If Depression is a Black Dog, What Kind of Dog is Schizophrenia?

Creativity
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Not sure if you saw @BarbieBF’s thread about black dog depression. I found myself thinking the campaign was artful, but speaks mainly to depression. While sz can be depressing and I think many people with sz have had a few depressive episodes, it’s a bit more than that.

If you were doing a similar campaign for schizophrenia, what kind of dog would be the “mascot”?

I have many thoughts, but I won’t share them all right away to see what other folks come up with.

http://forum.schizophrenia.com/t/sane-mental-health-charity-black-dog-campaign-selfies/3562
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Rapid telepathic pit bull mastiff

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I’m going with a mongre!!

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Here was my first thought. George Rodrigue’s Loup Garou or “Blue Dog”

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A Chihuahua on acid. Hypersensitive and out of our minds with fear.

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You could probably come up with dogs for each of the different subtypes. There is definitely some acid involved though.

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A pit bull terrier it locks on and don’t let go.

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Yeah, I thought of that one too. A very misunderstood dog. Many are very sweet once you get to know them.

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I’m not diagnoses so it’s hard for me to say however I thought that a lot, if not most of them could be related to other mental illnesses. I see a lot of similarities with how to treat and respect what my son is going through as a ‘black dog’.

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Agreed. I gave it a bit of thought, and the best I could come up with was a closely related dog- the grey ghost dog, a Weimaraner.

Thanks so much for bringing the Black Dog to my attention. It’s very well done.

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Grey ghost dog… I like it :smile:

You could try contacting the creators of Black Dog and see if they like the idea of a Grey Dog for schizophrenia?

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The pit bull .
The stigma
the misunderstandings.
Yet when they are treated properly they are very nice and loving.

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A spotted mutt with kind of spiked medium length fur.

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Maybe, that’s the sort of grandiose idea I had when I started this thread. But it’s the story that drives the images in the black dog campaign, so I guess I got a little ahead of myself. Imagery and ideas come easier to me than words. Thought stoppage gives me such terrible writer’s block at times.

Anyway, here’s a quick stab at something similar for schizophrenia…

I have a grey dog, he whispers special secrets to me that nobody else hears.
He told me once my mother was a ghost, and I believed him.
You can’t trust a grey dog, but sometimes he’s the only friend you’ve got.
When you repeat what the grey dog says, people are frightened and turn away.
But the grey dog is faithful, he never goes away. He haunts you like a ghost.
No one else hears him or sees him, but he’s always at my side.
He must be a ghost. He’s turned me into a ghost of my former self.

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That’s an easy one:

Not sure how popular it will be for marketing.

10-96

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Ha ha, I didn’t think of that one. It’s funny I work with a computer authentication system called Kerberos, so I’m familiar. I dunno, maybe I could work it in…

The grey dog is always changing on me like a demon in the night. He grew two extra heads so he could watch me so I couldn’t escape and yelled with all three heads “I am Cerberus, I am a jealous dog, you will have no other dogs but me.” I fed him pills so he would go to sleep, but some grey dogs will never leave you alone even with the right medication.

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Like the hellhound idea.
But may confuse with multiple personalities diagnosis.

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I am really surprised no one said…Werewolf!

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My dad always said he was a Werewolf! He was PTSD.