Many people who ask me what I do ask me about schizophrenia. The truth is…we don’t know much, except that it effects the brain severly.
Often people mistake schizophrenia with “Dissociative Identity Disorder, DID” or “multiple personalities.” This is completely incorrect and rather annoying, for me! People with schizophrenia don’t, in fact, have more than one personality or “alter” (this is the “clinical” term). They do, in fact, experience a whole slew of difficult and challeging things on a daily basis–from hearing voices that aren’t real, forgetting to shower, eat, or wear appropriate clothes, to extreme fear and axiety, or even visual hallucinations.
People often ask me whether or not they think it’s a spiritual disease. While I agree that health in general is holistic, including the spiritual realm, there is something fundamentally biological about this disorder and an exorcism isn’t necessary (or helpful). As you can see from these pictures (MRI’s), a person with schizophrenia has a different shaped brain with a lot less grey matter than a healthy individual. And since the brain is the command center of our bodies, if it’s missing pieces then it would make sense that things wouldn’t work right, right? Yes. And the more the brain deteriorates, the more symptoms a person experiences.
But, as it would seem some more research is being done in regards to this severe disorder. It might even start to open up the doors for more effective treatment! Yay! Read those links and tell me what you think. I’m very interested in them and love looking at the MRI’s, although they are heartbreaking.
Crazy/Beautiful 