Today in the mental health conference, there was an activity where the goal was to have a deeper understanding of people with auditory hallucinations, specifically, people with schizophrenia. We were all given tiny mp3 players with ear buds and instructed to follow the schedule of activities for an hour. The audio recordings were several different voices, all saying different things, all terrible, negative things all at the same time and would fade in and out in volume. We were then expected to interact with people and answer lots of complicated questions from psychiatrists or nurses while the voices played loudly in our ears. Or we were made to read moderately complicated materials and answer comprehensive questions afterward. It was impossible to focus. The staff were mean, patronizing, or dismissive (they were instructed to behave this way) and would not answer any questions clearly. No directions were very clear so we all had to figure it out. Moral of this post: if you think you know or understand mental illness, especially schizophrenia, you are tragically mistaken. I was moved to tears feeling frustrated, helpless, and CONSTANTLY antagonized by relentless voices. I am humbled and have a new respect for these tortured people who deal with this from the moment the wake up until they are actually able to fall asleep, though I cant figure out how on earth this is possible. I was lucky enough to be able to remove the ear bud voices where 2.5 million people are NOT.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 02:09:00 +0000
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