Evidence To The Contrary

One of the often-quoted symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia is a loss of touch with reality. However, it is important to stress that the person living with schizophrenia and currently struggling with its symptoms still perceives the world in a way that is convincing to them and can even make sense to them. The LEAP Method we discussed in a previous blog takes account of this scenario. Suppose you are dealing with someone undergoing a crisis with schizophrenia and behaving in an unusual way that you cannot explain by what is happening in that person’s environment. In that case, it serves nothing to point out why their interpretations are faulty and that the actual picture is so and so.

In my experience of living with schizophrenia, a relapse, or psychotic break, brings a sudden change in what my senses tell me and a conviction that my mind is an open book to be read and written in by people wanting my downfall. My feelings and my mind are trying to work together even though I am struggling. In a persecutory state, my senses are perturbed, and my mind tries to interpret that perturbation. My reality may not coincide with the consensus of those around me about what is going on, but it is genuine and convincing to me. A negative or argumentative interaction with me by someone who may be afraid of me, trying to convince me of their reality, does nothing but distress me and add to my feeling of persecution. The best avenue for someone to take with me is to neither agree nor disagree with how I perceive the world. The best tactic is to simply understand I need kind support. They can acknowledge that they realize I am experiencing things in a way that is real to me without trying to talk me out of it. 

Luckily, I have some objectivity thanks to my medication, and I usually, within a few weeks of a mental health crisis beginning, contact my doctors. They know me well enough to help me gain stability via therapy and medication. Therefore, I am not looking to anyone but my doctors for help finding a reality closer to the consensus of those around me again.

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