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Avatars Help Schizophrenics Gain Control of Voices In Their Heads
Zothecula writes "Imagine if there was a voice in your head that regularly threatened to harm you or your loved ones, or that even ordered you to do so yourself. Awful as that would be, such auditory hallucinations are one of the most common symptoms of schizophrenia, with approximately one in four sufferers continuing to experience them even after taking anti-psychotic drugs. Fortunately, scientists have recently helped some schizophrenics gain control of their condition, by turning those voices into interactive avatars."
"Danny isn't here, Mrs. Torrence"
Odd, my avatar looks like Goatse
Table-ized A.I.
Next, we send them across the galaxy to get adopted by neolithic native tribes and help liberate the planet from corporate invaders.
People almost always hear the word "schizophrenia" mentioned when they hear of violence. Very few are actually violent. Studies have shown that about 5 percent schizophrenics are violent compared to 3 percent most other people.
Well? I'm waiting for an answer.
My doctor says it's OK to talk to myself so long as I don't say, "Hu?"
Not to be confused with MMORPG avatars, giving voice to fat mens' inner lipstick lesbian.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
A low carbohydrate, high fat diet can also help reduce, or eliminate, symptoms of schizophrenia.
This is something that I've done for a long time - I've acknowledged that each voice has its own personality and ways of interpreting the world, and as long as they are working together or making efforts to find common ground on a lot of issues, then you as a whole can function productively. I function well enough - I've even seen a psychiatrist and other mental health counselors, who have gone on to say that although having 'delusions'/hearing voices is unusual, the schizophrenia may be a misdiagnosis since it's usually disabling. It's only a mental disease if it causes harm to you or others.
You can't control me, fool!
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
Does anyone know why schizophrenia svoices always seem to try and cause harm? Why don't the voices tell you to clean your house, volunteer for something, build a house, do something good?
This is like the mirror therapy used for phantom limb patients. Using a mirror they can "see" their phantom limb and regain control of it. Very cool.
... at best, an outdated term, full of stigma from the last millennium. I suffer from a mild variant of this disease (which is actually an umbrella-diagnosis for a thousand different psychiatric disorders), and my psychiatrist calls it "A thought disorder" - Much easier to swallow for others than the term schizophrenia, which has all sorts of negative associations. I happen to hold a steady job in a creative field, and nobody at my workplace has any idea of my disorder, and even though my disorder falls under the general term "Schizophrenia", I really don't like having that term pinned to me. Simply, because it is so hard for people to understand what it's like.
As one who hears voices, I agree on the point that you don't have to do what they tell you to. Even the tiniest bit of self-control takes precedent, and one would not jump off of a bridge if someone told them to unless they were very seriously mentally compromised.
From what I've been told, it's only diagnosed as 'schizophrenia' if the voices uncontrollably causes one to harm himself or others. I assume that some people do what the voices are obsessing over just to get them to shut up.
Is that you Mr Hat?
I've already read enough comments of people not knowing what or how schizophrenia is - it's not just voices (or always involving voices in general). The National Institute for Mental Health has this nice little bit to get you all up to a half-educated level:
- What are the symptoms of schizophrenia?
The symptoms of schizophrenia fall into three broad categories: positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and cognitive symptoms.
- Positive symptoms
Positive symptoms are psychotic behaviors not seen in healthy people. People with positive symptoms often "lose touch" with reality. These symptoms can come and go. [...] They include the following:
Hallucinations are things a person sees, hears, smells, or feels that no one else can see, hear, smell, or feel. "Voices" are the most common type of hallucination in schizophrenia. Many people with the disorder hear voices. [...]
Delusions are false beliefs that are not part of the person's culture and do not change. The person believes delusions even after other people prove that the beliefs are not true or logical. People with schizophrenia can have delusions that seem bizarre, such as believing that neighbors can control their behavior with magnetic waves. [...]
Thought disorders are unusual or dysfunctional ways of thinking. One form of thought disorder is called "disorganized thinking." This is when a person has trouble organizing his or her thoughts or connecting them logically. They may talk in a garbled way that is hard to understand. Another form is called "thought blocking. [...]
- Negative symptoms
Negative symptoms are associated with disruptions to normal emotions and behaviors. These symptoms are harder to recognize as part of the disorder and can be mistaken for depression or other conditions.
These symptoms include the following:
- "Flat affect" (a person's face does not move or he or she talks in a dull or monotonous voice)
- Lack of pleasure in everyday life
- Lack of ability to begin and sustain planned activities
- Speaking little, even when forced to interact.
People with negative symptoms need help with everyday tasks. They often neglect basic personal hygiene. This may make them seem lazy or unwilling to help themselves, but the problems are symptoms caused by the schizophrenia.
- Cognitive symptoms
Cognitive symptoms are subtle. Like negative symptoms, cognitive symptoms may be difficult to recognize as part of the disorder. Often, they are detected only when other tests are performed. Cognitive symptoms include the following:
- Poor "executive functioning" (the ability to understand information and use it to make decisions)
- Trouble focusing or paying attention
- Problems with "working memory" (the ability to use information immediately after learning it).
Edited down, for some brevity. Full text here
Cognitive symptoms often make it hard to lead a normal life and earn a living. They can cause great emotional distress.
Avatar! Know that Britannia has entered into a new age of enlightenment. Know that the time has finally come for the one true Lord of Britannia to take his place at the head of his people! Under my guidance, Britannia will flourish, and all the people shall rejoice and pay homage to their new... Guardian! Know that you, too, shall kneel before me, Avatar. You, too, shall soon acknowledge my authority - for I shall be your companion... your provider... and your master!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzoXQKumgCw
From what I've been told, it's only diagnosed as 'schizophrenia' if the voices uncontrollably causes one to harm himself or others. I assume that some people do what the voices are obsessing over just to get them to shut up.
Eh harm has nothing to do with the diagnosis of schizophrenia. Not all schizophrenics even hear voices and not all people who hear voices are schizophrenics. Schizophrenia basically means your mind works differently from the rest of the world. IE you don't express emotions properly or you have disorganized thoughts. Hearing voices means you're hallucinating, not that you are schizophrenic.
Let's plug it into this and see what happens!
I guess they bring balance to people's heads too.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
Does this mean I shouldn't invest in sock puppets?
"Odd groups left... even groups got right... get away from the head... whelps left side, many whelps... WTF was that shit..." That'd definitely make me want to murder somebody
D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
So when I gave my wife's friend (whom I didn't know was schizophrenic) a half a joint to calm her down because she was upset, according to you she was acting when she went wandering around my yard pulling her hair out because she was planning to kill someone? Schizophrenia has both genetic and environmental causes, you have a much greater chance of having it if a relative has it, for example if your twin has it you chances of having it are 40%, However it normally doesn't appear until after puberty and it's onset is usually associated with an emotional crisis, such as a divorce. The woman mentioned above "didn't have it" until she was in her mid-thirties.
BTW: Your OBSERVABLE lack of empathy and anger about this could be some sort a mental illness, I'd get that checked out if I were you.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
I can see this being very effective. If I had to deal with a bunch of those ugly mugs from Elder Scrolls: Oblivion all over again, I'd want them out of my head and out of my life too!
Who knew that microsoft Bob was really just a manifestation of your inner dummy?
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
It helped when I realized that those voices in my head were actually radio stations I was picking up through the implant. I came to understand that they would argue and say stuff but they weren't really talking to me since it was just a general broadcast. Since I figured this out I've been able to resist the urge to kill, kill, kill, usually.
At first glance I thought it said Avatars Help Schizophrenics Gain Control of Vehicles with Their Heads
Needless to say upon re-reading the headline I was sorely disappointed.
I stole this Sig
Hmmmmm
I've known two bad cases of schizophrenia (who could not hold onto a job), the negativity comes from the effect it can have on the person, not the word itself. Unfortunately the bottom line in society is that if your mind behaves "strangely" then others will shun you, if your body behaves strangely (say, cancer) then others will act with compassion, provided it's not contagious (eg:leprosy). On the bright side I think there is a lot more compassion and understanding toward "thought disorders" today than when I grew up in the 60's.
Changing the name is at best temporary relief from the stigma, the new term will eventually pick up the same stigma as the old one. As a "functioning schizophrenic" you have the opportunity to change people's attitudes by example, I understand it takes a great deal of courage to do that but you will never change anyone's attitude by "staying in the closet". For example when I think of Stephen Fry, I think educated, witty, curios, homosexual, intelligent, atheist, bipolar, introspective, honest and open, which when all rolled together creates an interesting and likeable personality.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
We look at schizophrenics and derisively note that they "hear voices". That they are too mentally weak to discern that the voices come from within their own heads. Now imagine that you actually hear those voices. Imagine them? You wish. No, a booming, thundering, Jovian voice is shouting right into your face, "You are no good! You might as well go throw yourself into the ocean!" Or worse yet, "Your sister is evil. You have to kill her, or she will kill you and many others." And not once, but over and over and over and over again. Until you are defenseless. Until you are exhausted. Until you can do nothing but what your voices insist. And then they call YOU crazy.
No, I've never heard a voice. Not a one. Not even when I was baptized in the spirit by some bullshit Pentecostals. But how can anyone doubt that the voices that schizophrenics hear are less real to them than those of their caregivers?
But the voices are mostly unseen. Imagine, again, someone screaming at you whom you cannot see. Screaming right into your ear, yet you cannot turn and look at them. And so I do not doubt that putting computer-generated faces to those voices can be therapeutic.
"Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal"
Keep Doing Good.
Have gnu, will travel.
Abraham heard the voice of god. Or he may have been suffering from a disorder such as schizophrenia. Which is more likely... .
If my guess is correct, I wish he had had such an avatar. It would have saved the world quite a bit of misery now.
Bert
Whenever I recall what someone said, I literally "hear" them saying it in my head. Same with music and other audible stimuli.
I often wonder what differentiates this from the auditory hallucinations some schizophrenics experience. From what I understand it usually isn't voices they "hear" - bells ringing is reported quite a bit, also the sound of wind.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Turns out the voices in your head come from Tamriel.
Gamertag: WyleType
To be clear:
1.1% of the population are schizophrenic and 98.8% are not.
Of schizophrenics, the fraction 0.05 (5%) are violent, so the percentage of violent schizophrenics in the total population is
1.1% x 5% = 0.011 x 0.05 = 0.00055 (0.055%) .
Of 98.9% non-schizophrenics, the fraction 0.03 (3%) are violent, so the percentage of violent non-schizophrenics in the total population is
98.9% x 3% = 0.989 x 0.03 = 0.02967 (2.97%).
So there 53 (0.02967/0.00055) times as many violent non-schizophrenics as violent schizophrenics in the total population. That is, in a random encounter you are about 50 times more likely to meet a violent non-schizophrenic than a violent schizophrenic.
Ever have your hand on something hot? Notice how you don't have enough will to not move your hand even if you really don't want to?
Some people get that for obeying voices only they can hear. No, it's not normal, that's why we call it an illness.
See http://www.wimp.com/schizophrenicsymptoms/
Mundus Vult Decipi