--Original published at olivyahvanek

--Original published at Sherika's Psych Blog

Schizophrenia is often ones of psychologies most misunderstood psychoses. Often times in the media, the condition is treated as not as the life altering psychosis that it is but instead a condition that is romanticized in nature along with mental health and illness in general. In the YouTube video titled, “Types of Schizophrenia- A day in the life of (Scary),” the video walks the viewer through the life of someone living with the condition. Allowing the viewer to experience audio-sensory stimulation that someone living with either undiagnosed or diagnosed condition of Schizophrenia might live through.

The video starts of light-hearted enough with the viewer going about their daily morning routine, getting prepared, dressed, and even enjoying a morning cup of coffee. However, the video soon takes a differing turn as the viewer begins to hear disembodied voices and even believes that the phone rings. The voices soon begin to fill the viewer with doubt, arguing that people are conspiring against them, attempting to poison them, and even convince the viewer to not take medicine that is prescribed to them. All while filling the viewer with doubt and negative thoughts about themselves.

The viewer then hallucinates that weather people on the television is talking to them or that someone harmless like a pizza delivery person is out to get them. Overall the experience itself felt stressful, like I myself was constantly at war with my own thoughts and felt paranoid all the time. Like what if the delivery person who is still standing outside my home and notices me looking through the window really wishes harm against me?

Overall, the entire experience was nothing like what the media romanticizes Schizophrenia to be and the only shows I’ve ever seen get it right or weekday detective dramas that have officers on a local and federal level who interact with suspects or witnesses that have Schizophrenia. The media still, however, has a long way to go when it comes to the portrayal of conditions like Schizophrenia and other mental illnesses and mental health in general.

--Original published at JVershinski's Blog

I thought this simulation was very cool to be a part of. It was interesting to be taken through a day in the life of a schizophrenic, and it helped to show the things that are not normally depicted by the media. Without much knowledge or background with schizophrenia, this video really helped to show someone what a schizophrenic could experience in a typical day. I think that the voices heard played a key role in how I personally felt in the simulation, and the continuous conflict did not make focusing easy. The hallucinations were quite interesting to see and would not settle well with me if I was experiencing them.

In the media, schizophrenics are typically depicted as very insane or crazy. They are shown as people with no control of themselves or the actions they take, and are spoken of as if they are an alien. They are treated as someone completely different and isolated from the real world. This is not how it should be. While schizophrenics do experience things that a “normal” person wouldn’t, this does not make them insane or crazy. Yes, the hallucinations they experience and the voices they hear are typically associated with the mentally insane, but the life we followed in the video does not seem insane. It was certainly different, and the person acted differently than a “normal” person would have, but I think that the media takes things too far with people who have mental conditions, and pushes the boundaries with how they show them.

--Original published at Courtney's College Blog

For this assignment, I watched the video stimulating the life of someone with schizophrenia. The person had shaky vision and heightened senses. The sound of the water droplets in the sink, car beeping, and outside noises were prominent. There were many negative voices in the person’s head that sometimes were fighting with each other, and other times telling the person that he is “stupid,” along with other negative adjectives. He did not take his medication. There was a news story about a robbery on the television. The man kept thinking, “they know,” which leads me to believe the man did it. The people on the television were directly talking to him. When the pizza came, the man was hesitant to open the door, and made the interaction as quickly as possible. He believed that the pizza man was a part of a group plotting against him, and that the pizza was poisonous. He heard pounding on the door, and thought someone was breaking in. It was actually a woman who lived with him, and it was unclear whether she was a wife, mother, or another figure. She noticed that he did not take his medicine and told him to take it. She told him that he should go outside, which was percieved as offensive to the man. 

The stimulation is similar to how schizophrenia is seen in the media, although schizophrenia cannot be classified as whole because every person shows it differently. People with schizophrenia are commonly known to not take their medicine. They are withdrawn, which is shown because the man stayed in his house all day with no desire to leave. I was also not surprised by the man’s heightened senses. People with schizophrenia sometimes are criminals, as seen in the news broadcast. Also, I expected the man to have trouble making decisions. I wish the video showed the man talking. Schizophrenia in the media is shown by abnormal speech and sentences that do not make sense, so I wonder how the video would have portrayed that. The video was intriguing, and I am looking forward to learning more about mental illness in this chapter.