The first and most damaging myth, in my mind, is that people who suffer from schizophrenia are always dangerous<\/em>.\u00a0 The truth of the matter is that schizophrenics are almost 100 times more likely to be the victims of a violent crime, rather than the perpetrators! \u00a0This myth is perpetuated by our irresponsible media that constantly sensationalizes crimes committed by a person with a serious mental illness.\u00a0 For the unfortunate people who do commit a serious crime during a psychotic episode, more than likely they were never diagnosed and properly medicated, quit taking their medication, or quit taking medication along with using alcohol and\/or taking street drugs.\u00a0 For all the rest of the nearly 3 million schizophrenics in the US, who diligently take medication, avoid copious amounts of alcohol and don\u2019t use street drugs, their rate of violence is the same as the general population!<\/p>\n I\u2019m always deeply hurt and disturbed when I hear major newscasters report that this \u201cnut-case\u201d or \u201ccrazed man\u201d was guilty of some violent crime.\u00a0 None of them would ever consider using the \u201cN-word,\u201d verbally assaulting other minorities, or \u201cbashing\u201d folks who are gay or lesbian.\u00a0 Yet it seems perfectly fine to use these derogatory terms to define the mentally ill. \u00a0\u00a0Newscasters are supposed to be highly educated people!\u00a0 If they only knew that 1 out of 5 families are impacted by some sort of severe mental illness, they might reconsider how they report!<\/p>\n The second myth is that schizophrenia is the same as a \u201csplit personality.\u201d<\/em> We can thank Hollywood for this confusion in the past.\u00a0 But, I do have to thank the producers of recent movies such as: \u201cCanvas,\u201d \u201cA Beautiful Mind,\u201d and \u201cThe Soloist.\u201d\u00a0 More and more, I see that Hollywood producers have become enlightened and more responsible.\u00a0 I\u2019m also grateful to the writers of the television series, \u201cLaw and Order.\u201d\u00a0 I have found their depiction of people who suffer from schizophrenia to be far closer to reality, and more sensitive than any other program on television.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t help that major newscasters and politicians use words such as: \u201cour schizophrenic government\u201d to describe a government that is \u201ccrazy\u201d or has a \u201csplit personality.\u201d\u00a0 Both of these implications of the word \u201cschizophrenia,\u201d lead to further confusion about the true nature of what is simply a medical disease.\u00a0 Sadly, these intelligent speakers must have little knowledge of the disease, otherwise, they couldn\u2019t possibly think that it was appropriate to\u00a0 use these terms, believing that their words were colorful, descriptive, and somehow poetic.<\/p>\n Comedians routinely use the word \u201cschizophrenia\u201d in their acts.\u00a0 If they could only know how \u201cun-funny\u201d the disease really is!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What are the myths and confusion surrounding schizophrenia? The first and most damaging myth, in my mind, is that people who suffer from schizophrenia are always dangerous.\u00a0 The truth of the matter is that schizophrenics are almost 100 times more likely to be the victims of a violent crime, rather than the perpetrators! \u00a0This myth … Continue reading Myths & Facts<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-35","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.susiedunham.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.susiedunham.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.susiedunham.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.susiedunham.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.susiedunham.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.susiedunham.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36,"href":"http:\/\/www.susiedunham.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35\/revisions\/36"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.susiedunham.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}