People with schizophrenia and current events?

DX'd - Other
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Hello friends,

What I am about to ask might seem rather odd, or maybe even slightly offensive and completely untrue, but here it is:

Are people who struggle with schizophrenia on average less likely to follow current events, specifically political matters?

I would think, well, obviously not. It is known that schizophrenia can cause cognitive problems, and according to a journal these problems affect 75% of people, which may or not may be accurate, but people have expressed themselves that they feel this impairment. Therefore, schizophrenia has the potential to impair cognition, but to what extent? Is this impairment causing people to not be able to follow the news or make them indifferent to it?

This sounds like a ridiculous question, but here’s my story. I have a few friends that struggle with schizophrenia, and a few that do not. I also have a few friends with bipolar disorder. This is an extremely small sample population to make this hypothesis, but my friends who do not have schizophrenia are able to talk about things happening in the world, can spot lies in the news, can tell that there are things that are left out of the story, and be able to connect the dots to figure out the whole truth. When I talk to my friends who struggle with schizophrenia, they are completely absentminded about these topics, although I would consider them to be of average intelligence. Very important topics, like why oil prices are dropping, world tensions and conflicts, privacy issues, climate and environmental issues, alternative energy, etc. these friends appear to have no facts about these issues, or very little, often just guesses or opinions. Is this lack of knowledge connected with schizophrenia?

Now, I’m not saying I’m particularly intelligent concerning current events, but I do try to make an effort to read up on as much as I can. Obviously people with schizophrenia can have no problem following up with this stuff, and many I’m sure are political scientists, journalists, and other related careers and political majors. But it seems like from my experiences, no one I know that has told me they struggle with schizophrenia has a basic hold on the world in terms of politics and current events.

Now, you could go the other way with this and say people with schizophrenia are hyper-aware about this sort of information. They could be paranoid, causing them to need to know everything going on around them.

What do you think about all this? How well do you follow the news?

Thank you, and this is not meant to offend anyone, and if it does, I apologize.

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I don’t really follow the news but that’s a personal choice. I just don’t like tv, or reading really unless it’s here on this site.

I would say that it’s because there is a lot a sz person has to deal with than a neurotypical. They are preoccupied with the self, making it difficult to focus on the outside world.

I don’t really care about politics, I’m American the country is set up to give us the choice to focus on what happens in life that immediately effects us or we can immediately control.

Really I’m disappointed in politics, I’m a socialist and there are a lot of things keeping this country from moving in the direction id like. To me that’s just the way it is, I do hope and feel they’ll all come around eventually but until then I don’t even want to think about how stupid these people are for not seeing the potential that this country holds. They want it to stay the same, want to hold onto what’s working I guess. I see a lot of room for improvement. Dethrone the profiteers, make school and healthcare accessible, free would be nice, but I’ll settle with accessible.

I get political on election years and I do vote in presidential elections. Don’t have the time or energy to keep up with local or state politics. The American population made the right choice in the last election, that’s just my opinion, but I hope they stick with the mindset.

Sz might cause his at first, but it I think it is one of the easier things to overcome.

The format of news could be a lot better. On tv they just blast you with repetitive headlines and make you watch commercials. They could cover so much more, but again sometimes you just gotta accept that things are the way they are.

Good thread yakdip, that’s my two cents.

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Thank you very much BryanAshley, you make some very good points.

I also agree with you about television news stations, they could be so much better. There was an article on politifact that determined the truthfulness of various news stations information. The amount of false information they found that gets broadcasted was unreal. Some stations were even reported as being wrong over 50% of the time.

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Not surprising. They do present it all very well. For the last couple months though it’s all been missing airliners and ebola.

Unfortunately the Internet lacks presentation, you kind of have to explore before you find out what’s going on. They need to find a happy balance. Something that brings the news to you, like lots of news, quick overviews. It’s almost like the sports casters are the only ones who are doing it right, they never really seem to repeat themselves. I mean eventually news of injuries and trades and ■■■■ is repeated but not really in the same 30 minute show.

But I’ve never liked sports, that reality alone has probably had more effect on my comfort and success in life then anything else. Up there with doing drugs.

Anyways sportscasters seem to do it right.

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I am on the internet every day. It’s where I get my news. I usually read the “fluff” news. Stuff like if they discover a new fish. Or if some high school pulls off a trick play that works. I read LOT’S of entertainment news. Who’s starring in what movie. Who’s having a feud. What major star just died. Bill Cosby going down in flames. But I will read current events. Stuff about N.Korea. The planes going down in the ocean. What’s Hilary doing. Sometimes I’ll scroll down and read national news and it’s all about people getting murdered or assaulted or child abuse. I guess I actually read a mix of stories.

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Where do you get your news?

I need to fill my head with more stuff other than this sz bs. Think I’m ready, took a couple years of sorting myself out. I need a distraction I can enjoy, I think it would set me free.

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My home page when I use Mozilla Firefox. I have Att.com Yahoo. I have everything that’s trending. I get all major news stories.

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Here are some sites that seem to be reliable:

www.mic.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theworldpost/

Some youtube channels:

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheYoungTurks/featured (The Young Turks)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgRvm1yLFoaQKhmaTqXk9SA (Test Tube)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChwwoeOZ3EJPobW83dgQfAg (WeAreChange)
https://www.youtube.com/user/cgreene34 (AMTV)

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Our provider usually has the tv news on. It’s a rare day that I can watch news without getting upset. So I leave it mostly to the stronger people.

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I have a family member who is really informed. He even knows what is going on in other states. I don’t think I have ever been like that. Even before my breakdown.

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I’m somewhat obsessed with news. Google News is my homepage and I refresh it all day while I’m working.

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I follow the news. I watched the SOTU address last night. I know that the news promotes fear to an extent(look at the Ebola scare). If you want to learn anything about it I recommend reading The Culture of Fear by Barry Glassner. I don’t know if you are in school, but taking a Sociology class would give you a new way of looking at things. It is great as an elective.

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i used to be into conspiracy theories. There is some truth to the mass control through the media thing. I don’t think it’s as evil as they are accused of being. It’s all about that money.

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I remember when I could not turn on the news because they were reading my thoughts. I don’t experience that all the time anymore.

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I get that to. I always stop to think though, how many thousands of sz are potentially watching the same news anchor thinking he’s reading their thoughts. Kind of grounding.

So scared it’s real, so delusional.

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I don’t watch the news or keep up on current events. I know very little about politics. I guess I’m somewhat sheltered by choice. If it doesn’t have a direct impact on my life I’m not overly interested.

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Sorry I did not have enough concentration to read your long post, but generally I am not interested in current world events or politics, recently somebody brought up an issue that the Finnish airforce and American airforce would have joint exercises, I could not care less.

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I used to stay on top of the news. I guess I lost interest in it, at least somewhat. I am sz, and there were periods when I was ill that I watched the news closely. I might get back into watching politics and the news.

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I do not have schizophrenia…actually was never DXed with it, just SZA…except a couple times mentioning certain experiences to a therapist he said 'well, that’s schizophrenia!" but he then said it wasn’t regular enough to make a full SZ diagnoses…

Anyways, have pretty much always been knowledgeable of current events… am well aware of what is going in with Russia and Ukraine and the west. Am aware of environmental issues on several levels, national events and world events.

Yes I heard or read that too… I am sure Russia cares…maybe why they are moving troops to a base near the Finnish border at Alakurtti?
Finland has enjoyed neutrality and a fairly descent relationship with Russia, and if it were to lean towards NATO it would just cause problems. The high level politicians in Finland appear to be split over whether they should participate or not…

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Yes, maybe so but I am not interested in these political matters, funny I completed my military service in the airdefence and I never saw a air defence weapon at all LOL, to me this does not matter at all.