclaimer: my wife is a psychologist and psychotherapist.
My blog
Problem is science doesn't really go that fast, and we're on a 24 hour news cycle.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I know this is an unrelated disorder but the idea I want to present still holds. My father has Epilepsy (non-genetic) and has been on prescription Phenobarbital, dilatin, and Folic Acid most of my life. Though this helped control the seizures it did not address the primary problem... Damage to the right side of his brain. The bigger problem is the impact of the medication on his ability to operate in the world around him. His reaction time, cognition, and memory are all greatly affected and external stimuli can make a tremendous impact on his life. If not for the medication he would probably qualify as a borderline genius, but he would have 3-4 Gran Mal seizures a day. To try and help him doctors have tried him on multiple medications and are now evaluating him for surgery. This is where I make my point. the medications though helpful do not address the problem: damage to the brain. The solution is to remove the damage. The question is how will this affect the rest of his life. The same is true here: Medications do not solve the underlying cause of Schizophrenia or Bi-Polar Disorder. A lasting treatment needs to be developed to provide this capacity. There are underlying problems (genetic, physical, chemical, all of thee above) that need to be treated in a lasting manner. (I am not just blowing smoke out my ass I too deal with imbalance issues including ADD and hormonal imbalances causing gender dysphoria, it is a chemical problem and I find a way to live my life normally despite the fact but I still wish there was permanent treatment.)
IT Specialist - Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Indians
. . . to suggest that this is the Secret of NIMH?
I'm disappointed in you Slashdot. Very Disappointed.
- in most cases. And is motivation to improve the human condition.
Mood-altering medication makes those who want to improve the world too apatheic to cause a fuss.
I was kinda caught off guard when I was diagnosed with Schizophrenia. Me too.
And it sucks more in the US because you usually can't get treatment because there's no way a person with schotzophrenia (or most other mental illnesses) can hold a job, and without a job you have no insurance, and without insurance you have no medical care.
My late friend Jim (I knew him since we were teenagers) married a woman with bipolar disorder, and that's hell for the loved ones and especially the kids, too. After the divorce, when it was her turn to get the kids, they'd have to drag their son Todd kicking and screaming (Jim finally got permanent custody of Todd and his sister).
Todd's in his thirties now, and amazingly he's the sanest person I know.
There was a bunch of us at another friend's house after Jim died watching the movie "Misery". A while into the movie, Todd exclaimed "Oh shit, that's my MOM!"
The actress even looked like his mom. I'd much rather have my arthritis than be stricken with a bad mental illness.
Free Martian Whores!
Violets are blue.
I'm schiophrenic,
And so am I.
I would believe they first studied the subject for better part of a decade in university, got good enough reputation in their area of expertise that they were awarded large sum of money to research the subject, then spent lots of resources (money, skill and time) to come up with their results...
Honestly, if there was one or two sentences of explanation to sum all that up in a way that Joe Sixpack would understand it... That would be a lot more dubious.
To determine how reliable this research is we need to wait for experts to comment on it. I wouldn't trust Internet commenters' analysis of it any more than I would trust a PhD in neurology to code review my work.
Wow, my eyes have been opened to the Truth!
Now that we have unlocked this, it is only a matter of time until someone beats the Final Boss !
music lover since 1969
Interesting.
Back before psychopharmaceuticals, schizophrenia and depression were thought to be very similar or even the same thing. It was only once we had Thorazine (first antipsychotic) and then later tricyclics (first antidepressents) that in the clinical settings schizophrenia and depression began to be sorted much more distinctly, essentially based on the kinds of patients that got better with antipsychotics versus those that got better with antidepressants.
It's pretty common for diagnostic definitions to align with successful treatment methadologies, since "what will help" is the fundamental answer that diagnosis hopes to lead to.
Sounds like we're now getting back to the perspective of a half-century ago.
My video compression blog
..that the Secret of NIMH was super-intelligent, magic using rats..
End of line..
How about give them some Medical grade American-Grown skunk Cannabis, and monitor the changes!
You mean, there are people out there with personalities to spare, while us poor slashdotters don't even have a single personality to our name? They really need to spread the wealth around...
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
I guess Hemingway had a minor issue with the treatment, but I think he was able to resolve his situation in the end.
Yes and no.
Bi-polar is episodic (as are most forms Schizophrenia) actually bi-polar is often an off shoot of Schitzo-effective disorder; the only major similarities being the "Rages", "Delusions" and "Hallucinations". Most Psyciatrists use the same Lithium / anti-psychotic / SSRI / NSSRI / MAOI blend to try and treat them but "Bi-polar" is often given to the less severe of the bunch. DSM-IV characteristics have diffrent "Features" where bi-polar is prone to "Impulse"
MAD (Major Depression) has all the same features of the Lows of Bi-polar but lacks the episodic nature and often features oversleep, neruoepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin insensitivity or underproduction (which could be hereditary in nature or caused by chemical damage to the limbic system i.e; heavy metal poisoning ), the major issues surrounding good diagnosis lie in the fact that to be 100% accurate we have to by-opsy the tissue, in most cases this requires a labodomy.
What about the slightly grumpy first thing in the morning disorder, or inability to concentrate when the neighbours are shouting at each other syndrome. Perhaps they could concentrate their efforts on the sitting in the basement coding malady.
Different doesn't mean ill. Psychiatrists suffer from the desire to interpret human characteristics which they aren't keen on as a syndrome. That inclination in itself is probably worthy of further study, and in my opinion should be top of the list. Trouble is we couldn't trust the psychiatrists with it.
As opposed to regular medicine where you'd only get 9. (Yes I'm bitter.)
And it sucks more in the US because you usually can't get treatment because there's no way a person with schotzophrenia (or most other mental illnesses) can hold a job
Untrue, there are federal programs for people with mental illness to afford housing and necessary drugs. I know because I have relatives who are schizophrenic.
I have bipolar disorder. I go through manic phases followed by depressive phases. Sometimes mine are short (i.e. hours) but intense. Other times they last for months. I am obsessed with the problem of P vs NP, and thinking about it too much can lead me into manic phases, where I become convinced that I've solved the problem, and that others (i.e. teachers and friends) are out to steal my ideas. I become paranoid and write my name and the date on everything I write, in case someone claims my notes as their own. I become convinced that I am the reincarnation of Godel, Turing, John Nash, or other mathematicians. I converse with my "former selves" and tell them about my ideas. They respond with fascination and sometimes suggestions of their own. My mind spins and reels, and it feels sometimes like it becomes completely detached from my body.
It's true that while I'm manic, I can get abnormal amounts of work done. I also speak incredibly quickly, and develop a stutter because my mind moves too fast for my mouth to keep up. I call them 'cache misses' because my brain has to stop and go back to where it was just seconds ago, in order to 'fill in' the missing words. Because I think so quickly while manic, I become frustrated and irritated with anyone and anything that stops me from thinking as quickly as I'd like to. I have trouble sleeping at night, and when I do sleep, I dream of absurd mathematical problems that don't make any sense. Once I was skiing with some friends, and I had a dream wherein each ski route was assigned an integer value. It was up to me to make sure that the sum of the slopes traversed by my group was exactly zero. I had to keep convincing people to do different slopes in order to keep things balanced. When I have those dreams, I have a hard time waking up because I want to solve the problem so badly that I can't get out of bed. Additionally, when I'm manic, I drive more recklessly and take risks that I shouldn't. I'm much more likely to go home from a bar with a girl that I shouldn't. It seems like my sex appeal dramatically increases while I'm manic. This could be because I'm just thinking more highly of myself in general, but it could also be because i'm more aggressive, bold, and confident, all of which are appealing to girls.
The flip side of the mania is depression. When a manic phase ends, it usually leads to a depressive phase, when I realize i'm not a super genius capable of anything, and that my conversations with past mathematical figures are hallucinations. I think of myself as hopelessly stupid and doomed to live an unhappy life. It's not just being sad. It's a state of total hopelessness and despair. The only thing in the world that is remotely appealing is killing myself, which I dream of constantly. I've attempted suicide three times, each time getting closer to actually finishing the act. The last time I tried, I was standing on the 28th floor of a building in downtown Seattle, trying to work up the courage to jump off the ledge. If it weren't for some people who happened to come up the elevator as I was sitting on the ledge, I probably wouldn't be typing this today. I know that suicide is a terribly selfish thing to do, but until you've experienced the despair and hopelessness associated with bipolar depression, you can't begin to understand how much it makes sense. After my second attempt, I was taken against my will to a mental hospital, where I spent a few days. It was the worst experience of my life. All it impressed upon me was that, if I ever feel like suicide again, I shouldn't tell any medical professionals because they might take me back there. Even when I'm perfectly happy and level(i.e. no longer in a depressive or manic phase) I still occasionally think about killing myself. When I hear a story in the news about a plane crash or a celebrity dying, my first thouhgt is always to be envious of them. Just writing this post is making me want to kill myself.
As if the hopelessness, despair, and suicidal idealization weren't bad enough, I lose my attentio
I think your spelling meds have worn off - aside from the other obvious typos, those would be "biopsy" and "lobotomy", respectively.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
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Achievement unlocked! you have watched your 10,000,000 hour of pr0n.
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I always thought this kind of condition would have something to do with people having shitty jobs, financial troubles, dysfunctional families, partners spying on them to see if they are faithful or similar circumstances.
It's all about genes, what a relief. We just have to takes some more of those funny looking pills, and everything will be alright.
Now excuse me, I'll go kill myself.. should I bring something on the way back?
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Comment removed based on user account deletion
There was a bunch of us at another friend's house after Jim died watching the movie "Misery".
Damn. That must be one lousy movie!
That's 1141 years of continuous pr0n. I think (I hope?) it's safe to say that there isn't that much pr0n in existence....yet.
Just wanted to point out that this article is talking about Manic Depression (aka bipolar disorder) NOT clinical depression. Manic is when you have lots of ups and downs. Clinical is when you are only down. In fact the article that you linked to on NIMH doesn't even use the word depression at all probably to avoid this confusion, it says bipolar disorder. You may want to change the wording in this post.
How's this for spelling: Fuck You.
Glad you're admitting my holiness.
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"According to the US National Institute for Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, scientists have discovered a remarkable similarity between the genetic faults behind both schizophrenia and manic depression in a breakthrough that is expected to open the way to new treatments for two of the most common mental illnesses, affecting millions of people. Previously schizophrenia and depression were assumed to be two separate conditions, but the new research shows for the first time that both have a common genetic basis that leads people to develop one or the other of the two illnesses."
I havn't read the article, so I don't know which one is actually being connected to schizophrenia but I do know that Manic Depression is very different disease from Depression symptomatically.
Manic depressives have mood swings that include a manic phase in which much of their risk assessment skills go away and they engage in reckless and frequently life threatening behavior. These are usually followed by depressive phases that may be similar to that experienced by a Depressive person. Antidepressants have been shown to be counter productive in Manic Depressives because of the unfortunate interaction between the medication and the Manic phase.
Besides, I was under the impression that there has always been a belief that manic depression and schizophrenia were related somehow. At least that's what my mother (who works as a psychiatric nurse) told me.
Bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.-Oscar Wilde
There is a big difference between Depression and Bipolar/Manic-Depressive disorders.
In the symptoms, but they can have common genetic factors. DISC1 for example has been implicated in a few cases of schizophrenia and bipolar disorders even though there is a big difference between those two.
An infected gunshot wound on your arm and being shot in the gut are different injuries with different treatments, but they both were caused by someone shooting you.
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gosh, even the PR from the NIH can't make it sound that exciting: in ONE of the studies, the 2 diseases map IN PART to the same regions of the chromosome...
As people have commented, yes, clinicians, sufferers etc. have long suspected there is a link between these illnesses, based on similarities between certain symptoms, mutual effectiveness of drug regimens like the atypical anti-psychotics, and so forth. However of course in science it is nice to have empirical evidence for such suspicions.
To me, while many of the comments were if anything a little above /. standards, it was a bit disappointing to see (Clinical) Depression and Manic Depression / Bipolar Disorder conflated so readily in the OP. While we have good reason to suspect (again, more evidence would be nice) that the two exist on something like a continuous spectrum of mood disorders, nonetheless the distinction between them is a real one. I would know - I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder (Type I for those who care to observe the distinction) following a Manic episode which landed me in a psychiatric ward. I certainly found a great deal to empathise there with my fellow patients including several who were presumably Schizophrenic. I must say though I am glad I am not affected by the latter; it is undoubtedly tougher to live with, since at least with Bipolar you get a mixture of less rational periods (both up and down) with periods of relatively "normal" thinking and mood. So you get a mixed perspective of both more and less sane viewpoints, which I find valuable at least.
OTOH my dad has suffered from Clinical Depression throughout much of his life, which has included a period of severe substance abuse, so of course I have familiarity with that condition as well. Trust me, its really not the same thing. He has never felt inspired to become the prophet of a new religion, for example, or engaged in cryptic metaphorical conversations with other psych patients, or experienced paranoia strong enough to require sleeping at a family's friend's place to avoid a potential murderer. I have (and for what its worth have never touched any non-prescribed mind altering substance stronger than one or two puffs of pot in my entire life.) You only have to experience full blown Mania - or witness it first hand, so my friends and family tell me - to appreciate that Manic Depression is not really the same as plain old Depression.
So while labels aren't something that concern me a great deal, and I would be just as comfortable to be described with the term Manic Depression, I begin to appreciate why the medical community changed the name of this particular condition to try and reduce the possible confusion surrounding the terminology.
Note that schizophrenia and dissociative personality disorder (formerly multiple personality disorder) are two distinct conditions.
Schizophrenia is characterized by auditory and/or visual hallucinations, plus delusions. See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia.
This could be very bad for the tin foil hat industry.
Clearly this calls for a big government bailout!
... but do you think they'd bother to have a look at the diodes down my left side? Of course not!
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Wow.. I totally understand what you're saying, considering I grew up with both parents having Schizophrenia. It really does suck for both the children being subjected to it and the people who have schizophrenia. My frustration and my mom being put back into a mental institution caused me to move out when I was 16 as well. Its sad because they really do care for us, but have so much trouble controlling their minds. I had to deal with a rough childhood, but its made me thankful of my life because of what my parents have to go through everyday. I hope that your life is going better now, and I'm glad like me you were able to escape the gene continuation.
I have kind of similar experiences. As a young student, I was always in my head. I didn't care for girls, music, fashion, parties, booze and all the "good stuff". I was the odd one out, and they made pretty sure I knew it. I had one friend who I practically saw every single day, for years, until he commited suicide about five years ago.
Because I desperately wanted to fit in, I stopped really talking to people, as whenever I'd speak honestly I'd get funny looks. I tried to dumb down and blend in.
At the same time I started working on the class clown title. I guess you know enough popular psychology to draw your own conclusions as to why.
Because teachers felt I needed a more stable environment to develop my "giftedness", social services almost took me away from my family.
I started self-medicating, first with alcohol, then cannabis, and finally, when my access to that was cut off, heroin. Funny how drug control laws can make it easier to get a gram of heroin than a gram of cannabis. Let me summarize I've had an interesting last ten years.
I'm 31 now, soon to be 32, and off hard drugs but I still drink and smoke blunts from time to time.
I'm unemployed and pretty much socially isolated, if mostly by choice, all in spite of having a "brain the size of a planet". I spend my time thinking about the big picture, reading up, "grokking" relationships and systems, and I still can't talk to people about my semi-enlightened thoughts, because it's "too intense" or "too depressing" for most people.
Welcome to the third millenium Christian time, when all that being "gifted" gets you is a ruined life.
The funny thing is that they'd probably call be depressed, while I'm certain I'm fine. I just see the world for what it is.
Sending a virtual hug your way....
And it sucks more in the US because you usually can't get treatment because there's no way a person with schotzophrenia (or most other mental illnesses) can hold a job
Untrue, there are federal programs for people with mental illness to afford housing and necessary drugs. I know because I have relatives who are schizophrenic.
Many people with schizophrenia aren't able to successfully jump through the multitude of hoops required to deal with any government program.
Soon you will say Cancer has been cured as well, are we going to hit the singularity like a brick wall?
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
Until something changes, I have to treat this as more propaganda.
When the same press release admits to many other factors in these
"diseases" and even its own "medicine" system to be at fault, this just
sounds like more dribble.
If you're interested in facts I'll tell you what they are and I'll give you sources - Chomsky on The Big Idea
Dr. Peter Breggin was published just Tuesday in The Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-peter-breggin/medication-madness-how-ps_b_223922.html about the BS involved, and stated that when we are in crisis we need our entire abilities to help us get out -- and that psychiatric drugs ALL remove some part of these abilities.
Do you want to lose your ability to program or hack because some doctor slaps a diagnosis on you and poisons you with psych drugs until you can't even sit up without drooling? Psychiatry is flat-out pessimistic about any "treatment" they have. All diagnoses are "permanent" and "not curable but treatable", and are caused by a "chemical imbalance in your brain". Then why is it that, with no treatment or declined treatment, over half of all "psychiatric patients" recover completely? Get your act together, psychiatry is BAD SCIENCE or NONE.
I was going to RTFA but my other personality was too depressed.
NO I WASN'T!
Yes he was!
Shut up you two!
I think you ought to know I'm feeling very depressed...
Homonyms are fun!
You're driving your car, but they're riding their bikes there.
I am not a student of the Psychiatric discipline. I have learned through my experiences and reflection to manage my thoughts. I was 'diagnosed' with Schizophrenia a few years ago, and took Risperdal for about 2 1/2 years. During the first six months of the 2.5 years, my dosage increased from 0.5 mg to 4 mg. I stopped taking the medicine in October, 2008. The voices returned in about 2-4 weeks. "People with schizophrenia have reduced brain receptors for the dopamine messenger. " from: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/unlocked-the-secrets-of-schizophrenia-1727987.html I believe that this is inconsistent with 'facts' that my ex-psychiatrist told me ( although I could be remembering wrong, which just creates the need to investigate the facts that scientists have found by means that, well, I do not possess knowledge of). I thought that Schizophrenia is a result of an overproduction of dopamine, oh, oops, now I get it.\ I think the Risperdal is supposed to suppress the production of dopamine, perhaps the surplus of the messenger creates the hallucination. For me, the hallucinations are (attempting mental reconstruction to change the present state of is to past tense) my interpretation of the source of the voices. I used to think that other people's thoughts were being transmitted into my mind. I honestly believed it was, just because the 'hear-think' (that's my term for the voices) always had personal information about me, and well, I was around people that would have facts to produce the analysis (negative at first...). I used to conclude that the voices were not invoked by my volition. Well, yeah, OK, whatever, let's shoot that one down. How do I know that it isn't just my brain using the presence of the those around me, to help me realize new perceptions on past situations in order to affect my future choices in a way that I perceive will increase my self-image. Typing of self-image, maybe my mind/soul/etc is just creating a way to reflect so that my volition doesn't have to be the naysayer. With my mind operating this way, I can now respond to the critique of the voices, as if I am holding a conversation in my mind. Oh yeah, one interesting thing about hear-think is that is seems to be occurring outside of my body, in a variety of locations in space. I hear male and female voices, with classic gender roles intact, with a varying degree of acuity in expression, tone, knowledge, and insight. I think the longest phrase lasted between 1-2 minutes. Another unusual occurrence is how in sync the voices can be with my surroundings, meaning that the voices will match body language of other people, and the hear-think seems to be originating from their bodies. I think that I am just imagining an interpretation. the real struggle for me was learning not to trust the voices by using scientific method, by testing their validity against family and friends. have heart.
MORE... is being MADE... every DAY.
Guys, have you wonder if this is just another threat orchestrated by the big pharmaceuticals to keep the population sedated for not so clear clinical reasons? Now, it turns out that the normal states of joy and sadness in any individual are prescribed with bipolarity by psychiatras and psychology experts. Think about it.
Does anybody know the name of the Abstract in wich this info. is?
Claiming that the secrets are unlocked is WAY premature. What we have is a tantalizing hint and some new information.
They have found through statistical analysis several hundred genes that seem to contribute to the odds of suffering schizophrenia or depression.
As for what those genes do? "some of them somehow influence the immune system. That's it, full stop. They do some unknown thing that causes some unknown thing that makes it more likely that you'll suffer from a condition caused by an unknown mechanism.
So yeah, all we have to do is <handwaving level=extremelyvigorous>some immune system thingy</handwaving> and everybody's cured.
Not saying the research isn't important and useful, just that it doesn't constitute a cure or treatment nor does it even suggest a mechanism for the disease.
Of course there is an objective test. What do we know about schizophrenics? Well, we know they burn, as do logs. What else do logs do? That's right, they float. And what else floats on water? Yes, ducks. If the schizophrenic weighs more than a duck, fill them with mind altering drugs which will obviously help them think clearly.
Seriously, there is no empirical evidence yet it claims to be a science? Snake oil at its finest. Schizophrenia = resisting brainwashing by the system. Pink Floyd and all that.
http://moinuddin-sarker.org/
Karin Kaufman, who is rich but is in psychosis because she stopped taking her powerful anti-psychotic meds in 2002, created a research laboratory at great expense in 2003 to save the world from âoepoorly-ordered poisonous heavy metalsâ. The name of that laboratory:
Natural State Research