000 years ago everyone had schizophrenia
06-18-2018, 09:26 PM
I know a few schizophrenics. It's a tough call really. I want to believe that these mystical eastern countries or unsettled shitholes have the magical solution to cure schizophrenia or however it works but doubt it's the case.
Without medical intervention it's likely they're still suffering massive cell die-off in the brain and and are in the throes of delusions or hallucinations. None of that shit just goes away by singing kumbaya and hugging it out. With rapid frequent relapses it's more likely they're going to die of dementia or alzheimer's in their forties, or at the least have permanent shrinking to vital areas of the brain and cognitive impairment. If they're lucky they just have an isolated full psychotic break with no comorbid mental illness (so they can enjoy the privilege of shamhood without the problem of chronic lifelong illness), which is possible as psychosis is not an illness in itself but a symptom of an illness. Lack of sleep or extreme stress can cause psychosis, etc. Sometimes it can just erupt unexplained and leave just as suddenly.
Untreated schizophrenics don't make it very long without society intervening in some way, either by getting murdered or arrested or put into treatment, or drinking themselves to death to quiet the voices, or dying from exposure due to homelessness, or occasionally murdering somebody because God told them it would stop aliens from invading. Finding a control group for this is kind of a problem because of that.
In terms of evopsych, this is something I think about a lot at work. It makes no sense that this disease would survive to modern day as well as it has. It's not unlikely that if the world simply fucked off that 2/3 of schizophrenics would just plain get better, shamanistic village cult or no. You can believe horribly fucked up delusions or see shadow people chasing you but still drive a car, do homework, or (painfully) socialize with people.
I couldn't find the documentary but it would seem these backwards societies that have no sophisticated understanding of the world do not disagree with psychotics, but instead encouraged or 'feed' their delusions. From a therapy standpoint that's interesting but risky, it might solidify the 'new reality' of the particular psychosis or allow a seamless passing-through of the particular break to some other brain dimension. It would probably be less stressful to the patient unless the patient was doing everything in his power not to believe what he was experiencing and wanted somebody else to corroborate .. overall I guess it's plausible it might lead to better outcomes and more compliant schizophrenics. I just don't know. I'd have to see it. I wish I wasn't so busy so I could read up more on this, since it's interesting as hell, but whatever, bookmark for another day.
Without medical intervention it's likely they're still suffering massive cell die-off in the brain and and are in the throes of delusions or hallucinations. None of that shit just goes away by singing kumbaya and hugging it out. With rapid frequent relapses it's more likely they're going to die of dementia or alzheimer's in their forties, or at the least have permanent shrinking to vital areas of the brain and cognitive impairment. If they're lucky they just have an isolated full psychotic break with no comorbid mental illness (so they can enjoy the privilege of shamhood without the problem of chronic lifelong illness), which is possible as psychosis is not an illness in itself but a symptom of an illness. Lack of sleep or extreme stress can cause psychosis, etc. Sometimes it can just erupt unexplained and leave just as suddenly.
Untreated schizophrenics don't make it very long without society intervening in some way, either by getting murdered or arrested or put into treatment, or drinking themselves to death to quiet the voices, or dying from exposure due to homelessness, or occasionally murdering somebody because God told them it would stop aliens from invading. Finding a control group for this is kind of a problem because of that.
In terms of evopsych, this is something I think about a lot at work. It makes no sense that this disease would survive to modern day as well as it has. It's not unlikely that if the world simply fucked off that 2/3 of schizophrenics would just plain get better, shamanistic village cult or no. You can believe horribly fucked up delusions or see shadow people chasing you but still drive a car, do homework, or (painfully) socialize with people.
I couldn't find the documentary but it would seem these backwards societies that have no sophisticated understanding of the world do not disagree with psychotics, but instead encouraged or 'feed' their delusions. From a therapy standpoint that's interesting but risky, it might solidify the 'new reality' of the particular psychosis or allow a seamless passing-through of the particular break to some other brain dimension. It would probably be less stressful to the patient unless the patient was doing everything in his power not to believe what he was experiencing and wanted somebody else to corroborate .. overall I guess it's plausible it might lead to better outcomes and more compliant schizophrenics. I just don't know. I'd have to see it. I wish I wasn't so busy so I could read up more on this, since it's interesting as hell, but whatever, bookmark for another day.