As far as writing a thing on schizophrenia, i see you arent getting too many questions on it so I'll try and give you some i have been asked. One thing i wish i had known was that how incredibly rare it is for someone to be paranoid schizophrenic. Whenever i heard "schizophrenic" I'd picture that horor movie trope with the crazy girl and the knfie shouting at things that wernt there trying to kill you. Its such a prevelant stigma i thought i was weird for not being like that! Much relieved to find out the contrary. I think the most common question i get is "what is it like" and i find that really had to describe to people who have never had an out of body experence or lucid dream.
One thing i had to learn the hard way was that veryone experences their psychoses in dramatically different ways, and just hearing stuff from one person doesnt mean you know all there is to it. Having examples of different reactions or symptoms could be helpful (and creativly challenging).
Oh as for Schizophrenia, I've studied bits about it in my psychology classes, however I'd love to know more about day to day life and coping mechanisms, as well as any misconceptions. Especially since most of my syllabus focused mostly on symptoms and traditional treatments and not the day to day life of living with schizophrenia. Also how to remember how to spell it
I don’t have any questions myself but I really appreciate the no-judgement no-shaming space to ask mental health questions. That’s a very good way of educating people, inviting them into the activism of just being an understanding and open person in your life, and making the world better, and I salute you for it!
I don't want to bore you with the details, but as someone who comes from a family where severe mental illness is a norm (and as someone who works in the mental health field), such representation literally made my heart leap with joy. [...] This is exactly the sort of content that is needed to help minimize stigma and show that a diagnosis does not define who you are or what you can do.
It's obviously not the same as schizophrenia, but I'm on the autistic spectrum, so I'm always glad to see some form of mental health awareness in fan media.
Loved the conversation between Claude and Dimitri about Dimitri's schizophrenia, too, and I love that it's kind of a normalized thing here and not treated as a Big Scary Thing. It's a mental illness that he's treating, part of his life but not the all-encompassing thing.
I also have a good friend with schizophrenia who has gotten way too much shit about it, so in addition to thanking you for writing a so-far-wonderful fic— thank you, thank you, thank you for helping more of the world get over their bad impressions. I have a whole selection of true funny stories I tell for the same purpose, and it just means the world to me that other people are working towards the same goal.
I think the choice to have Dimitri live with Schizophrenia was a really great choice precisely because it's not something that defines him in the story! I'm in medical school currently and I'm actually heavily considering psychiatry for my specialty. I can't say how much I love that you made it a part of his character but not his whole character. His confession to Claude hit me square in the chest with how real and vulnerable it felt.
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I certainly found it refreshing to see the day-to-day aspect of schizophrenia. Most of my experience in school centers around crisis management in an inpatient setting. So, I'm usually exposed to patients when things go wrong and they are at their lowest point. I only got any outpatient experience by going off on my own time. Seeing your friend's insights on living with schizophrenia in the notes and the text of the fic have been very enlightening for me in that regard.
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If you wouldn't mind, I'd love to take a look at it. Most of my medical training focuses on the diagnosis, disease progression, and medications. Our training on preparing people for the day-to-day of the disease is, unfortunately, mostly reserved for residents only. So unfortunately, I'm not quite at that level yet. But the saying goes in medicine, "It's better to know the person with the disease than the disease the person has," so any personal life experiences your friend has would be a real treat to learn from.
Frankly, I find with life-long diagnoses, it's nice to have some grasp of what patients have to deal with (the day to day bs). I have some experience personally with the lovely chestnut of anxiety/depression, and it really has helped me with tempering expectations of both patients and their families. There's so many small mental habits that I still have from that (my first diagnosis instinct being something far deadlier than is usually the case. It was very helpful in the ER.) I can't imagine how isolating it could be to just not realize what day-to-day life looks like for its disease. Frankly, I'm glad mental health has become a more everyday topic compared to even five years ago. Hopefully, we can get there with other mental health disorders soon. I'd like patients to not feel like pariahs due to their diagnosis.
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It's nice to see things I've seen patients experiencing but they couldn't put into words well explained in the document. Thank you so so much!
(james note: gaps were mostly just me referencing things you'd told me, and then linking your gdoc)
•Do you ever feel ashamed of what your other selves think and do? •Does your sexual preferences change? •What is your greatest frustration? •How do the people around you respond to your condition? •If there was a single cure-all, would you take it? Even if it would fundamentally change you as a person? •Do you have a «main» personality, or do they all feel interchangeable? •Whats your favorite color? Does the answer change?
I have a friend/acquaintance (complicated bc we used to be friends when we were classmates, but now she lives really far away - another continent far away - and we don't call or text often) who has schizophrenia. I've always had a lot of questions, but hesitated to put them to words enough that it... Might take me some time to articulate them properly. Here's two for now, though, and sorry in advance if they feel offensive :BlobFearSweat:
1) does shifting between personalities ever change the way you view people? Family and friends?
2) when it comes to potential new romantic/sexual/qp relationships, how do you view the person that you're... Courting, for lack of a better word. Does schizophrenia make it harder to pursue new relationships? Even platonic ones? And a third, bc this is imp.
3) How would a friend/family member being concerned about the individual with schizophrenia be viewed? What's a good way to show concern - without coming across as patronizing or offensive?
Ah! But if I may add any: what are common misconceptions that people associate to schizophrenia? Not sure if that's helpful but is the only I thought of right off the bat
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Questions from folks
Catcateightyeight
One thing i had to learn the hard way was that veryone experences their psychoses in dramatically different ways, and just hearing stuff from one person doesnt mean you know all there is to it. Having examples of different reactions or symptoms could be helpful (and creativly challenging).
pokechu
ouh
dragonsigma
luckless_salmon
bpforshort
thetomatowriter
hufflehobbit_writes
tearose_romantic
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I certainly found it refreshing to see the day-to-day aspect of schizophrenia. Most of my experience in school centers around crisis management in an inpatient setting. So, I'm usually exposed to patients when things go wrong and they are at their lowest point. I only got any outpatient experience by going off on my own time. Seeing your friend's insights on living with schizophrenia in the notes and the text of the fic have been very enlightening for me in that regard.
--
If you wouldn't mind, I'd love to take a look at it. Most of my medical training focuses on the diagnosis, disease progression, and medications. Our training on preparing people for the day-to-day of the disease is, unfortunately, mostly reserved for residents only. So unfortunately, I'm not quite at that level yet. But the saying goes in medicine, "It's better to know the person with the disease than the disease the person has," so any personal life experiences your friend has would be a real treat to learn from.
Frankly, I find with life-long diagnoses, it's nice to have some grasp of what patients have to deal with (the day to day bs). I have some experience personally with the lovely chestnut of anxiety/depression, and it really has helped me with tempering expectations of both patients and their families. There's so many small mental habits that I still have from that (my first diagnosis instinct being something far deadlier than is usually the case. It was very helpful in the ER.) I can't imagine how isolating it could be to just not realize what day-to-day life looks like for its disease. Frankly, I'm glad mental health has become a more everyday topic compared to even five years ago. Hopefully, we can get there with other mental health disorders soon. I'd like patients to not feel like pariahs due to their diagnosis.
--
It's nice to see things I've seen patients experiencing but they couldn't put into words well explained in the document. Thank you so so much!
(james note: gaps were mostly just me referencing things you'd told me, and then linking your gdoc)
Ellesra
•Does your sexual preferences change?
•What is your greatest frustration?
•How do the people around you respond to your condition?
•If there was a single cure-all, would you take it? Even if it would fundamentally change you as a person?
•Do you have a «main» personality, or do they all feel interchangeable?
•Whats your favorite color? Does the answer change?
adelmortescythe
Here's two for now, though, and sorry in advance if they feel offensive :BlobFearSweat:
1) does shifting between personalities ever change the way you view people? Family and friends?
2) when it comes to potential new romantic/sexual/qp relationships, how do you view the person that you're... Courting, for lack of a better word. Does schizophrenia make it harder to pursue new relationships? Even platonic ones?
And a third, bc this is imp.
3) How would a friend/family member being concerned about the individual with schizophrenia be viewed? What's a good way to show concern - without coming across as patronizing or offensive?
kichelmi
james questions