Artesian wrote:Rolly-polly, thank you so much. *glomp* :3 You give such excellent advice. ^-^ Do you have any websites, forums or resources that you'd suggest for that? Any that you've found interesting or useful? Any insights that you've found, talking to them? tell me everythiiiiing!
xD Sadly, the sites I've visited are in German, but I think these might be helpful:
schizophrenia forum - it's a scientific forum run by specialists mostly, and they're discussing all kinds of things regarding schizophrenia. Plus, it has resources.
psych forums - schizophrenia -- this one's a forum for schizophrenics. They have topics like "what was your first episode like" and "Do your voices argue about things?" and other interesting topics. There are some who share their stories and all. It might also help to register there and ask around :3 I'm sure some of them will help you, as I think there are some who like talking about how it feels for them (maybe just to let it out or to try to make others understand better).
There are non-schizophrenic people on there who ask questions too, so I think it's generally accepted ^^
As for my own experiences...
There was this one woman who seemed to be very clear in thinking and all. She had schizophrenia for some years now, but she seemed completely normal to me. She became really religious, though, and I'm not sure if it's because of her condition or just because. Many schizophrenic patients get into religion, even if they didn't believe before, and she always managed to talk about that topic. She also sometimes talked about finding sense in the voices she heard. And sometimes thinking that she quite liked them when they weren't abusive or too strong. She felt like they were a part of her she'd miss. Sometimes she dressed rather peculiarly. One time she had a rhinestone sticking to her forehead, for example.
Then there was this one man whose speech was a bit confusing. When the doctors asked him how he was he started talking about comets, and in general it was hard to follow his thoughts, but it was as if everything made perfect sense to him. And he seemed really nice and calm. He also attended his groups and therapy.
Then there was one pretty boisterous woman. She wasn't as pleasant to talk to as the others, but I don't think it's because of her condition but rather because she always had a sour expression and a hostile posture with crossed arms and all. And she was direct. She also didn't hesitate to explain what bad stuff she experienced. Sometimes she didn't talk. But I haven't had much contact with her, so I can't tell you much ^^°
I also can't tell you what's going on in their minds, but I can imagine that the hallucinations (most common are auditory ones) can seem very real, especially when they aren't treated in any way. Voices tend to comment their actions, sometimes they command them to do certain things. And don't forget that there are many types of psychosis. Paranoid schizophrenia is probably the most common. There was one woman who was convinced her neighbours spied on her. Everything made sense in her world - she even thought she found a bugging device attached to her bike, and that she only was in the ward for her safety while the cops handled her neighbours.
I
think the movie "A beautiful mind" is a good depiction of such delusions and hallucinations. John Nash is quite famous because he's a unique case.
And right now I'm a bit tired. Need the sleep desperately (as I said, I just turned in my bachelor thesis yesterday and slept for about 20 minutes the night before xD). If you want to know more, I just checked out that second link and some topics are really very interesting, especially when people talk about their voices and delusions and stuff. Things can get nasty real fast. Having false memories is apparently a problem for many of them, too. Remembering things that never happened and acting upon them. Stuff like that. I guess unreasonable stuff is easier to uncover for them than things that could have actually happened. A shark jumping at you in the middle of the street, I imagine, is easier to detect as wrong than remembering a fight with your friend which never happened.