Born Schizophrenic: January's Story
 

Anyone else watch this? I believe it was on Discovery Health last night. That was a touching story to me. I do not believe I could be as strong as those parents.

I saw that a few months ago...
Terribly sad, the parents living in separate apartments so that January does not harm the baby. Cant imagine :(

I have watched a lot of documentaries on January. She was on Oprah a few years ago too. I really commend her parents for going to the lengths that they do to try to make her life as live-able as possible. Schizophrenia is such an amazing disease and it wraps people up so strongly - it is really interesting and so tragic. I cannot even begin to understand what it is like to have things in your reality that are not actually real.

Has anyone watched the movie "A Beautiful Mind"?

I have not seen the movie, what's it about?

A Beautiful Mind is about a really brilliant mathematician who is schizophrenic. It's an amazing film that really shows you what it must be like.

I'll check it out, thanks.

My mum was diagnosed when i was 13, but it was an incredibly slow diagnosis, and she had been pretty bad since I was about 10.

I guess I was 'lucky' in that she only had 2 stays in hospital, 2 months total. The first didn't really help, but when she came out the 2nd time she was like a whole new woman. Of course fast forward a bit, and once the medications kick in, they're so strong it really drains a person of their personality and ability to function normally.

It's an incredibly difficult thing to live with, I didn't even understand what was wrong with her until about 15-16. I had absolutely no support or guidance to explain to me what was happening, and that it was okay. Instead i felt confused and scared by her behavior, and slurred my way through excuses to friends about why I was staying with my nan, or why I couldn't have friends over etc.

I actually read an article by Tulisa from N-Dubz, who went through the same scenario. It has such a lot of stigma attached to it, it can feel very lonely thinking you can't tell someone because they'll make a joke etc, like they don't understand the real gravity of it. I still have a very hard time actually saying my mum was/is schizophrenic, I spent so long trying to pretend it wasn't there/hide it, it doesn't come naturally to me anymore.

I wish I could forget everything I saw and heard, but since i can't I just try and think of a quotation. "Misfortunes are often sent to test our fortitude, and may often reveal themselves as blessings in disguise"

At any rate I'm grateful to be able to have a relationship with my mum now, it can be a real struggle, but there are good moments where it almost feels normal :).

Wow I didn't mean to waffle so much! :x

It would be really interesting to hear other peoples accounts of this disease.

January's family is totally amazing - what they have been through and they never give up on her. She has been very very difficult to manage practically since birth and was such a danger to her younger brother they had to get 2 apartments and parents switch off living with the kids. They couldn't turn their back on her for a minute because she can get into a weird/violent fantasy mode where she "hears voices" to hurt herself or others. One thing that totally annoys me is when everyone blames the parents for the kids problems. The brain is a very physical thing and there are so many unbalances we don't understand. Yes sometimes kids acting "bad" is because of bad parenting but people should never make that assumption.

I may have to check this out. I have an MSW and worked for years with adults with serious mental illness. Most suffered from schizophrenia. Russell Crowe does a pretty good job in A Beautiful Mind, but that man he portrays (it's based on a real person) does not have the typical life of someone with schizophrenia. He's pretty high functioning.

Not the same, but have any of you read Marya Hornbacher's book Madness? It's a memoir of a woman who struggles with bipolar disorder (and she has a few psychotic episodes). It's really heartwrenching. She also wrote a book about her experience with eating disorders, too. I think that one's called Wasted.

The mind is so complex, isn't it?

Check out her father's site janisjourney.org. Such a touching story, and beautiful little girl. So sad that she has these 'demons' to contend with :(