I had to stop watching this youtube lecture posted by Stanford University entitled "Schizophrenia." It was like listening to some horrible spiel describing the 1% totally demented, violent, antagonistic schizophrenics as though these profiles were common place.
I would be offended if somebody told me a racist remark. Why is nobody offended by these prejudiced remarks about the mentally ill? Listening to this lecturer give his speech was like sitting in on horror story after horror story about worse-case scenarios. First he starts talking about a male with a history of psychiatric hospitalizations who was attending a prestigious medical University ("Should he even have been there," laments the lecturer) who then goes on to castrate himself because of delusions. The next story involved a woman in another country who killed a goat with her bare hands and was running around naked.
Why didn't he tell stories about more common place schizophrenics: Roy refused to get out of bed for 2 weeks because he was hearing voices. Roy eventually went on medication. Roy then recovered.
Or, Maria believed she was about to be killed so she ran away from home and was brought back by police after her family called in a missing person. Maria went in and out of hospitals. Doctors all listened to Stanford lecturers and convinced Maria and her family that she was fated to be a goat-killing lunatic with no chance of a future. Maria now lives on the street and talks to herself while feeding pigeons.
To quote the Stanford Lecturer to audience of easily influenced undergrads: (about the male schizophrenic med student) "should he even have been there?"
It depends how much you value your constitution sir. Equality can be a bitch, sometimes, can't it? I would like you to know that out there somewhere is a graduate of medical school with paranoid schizophrenia---and he still has his testicles. No self-castration there.
As for his claim that stressors turn all schizophrenics into self-harming threats: there are anti-anxiety drugs out there for sale pretty cheap nowadays. No stressful anxiety=small chance of total psychotic break.
To recap the contents of this blog, I've been at the University for a year now. Gee, maybe it's not Stanford, but hell, after that, you can bet I wouldn't apply there or look up to somebody who got their psych degree at Stanford. Anyways, each term I've had a loved one die. Is that not a major stressor? According to the lecturer's logic I'd be cutting on myself or on a goat and running around naked right about now. First semester, my aunt dies in a tragic car accident and leaves my young cousins orphans (my uncle died years ago). Summer session my cousin commits suicide. I was very fond of that cousin and we had lived in the same house for several years. I got a 4.0 and no goats were harmed. When the regular semester began I was still in mourning yet I managed to make the Dean's list. Then, I managed to get a 3.2 taking 16 units after watching my beloved grandfather get taken off his respirator. Then, this semester, my close friend, classmate, and secret crush dies of a heart attack. I am not psychotic at the moment, despite forgetting to take my medication for weeks at a time.
I am sad, yes. I am struggling, yes. But I monitor my behavior, my emails, and my moods. I am not unique. I am one of many schizophrenics struggling to be accepted, respected, and advanced in society, despite naysayers, haters, and prejudiced people condemning us; be it on religious or pseudo-scientific grounds.
I am glad I live in California where the recovery and reintegration model is accepted and adhered to. My psychiatrist knows damn well that I, and other schizophrenics, do not tend to kill goats while psychotic, or castrate ourselves. I hope one day, the rest of you well know that as well.
I would be offended if somebody told me a racist remark. Why is nobody offended by these prejudiced remarks about the mentally ill? Listening to this lecturer give his speech was like sitting in on horror story after horror story about worse-case scenarios. First he starts talking about a male with a history of psychiatric hospitalizations who was attending a prestigious medical University ("Should he even have been there," laments the lecturer) who then goes on to castrate himself because of delusions. The next story involved a woman in another country who killed a goat with her bare hands and was running around naked.
Why didn't he tell stories about more common place schizophrenics: Roy refused to get out of bed for 2 weeks because he was hearing voices. Roy eventually went on medication. Roy then recovered.
Or, Maria believed she was about to be killed so she ran away from home and was brought back by police after her family called in a missing person. Maria went in and out of hospitals. Doctors all listened to Stanford lecturers and convinced Maria and her family that she was fated to be a goat-killing lunatic with no chance of a future. Maria now lives on the street and talks to herself while feeding pigeons.
To quote the Stanford Lecturer to audience of easily influenced undergrads: (about the male schizophrenic med student) "should he even have been there?"
It depends how much you value your constitution sir. Equality can be a bitch, sometimes, can't it? I would like you to know that out there somewhere is a graduate of medical school with paranoid schizophrenia---and he still has his testicles. No self-castration there.
As for his claim that stressors turn all schizophrenics into self-harming threats: there are anti-anxiety drugs out there for sale pretty cheap nowadays. No stressful anxiety=small chance of total psychotic break.
To recap the contents of this blog, I've been at the University for a year now. Gee, maybe it's not Stanford, but hell, after that, you can bet I wouldn't apply there or look up to somebody who got their psych degree at Stanford. Anyways, each term I've had a loved one die. Is that not a major stressor? According to the lecturer's logic I'd be cutting on myself or on a goat and running around naked right about now. First semester, my aunt dies in a tragic car accident and leaves my young cousins orphans (my uncle died years ago). Summer session my cousin commits suicide. I was very fond of that cousin and we had lived in the same house for several years. I got a 4.0 and no goats were harmed. When the regular semester began I was still in mourning yet I managed to make the Dean's list. Then, I managed to get a 3.2 taking 16 units after watching my beloved grandfather get taken off his respirator. Then, this semester, my close friend, classmate, and secret crush dies of a heart attack. I am not psychotic at the moment, despite forgetting to take my medication for weeks at a time.
I am sad, yes. I am struggling, yes. But I monitor my behavior, my emails, and my moods. I am not unique. I am one of many schizophrenics struggling to be accepted, respected, and advanced in society, despite naysayers, haters, and prejudiced people condemning us; be it on religious or pseudo-scientific grounds.
I am glad I live in California where the recovery and reintegration model is accepted and adhered to. My psychiatrist knows damn well that I, and other schizophrenics, do not tend to kill goats while psychotic, or castrate ourselves. I hope one day, the rest of you well know that as well.
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