Depression is easy to describe to others for me. Its like feeling u’ll never be happy even if u win the lottery. But schizophrenic symptoms are harder for me to describe. The best i got is, its like a bad acid trip where u have this flow of thoughts that u can’t control and even if u want it to stop theres no way of stopping it until the trip is over and at the same time feels confusing. I use the word thoughts because saying voices makes people uncomfortable thanks to popular media. Negative symptoms and depression symptoms kind of go hand in hand a little bit. Like not being able to take care of yourself well or care about ur health. They have different flavors but are similar. What is ur way of describing positive schizophrenic symptoms to normal people in a way thats relatable to normal people?
Have you ever had a really high fever where you become delirious? Or maybe once drank too much cough syrup by accident? That’s one of the ways I explain it to others.
You’re in a big, seemingly never ending forest and you’re not sure how to get out. There’s a signpost near you but the signs point in a ton of different directions, it’s incredibly confusing. Sometimes you see other people walk by and you try to ask them for help, ask them which way to go because you can’t wrap your head around all these signs and just don’t know what’s going on, and they look at you like you’re crazy and ask how you could possibly not have any idea which way to go when it’s so incredibly obvious. But it is not obvious to you…so you begin to feel very alone and don’t understand why others can’t see all the signs you’re seeing. You try to point them out to prove you aren’t crazy, the directions are just really confusing!! But no one else seems to see the same signs as you. Because of this you aren’t really sure if they are trustworthy or not, and so are hesitant to follow them.
You don’t know if you’ll ever make it out, to be honest.
Professor Xavier is playing with you.
The way I can only describe the way it feels is like you’re constantly looking through a pair of binoculars idk it probably makes no sense
To most people I say I have very strong fear that sometimes becomes unrealistic. I keep it simple, to make the stigma less and understanding better.
When I describe my personal symptoms more extensively I would say I first had normal fear and guilt, that everyone would have in that situation. E.g. My ex was abusive and threatening and I feared he would get access to our son, would harm him and my son would be physically and emotionally damaged. When the fear (or guilt) was too much for me to handle and I felt for too long that there was no escape, my mind created symbols and metaphores to deal with the terror. Instead of fearing my ex would chase us down and destroy our son, I now believed the devil was chasing us down and would destroy my sons soul. This comes with overwhelming feelings of terror and guilt.
Schizophrenia sucks the life out of you.
Your a mess on paper- but it doesn’t mean your not likeable…nor will anyone be harmed in the process.
The way I’ve described it to actual people in real life is it’s a thought disorder and as a result if I don’t take my meds I could think I could fly and jump off a building.
I describe it as it is: I sometimes hear things that aren’t there, believe things that aren’t true, and things that seem so easy for others are hard for me for no apparent reason.
You know when you’re driving cross country and you’re listening to one radio station, but then you start losing that one and picking up another?
You know both songs, but can’t really make out one or the other,
Its just chaos.
Turn that up as loud as you can and try to focus on one.
That’s what its like to have dueling realities…
Add some visual hallucinations and the feeling of evil creeping on you,
There it is,
Schizophrenia.
Closest thing to hell without getting burnt.
This is good. Everyone understands fear.
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