Misconceptions about Schizophrenia

I have schizophrenia, and I am sick. Sick of stigma. It cripples me more than the disease, and that’s saying a lot. I’m tired of people with schizophrenia being thought of as violent, creepy, stupid, and incapable.

Schizophrenics are not programmed for violence. An Emergency Medical Services textbook states that someone who hears voices telling them to hurt people must be considered dangerous. This is incorrect. That person is willing to discuss their symptoms with healthcare providers and needs help. Someone who is brave enough to risk being laughed at, demeaned, shamed, or even locked up to discuss their symptoms should receive immediate and adequate help.

Many behaviors that people call “creepy” are in fact just different, unrecognizable and impossible to understand because people like us have been hidden from society for so long. Even as an adult, I listen to Part of your World from The Little Mermaid on repeat, because all I want is to be part of society. I don’t want to be hidden.

Take pacing, a common activity among people with schizophrenia who are taking medications that block dopamine in the brain. The lack of dopamine causes what’s known as extrapyramidal symptoms, an excitement of part of the nervous system. As a result, their legs move uncontrollably and they can’t sit still. I personally experienced group after group of travelers staring at me after I got off of an airplane and had to walk in circles repeatedly to alleviate the pain I felt in my legs. I felt great shame as their eyes bored into me and they pressed their lips together into smug smiles. While it may seem strange to watch someone walking back and forth in a small room, it’s actually a symptom of the medication, not the disease.

A lot of behaviors exhibited are results of the medication. I was once prescribed three times the amount of amphetamines necessary for my body weight after a doctor incorrectly determined I had Attention Deficit Disorder, not schizophrenia. I became very agitated and started throwing inanimate objects at walls. I felt shame as I picked up the pieces of glass. The behavior was terrifyingly scary, yes, but it wasn’t violence directed at humans and it was a direct result of the medication.

Or take head-banging, a behavior exhibited by many with mental illness of all sorts. The physical pain resulting from it releases serotonin in the brain, alleviating stress. The behavior becomes addictive, the way a medicine would. Someone who is in so much pain that they are willing to smash their brain against their skull needs compassion and help, not rebuke and ridicule.

Another common misconception is that people with schizophrenia are stupid, A Beautiful Mind’s John Nash being the only possible exception (don’t even get me started on the inaccuracies of that movie). We are normal people of normal intelligence, and we’re capable of working jobs, getting married, raising children, and living normal lives, but only if society accepts us.

The hallmark of schizophrenia is not violence, or stupidity, or creepy behavior. It’s confusion. Confusion about what to say, how to act, and who’s around you. You don’t know what’s real as far as others’ behaviors and intentions go. You know that the mailman, for example, just glanced inside your window in passing, but, without medicine, you wonder if his intentions are sinister. It’s scary. With medicine, dopamine stays at a normal level and you go about your day. Without it, you spend the whole day in fear.

That’s why it’s so important to understand that schizophrenics are normal people who just need medicine. The exceptional case of John Nash from A Beautiful Mind should not encourage others to disregard this live-saving treatment. The vast majority of people with schizophrenia cannot convince themselves their delusions are false any more than a drug user can voluntarily end their trip at any time; it’s just brain chemistry. Society needs to understand that people with schizophrenia are normal human beings who just need to take the right medicine to live healthy, productive lives.