January 15, 2008
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Voices in My head
Not a day after my post about vagina centipedes, my bro sent me a link to this
that’s right, a horror movie about a girl who has teeth in her naughty bits. I did not believe this was a real trailer either, but it is actually based on a common myth, notably of several native american cultures (thanks, wikipedia!)In other hospital related news, while I dont particularly plan on going into psychiatry, I am enjoying speaking with the schizophrenic patients. It is probably the most interesting part of my day. I mean, lets face it, talking to depressed people is, frankly, depressing, but talking with manics and schizophrenics can be downright fun at times, if only because you honestly never know what they will say next
one of my patients is Mr K. who is such a textbook case of schizophrenia I can’t even begin to tell you how fascinating he is. He has the signs such as clang associations (rhyming words in speech…as in I thought a thing wing bling ching ding), and loose associations of thought, neologisms (words that are made up on the spot and sound like real words, but only have significance to the patient, like pessilence, or conjulgarated)
He also holds two persistent bizarre delusions. One is that he is the president of the united states, and the other is that he is pregnant with 9 babies. Occasionally, he hear the voices of the babies telling him things, but unlike most schizophrenics who hear voices, Mr K’s dont tell him to hurt himself (at least not while i have seen him), but instead command him to eat things for breakfast, or other things.
But lets be serious for just a moment. Mental illness often reveals itself in the late teens and early 20s,
and it’s often genetic. It takes a terrible toll on patients–they go
from functioning in the primes of their lives to becoming isolated,
lost, and removed from the world that they know.Imagine for one minute
that you’re schizophrenic. Voices from inside your own brain tell you
things–they’re so real that your brain’s auditory centers actually
light up as if they’re hearing things. They tell you terrible, horrible
things, 24 hours a day. That you’re a terrible person, that the police
are coming for you, that you’ve done something terribly wrong. And sometimes the voices appear to be coming from not just inside your own head, but your television or radio.Want to
know why schizophrenics so often are wearing headphones or earplugs, or
are singing to themselves? They’re trying to find some way to drown out
the voices that speak to them all day long.I have heard from some of the other residents that to catch Mr K on one of his rare lucid days is truly a sight to behold…I hope I am privileged enough to see it
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Interesting stuff doc, I like reading your psych studies. I’d rather be a doctor diagnosing psych studies than a normal person running into psychos. What do you think about narcicissts? (Can’t spell this morning.) Too bad you aren’t in California, it would be interesting to sit down and talk, especially when I’m too out of it to type.
I have always had a theory that maybe some of these so called “crazy” people aren’t so crazy. For example, rare gifted people who sees and talks to dead people. Some might say that they’re crazy whereas it is a real projection, not from the minds but from their acute gifted six sense. Do we always call what doesn’t make sense to us a sickness [mental wise]? Perhaps some of these strange things do exist but only some can coexist with it. Know what I mean? I don’t know? It sounds really absurd, but maybe something do talk to them and make them say and act a certain way.