Schizophrenia seems normal?

[JisthenewK]

I saw on an episode of "Deadly Women" that a female serial killer used paranoid schizophrenia as a defense. However, the expert on the case said that since she was a successful business woman, she couldn't have had schizophrenia? Can't they seem normal though? Aren't there many people in society who have schizophrenia and don't seem like they have it?

[VileKyle]

That's old-world bullshit. Mental disorders aren't always as crippling as everyone assumes. They might make life more difficult, but they don't make it absolutely impossible to achieve success in life. I personally know several successful people who are doing great in their jobs and personal lives. I even have a bad mental disability (although it isn't schizophrenia) and I'm putting myself through college.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

There are varying degrees to most mental illnesses.

http://www.webmd.com/schizophrenia/ss/sl...a-overview Lists the symptoms in a slide show. Not all symptoms will present in a patient, nor will a patient necessarily be crippled by the disorder.

Perhaps what the expert was trying to say is that in this case the defendant didn't present with a history of schizophrenia that would jive with the crime?

[Sylph]

That's old-world bullshit. Mental disorders aren't always as crippling as everyone assumes. They might make life more difficult, but they don't make it absolutely impossible to achieve success in life. I personally know several successful people who are doing great in their jobs and personal lives. I even have a bad mental disability (although it isn't schizophrenia) and I'm putting myself through college.

And not only this, but "Normal" is a relative and subjective adjective...

What's Normal to one, is Abnormal to another and is downright Extra-Terrestrial to some.

A better term would be ; Schizophrenia seems okay or fine?

Cause Normal implies varies stigmas and judgements and while it's easier to use, as people normally ( ) bundle many meaning to the word, this is exactly why it's oxymoronic and is therefore a Paradox within itself.

It has no meaning, yet means whatever you want it to. So how can "Normal" be anything but one person's views and opinions, that may sometimes coincide with another's?

It's a very tricky word :p

I personally Believe not every "Disorder",another tricky word, is debilitating and most are only to an extent, except for things such as Alzheimers and the like, which can be inconducive to everyday life.

So, yes, you can have Schizophrenia and be sucessful and it be "Normal"(in this context, is the representation of my opinion and view on the subject).



What's up wif all these hawd questions Mr.? ;p

[Tyrion]

Not an expert, but schizophrenia in general is a very debilitating mental disorder. I'm guessing there may be varying degrees of it, but I have a cousin who was schizophrenic (she is now deceased).. and without her medication (and even often with it), she was not at all functional in terms of living or behaving normally. I personally would find it hard to believe that someone could be schizophrenic and able to hide it.. without people at least suspecting that something is wrong.

[Pix]

I am curious about this...my understanding is that schizophrenia was something that can be measured in the brain and is generally obvious in others as they act upon very distorted thoughts and delusions. A paranoid schizophrenic would definitely be noted, even the ones who aren't obviously dangerous, such as this woman (not to be confused with more typical conspiracy theorists):




Granted, there's a lot of insanity in people, in fact I'd say it's the norm (for example, kids arrested and charged with felonies for wearing the wrong clothing to school or writing a story about fighting zombies at school, and the system and most people don't have a problem with that, and to me that's utterly insane, or like that school that gave out free lappies to students and then secretly spied on them at home through the cams and reporting even bad dietary habits to parents and then surprised when the FBI started investigating them for possibly child porn, given what many, if not most, teen boys would do with a free computer when they thought no one was watching...hmm, maybe paranoid schizos are actually more sane than the rest of us!). (ETA: Heck, many even demonstrate brain delusions in presumably healthy brains, such as this.) But NOT schizophrenia, at least as I understand it.

If I'm wrong on this then please tell me how it was discovered such ordinary seeming people were actually suffering schizophrenia and if there were tests (NOT "answer the question" tests, but I mean like brain scans and blood samples) done that showed it was present, and had been for awhile.

And btw, if you can show me what I'm asking for I'm going to change my view on schizophrenics and include them with neurodiversity, that is no longer needing help (the problem more with society than the schizo), at least not necessarily. After all plenty of people without such a condition are just as dysfunctional and/or delusional!

[MisterLove]

I saw on an episode of "Deadly Women" that a female serial killer used paranoid schizophrenia as a defense. However, the expert on the case said that since she was a successful business woman, she couldn't have had schizophrenia? Can't they seem normal though? Aren't there many people in society who have schizophrenia and don't seem like they have it?

Schizophrenia is much more common than you think.

My mother is a violent sz who refuses to get any treatment and yes, she is perfectly independant and able to have a normal life. She's delusional (e.g. yesterday she said the dogs were sleepy because someone tried to poison them) but very mischievous as well and tries to conceal her condition from others. She never screams or uses foul language when someone other than my father or me is around.

Moreover she takes great pleasure in the pain she knows she is causing to those around her. She knows what she's doing is wrong but she does it anyway.

She was always a terrible mother, abusive and manipulative, but things have become unbearable in the last two or three years.

[megumidesu]

I saw on an episode of "Deadly Women" that a female serial killer used paranoid schizophrenia as a defense. However, the expert on the case said that since she was a successful business woman, she couldn't have had schizophrenia? Can't they seem normal though? Aren't there many people in society who have schizophrenia and don't seem like they have it?

yes it is possible
i know someone who is schizophrenic but most of the time you wouldn't know unless he told you ...

[MisterLove]

That's old-world bullshit. Mental disorders aren't always as crippling as everyone assumes. They might make life more difficult, but they don't make it absolutely impossible to achieve success in life. I personally know several successful people who are doing great in their jobs and personal lives. I even have a bad mental disability (although it isn't schizophrenia) and I'm putting myself through college.

Yes, this is correct. Sz is not incapacitating, I had a colleague once that was sz and she was perfectly able to do her work, as long as she took her medication.

[Undreamt]

I would say its bad paraphrasing that gets reinterpreted into something completely different again.

I've quoted the definition of mental disorder from the DSM-IV below (psychologists handbook for those who don't know what it is). What it all boils down to is ability to function.

If you have symptoms of a condition but it doesn't reduce your abilities to behave in a stereotypical "normal" manner, then you don't have a mental disorder.

This is probably the point that the expert was trying to get to.
A stand up comedian couldn't use a generalized anxiety disorder to get out of giving a speech,
A miner couldn't use claustraphobia as a reason to avoid lifts,
So why should a successful business women who probably spends half their day running between meetings talking to many different people that they have never met befor, use PARANOID schizophrenia as a defense? (If it was previously diagnosed and she used medication and mental stratagies to offset her problem it would be a differnt matter but that infomaiton doesn't seem to be availible)



"The definition of mental disorder... has helped to guide decisions regarding which conditions on the boundary between normality and pathology should be included in DSM-IV. In DSM-IV, each of
the mental disorders is conceptualized as a clinically significant behavioral or psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in an individual and that is associated with present distress (e.g., a painful symptom) or disability (i.e., impairment in one or more important areas of functioning) or with a significantly increased risk of suffering death, pain, disability, or an important loss of freedom. In addition, this syndrome or pattern must not he merely an expectable and culturally sanctioned
response to a particular event, for example, the death of a loved one- Whatever its
original cause, it must currently be considered a manifestation of behavioral, psychological, or biological dysfunction in the individual. Neither deviant behavior (e.g., political, religious, or sexual) nor conflicts that are primarily between the individual and society are mental disorders unless the deviance or conflict is a symptom of a dysfunction in the individual, as described above."