Insanity sometimes is the sane response to a mad society; insanity need not always be a breakdown; it can also be a breakthrough! --Ronald David Laing

Today after attending the weekly seminar held in Psychology where guest speakers are invited to speak about their research interests, I came out feeling refreshed and hopeful. Schizophrenia, characterized by delusions, hallucinations and signs of "madness" is not merely a biological illness. Some people may be more susceptible than others due to genetics (although no specific gene has been found to 'cause' schizophrenia), but genetics alone definitely cannot account for why people become "mad". One study showed very clearly that high risk individuals (I think they are those with family history of schizophrenia), when put in positive familial environments, are not anymore likely than low risk individuals to become schizophrenics. Only when high risk individuals coupled with adverse circumstances, will their likelihood shoot up.

This shows that there IS hope. When a person goes "mad", all is not lost. There are many things that are within the family/friends' control, things that they can do to help the individual recover. In my opinion, support and love are the most important. The individual needs to feel that they have something to fall back upon, that they are not alone in this.

Psychosis is a term used to describe people who have "lost touch with reality". They lose their personality, their normal social functioning, they experience hallucinations, delusional thoughts, and hear voices. It's very similar to schizo. Don't really know the distinction between these two mental illnesses. But there has been many clinical psychologists who are at the forefront of research, who experienced psychosis themselves, in the past. One of them, in a very serious state of psychosis, threw himself under a London Bus; he survived. He now is well, and recently wrote a book about the illness, and urges people to rethink the medical model (which uses medicine to try to treat symptoms). There are so many other factors such as cognition, societal and psychological that play an important role in the development of psychosis.

I felt refreshed and hopeful because I realized that there is so much to be done! So much CAN be done to help people with mental illnesses. There really is a very thin line between sanity and insanity, being normal and being depressed. Life events or circumstances that trigger vulnerability in an individual can tip the state of "normal" into something classified as a mental illness very quickly. Surely, there shouldn't need be any kind of stigmatization attached to these vulnerable people, for who can tell whether oneself wouldn't have the same reaction if one stands in the shoes of those who are vulnerable? And medicine really is the last resort. It doesnt cure, it perhaps relieves symptoms temporarily. Having spoken to people who have gone through more than me, I know that medicine is something that is shunned and avoided.

Yup. Just some thoughts.. it's all a bit incoherent, but hope it enlightens some of u who are reading this post, especially if there are deep-rooted stereotypes of mental patients in your minds, which may not be very helpful.

These days, I feel.. Different. I feel like I'm becoming a new person.