This is my contribution to Jenny's new writing contest about personal stories about knowing and helping disabled people.
It is also in response to a conversation going on about the movie "A Beautiful Mind" between Lector, Lestat and others.
Dear Lector and Lestat,
I've been following your discussion about the reality or unreality of the visions and experiences the man in "A Beautiful Mind" has as a result of his schizophrenia. Although I haven't yet seen "A Beautiful Mind," I do have a good friend, whom I will call Laura, who is a severe schizophrenic. She became ill when she was only about 15, and she is now 60 years old. To attain such an age is remarkable for a severe schizophrenic, because mostly they commit suicide. Some die of accidents and things as a side effect of the illness and medication. For instance, once while very ill and travelling around the country Laura was gang-raped. She has also been violent at times and broken things. She was not able to live near her family because of the difficulties her illness caused. They stay in touch with her at arm's length. She lives in Canada and they live in the USA. Once she was married, but the marriage was destroyed by the illness. She regrets it as she loved and maybe still somewhat loves her former husband. I have talked with her more than once when she was in despair, and she says I have helped her not to kill herself.
There is a new medication for schizophrenia. It has made it possible for Laura to come out from under the schizophrenia and the older, very heavy and disabling medications. She used to walk around extremely slowly, in a mental fog from them, with a thick, enlarged tongue that slurred her speech so we couldn't understand most of what she was trying to say. Saliva was always running. These, and more, were the medication's side effectd, but they at least dampened the effects of the schizophrenia. Laura is a warm, large-hearted woman with deep understanding, quick wits and a wonderful sense of humour. She is highly intelligent and even well-travelled. She is a writer and she continued to try to write under her handicaps. Now she is being celebrated on tv and in print because she is one of the first and oldest to be helped by this medication. She is trying to encourage others with schizophrenia and other debilitating illnesses to have hope. She was recently elected vice president of the Schizophrenia Society and sits on several boards of directors of other organizations. She has been given grants to write about her experience because she is a rare one who has survived and recovered. It takes a great deal of bravery not to kill yourself under the conditions of severe schizophrenia.
About 1 in 100 people all around the world will suffer from this illness. There are a range of severity.
Her physican says my friend is the worst case of schizophrenic she ever saw, and that now, as a result of the new medication there is only a small amount of that disorder left. It has now been possible to discover that she also suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder, and social deficiencies she didn't learn because of the disabling schizophrenia.
She recently had breast cancer and bravely chose a mastectomy and plastic surgery over chemotherapy so it would not affect her schizophrenia medication. She has been through so much that she was able to be very brave about the cancer and, thankfully, it appears she is free of it. Her specialists and social workers attribute the fact that she did not commit suicide mostly to her Baha'i friends and community, and her strong faith in God.
I have been one of her friends for the past thirty years. I remember the years when she was hearing voices all the time. They would begin as friendly voices, but as she listened to them and responded they would become insulting, threatening and increasingly terrible, and tell her bad things about the people around her as well as about herself. They cursed, insulted and humiliated her. I remember when she indicated that they were talking in her head against me. She found it difficult to reject them in their friendly stages, and then they would turn upon her. She believed they were real communications from other people, perhaps from the next world. Now she doesn't have many voices and halluciations, and if she occasionally does she ignores them as she now understands how destructive they are.
Schizophrenia is not romantic. It is a terrible scourge. It destroys young lives and minds. I know of two families who recently discovered their sons have schizophrenia. In one family it was both their sons. It is still a terrible grief to the young people and the families involved. I hope medications will continue to improve. When I talked with Laura yesterday on the phone I had to ask her to repeat herself quite a few times, so there is room for improvement, but she is really a new woman. No -- she is herself at last.
Best wishes to you both, Maryk
