Amygdala Found to Have Role in Important Pre-Attentive Mechanism in the Brain

We’re all familiar with the startle reflex – that sudden, uncontrollable jerk that occurs when we’re surprised by a noise or other unexpected stimulus. But the brain also has an important pre-attentive mechanism to tamp down that response and tune out irrelevant sounds so you can mind the task in front of you.

This pre-attentive mechanism is called sensorimotor gating and normally prevents cognitive overload. However, sensorimotor gating is commonly impaired in people with schizophrenia and other neurological and psychiatric conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

“Reduced sensorimotor gating is a hallmark of schizophrenia, and this is often associated with attention impairments and can predict other cognitive deficits,” explains neuroscientist Karine Fénelon, assistant professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “While the reversal of sensorimotor gating deficits in rodents is a gold standard for antipsychotic drug screening, the neuronal pathways and cellular mechanisms involved are still not completely understood, even under normal conditions.”

(Image caption: Mouse brain stem inhibitory neurons (green) activated by amygdala inputs (magenta neuronal processes))

To assess sensorimotor gating, neuroscientists measure prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle reflex. PPI occurs when a weak stimulus is presented before a startle stimulus, which inhibits the startle response.

For the first time, Fénelon and her UMass Amherst team – then-Ph.D. student Jose Cano (now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Rochester Medical Center) and Ph.D. student Wanyun Huang – have shown how the amygdala, a brain region typically associated with fear, contributes to PPI by activating small inhibitory neurons in the mouse brain stem. This discovery, published in the journal BMC Biology, advances understanding of the systems underlying PPI and efforts to ultimately develop medical therapies for schizophrenia and other disorders by reversing pre-attentive deficits.

“Until recently, prepulse inhibition was thought to depend on midbrain neurons that release the transmitter acetylcholine,” Fénelon explains. “That was because studies of schizophrenia patients involved deficits in the cholinergic system.”

But there exists a “super cool neuroscience tool” – optogenetics – which allows scientists to use light to pinpoint and control genetically modified neurons in various experimental systems. “It is very specific,” Fénelon says. “Before this, we couldn’t pick and choose which neurons to manipulate.”

Their challenge was to use optogenetics to identify which circuits in which parts of the brain were involved in PPI. “We wanted to know what brain region connects to the core of the startle inhibition circuit in the brain stem, so we put tracers or dye to visualize those neurons,” Fénelon says. “With this approach we were able to identify amygdala neurons connected to the brain stem area in the center of the startle inhibition circuit.”

Next, they tested with optogenetic tools whether this connection between the amygdala and the brain stem was important for startle inhibition. “We know that in the brain of schizophrenia patients the function of the amygdala is also altered, so it made sense to us that this brain region was relevant to disease,” Fénelon says.

By photo-manipulating amygdala neurons in mice, they showed that the amygdala appeared to contribute to PPI by activating brain stem inhibitory, or glycinergic, neurons. Specifically, PPI was reduced by either shutting down the excitatory synapses between the amygdala and the brain stem or by silencing the brain stem inhibitory neurons themselves. “Interestingly, the PPI reduction measured as a result of these photo manipulations mimicked the PPI reduction observed in humans with schizophrenia and in mouse models of schizophrenia,” Fénelon says.

To better detail this connection, Fénelon and team used electrophysiology along with optogenetics to record the electrical activity of individual neurons taken from thin brain sections, in vitro. “This very precise yet technically challenging recording method allowed us to confirm without any doubt that amygdala excitatory inputs activate those glycinergic neurons in the brain stem,” Fénelon says.

She calls this finding “a piece of the puzzle” that pinpoints the prepulse inhibition circuit. Now she’s working in her lab using this new information to identify other brain pathways and attempt to reverse pre-attentive deficits in a mouse model of schizophrenia. Such a breakthrough would allow researchers to begin to develop drugs that can more precisely target treatment of pre-attentive problems.

Alex Danvers x Reader

Word Count: 1833

Requested by: Anonymous

Trigger warnings for Schizophrenia, brief mentions of violence and general mental health issues

“Hey babe! How was your day today?” Alex asks with a smile as she opens the door to her apartment for you.

“It wasn’t too bad, but if I have to redo one more layout because Jimmy doesn’t like it I’m gonna push him out a window,” you joke and Alex just rolls her eyes.

“You know you love him, he’s your best friend,” she argues.

“Oh, I never said I didn’t love him. I’d die for the man. But he’s literally the worst person to work with,” you say with a laugh, setting the take out you bought on the counter and pulling Alex into my arms. “Enough about my unfortunate choice in best friends, how was your day?”

“It was fine. Same old thing as always. Today was pretty boring,” Alex says and you smile. You love how brave she is and you admire her desire to help people, but her job still scares the hell out of you and you’re always happy to hear she had a boring day. A boring day meant a safe day.

“Good,” you tease and she rolls her eyes again before leading you to the couch to watch Netflix as you eat.

You absentmindedly start dumping your fingers against your leg, trying to ground yourself a bit. Alex glances at your hand and sighs quietly. This has been happening more and more recently. You seem distraught and she can’t seem to figure out why.

“Love,” she calls softly and your head snaps up to meet her eyes, “are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” you say quickly, harsher than you intend it to be, but rather than apologizing you just cross your arms to keep your hands still and turn your head towards the TV. You breathe deeply, trying to get your emotions in check and Alex can hear it. She decides it best to just give you the time you need to sort it out yourself.

“Do you hear that?” you ask after a while, walking towards the front door.

“Hear what?” Alex says, confused as you look through the peephole, seeing an empty hallway.

“Huh. Nothing I guess. I thought I heard people in the hallway,” you shrug it off and Alex seems to accept that. You know somethings wrong, because even though you know there’s nobody out there, you can still hear them.

xxxxx

“Hey Alex!” you hear Kara’s excited voice as you and Alex enter the bar. She sends you a smile but quickly begins rambling off to Alex. Alex sends you an apologetic look but you just smile, pressing a quick kiss to the side of her head and giving the sisters time to catch up.

“Damn your girl got stolen quick,” Sam says as you walk over to their table and you shrug.

“Kara missed her I guess. It won’t kill me to be away from her for a minute. She’s happy,” you glance over, grinning at the smile Alex has on her face.

“Whipped,” Lena says through a fake cough and you roll your eyes.

“Don’t think I don’t see the heart eyes you’re shooting Kara, Luthor,” you say and she raises her hands in defeat.

“I’m going to go get Alex and I something to drink, anyone want anything?” you ask but they all shake their heads. You walk over to the bar and wait for the bartender to be available. You’re glancing at your phone when you hear someone yell your name. You jump and your head whips around the room. All your friends are engaged in conversations and the only reaction you see is the people near you giving you odd looks. You shake your head and try to tune the voices out. You hear your name a few more times as your waiting but subtle glances tell you that nobody is actually calling you. As you are handed your drinks the sound of your name is getting louder on repeat. You force yourself to tune it out until you feel a hand on your arm. You spin around so fast Alex has to take a step back.

“Woah, I didn’t mean to scare you. I called your name a few times,” she says and you smile casually.

“I guess I couldn’t hear you over the music,” you play it off and she furrows her brow even more.

“Love, there isn’t any music,” she says and a look of confusion flashes across your face before you school your features, realizing the rock music playing is only in your head.

“I know that. I’m just teasing. Here, I got you a drink,” you hand her one of the beers in your hand. She gives you a questioning look as the two of you start to walk back to your friends.

“Babe, are you feeling alright?” she asks slowly, clearly worried about what kind of reaction her words may pull from you. You just smile and throw your arm around her to pull her closer.

“I’m perfectly okay,” you promise and she nods to herself, dropping the subject as you two sit down. You down your entire beer in one go, hoping it’ll help you calm down.

“She knows you’re crazy” your head shoots up at the words and Kara notices from her seat across the table.

“You alright, y/n?” Kara asks.

“She knows too. You need to stop her before she tells everyone.”

“No!” you yell, slamming your fist down onto the table and now everyone’s staring at you.

“You’re not alright?” Kara clarifies gently and you can feel anger bubbling up in you. They all share nervous glances. You’re staring at the table and miss the way they all look to Alex for help, but she looks just as lost as they feel.

“Yeah. No! I’m fine! It’s just… I can’t…yeah, I’m fine. I just…I need a minute. I’ll be back,” you get up, quickly walking back to the bar, ordering a shot and downing it quickly. You stand there for a few minutes, calming your breathing before Alex appears again.

“What do you need?” she says gently and you glance at your friends who are all watching the interaction. She sees you starting to get more agitated and grabs your chin to turn you back to her. “Hey, just look at me. Tell me what you need.”

You fall into her arms, burying your face in her neck. She holds you tight, running her hand through your hair, “just make them stop staring at me.”

“Okay. Everything’s okay. I’ll talk to them. Just come back when you’re ready,” she tells you, waiting for you to be the first to pull away before walking to the table once again. You see her talking to them. James glances towards you again and you see her glare at him. You look away, waiting a few minutes and then rejoining the group silently.

Alex puts her arm around you, pulling you closer to her in the booth. You curl into her side as the others try to keep a conversation going. You listen here and there but everything is too loud. You soon tune them out completely, focussing only on the way Alex never lets you go.

“You’re crazy y/n,” a voice whispers and you tighten your hold around Alex’s waist.

“Hey, I’ve got you,” she whispers into your hair. She can feel you trembling and it breaks her heart. “Do you want to go home?”

At your nod she bids the others goodbye, making up some excuse about being tired. You send them a smile that doesn’t quite reach your eyes as she leads you out. When you reach her apartment the two of you silently make your way to the couch and she pulls you into her lap. You curl into her again, enjoying the silence for the first time that night. You’re not sure how long you’ve been sitting there before you hear a voice again.

“You could take her. Just finish her off. You could do it. Just hurt her,” the voice sneers and you throw yourself away from Alex, scrambling to the other end of the couch and holding your head in your hands.

“What’s going on?” she asks. You shake your head but before you can say anything she’s talking again. “Don’t even start that right now. You’ve been off for days now. I don’t know what’s going on, and you don’t have to tell me, but please don’t lie to me.”

“You’ll think I’m crazy,” you whisper and when you look up at her you have tears streaming down your face.

“No I won’t. Whatever is happening we can figure it out together. Just please talk to me,” she begs and you nod, trying to find the words.

“I keep hearing…things. Noises that aren’t really happening, voices that aren’t really there. I don’t want to tell anyone. They’d think I was crazy and I’m not crazy! I just…get confused. At the bar I kept hearing people talking to me. I can’t tell what was real and what isn’t,” you explain quietly as she takes your hand.

“What kind of voices, love? What are they saying?”

“At first it was just someone saying my name, or people talking in the hallway that weren’t really there. At the bar I was hearing music that wasn’t playing, and sometimes I’ll hear a knocking on my door that I know isn’t real. Then it got worse. The voices started telling me to hurt people. They…they told me to hurt you,” you finish with a broken whisper and Alex pulls you into her arms again.

“Have you ever told a doctor about this, love?” she asks and you shake your head. “This sounds like schizophrenia. I think it would help to talk to a doctor. There’s medicines and treatments that can help you.”

“They told me not to,” you whisper.

“Who told you not to?” Alex says, a shiver running down her spine as she tries to stay calm. She’s not scared of you, but the situation is unsettling.

“The voices. They say you’re trying to trick me but I don’t think you are. You’re not trying to hurt me, are you?” you ask, your eyes wide in obvious fear. She cups your cheek, looking into your eyes, you can see the love in hers as she speaks.

“No. I am not going to hurt you. I will never hurt you, my love. Do you trust me?” she asks and you nod, “then you know how much I love you. You know I would never hurt you. If somebody in the bar came up to you and told you I was dangerous, would you believe them?”

“No!” you say quickly and she smiles a bit.

“Exactly. These voices are just strangers to you. They don’t know us, they don’t know you. You do not need to listen to them, alright? We’ll get through this,” she promises and you nod. You’ll get through this.

tag list: @rvgrsbrns@rororo06@freerebel@prizmix-and-friends@m19friend@worlds-in-words@5aftermidnight@riotmaximoff

catgirlapologist:

catgirlapologist:

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not-your-favorite-blog:

catgirlapologist:

catgirlapologist:

isn’t it insane though how schizophrenic people are viewed as violent and dangerous by the majority of society when in reality schizophrenic people are nearly 14 times more likely to be on the receiving end of violence than to be the perpetrators…

schizophrenic person: makes a post trying to raise awareness about the disproportionate abuse and harmful stereotypes schizophrenic people face

yall: “yeah im not gonna reblog this they used the word ins*ne which is so problematic ://”

What the fuck happens that changes these stats to such a massive degree?

1) schizophrenia hardly ever causes people to be violent so schizophrenic people aren’t more likely to be violent than anyone else

2) schizophrenic people’s autonomy is often taken away from them because of their schizophrenia. because the authorities and mental healthcare providers often automatically assume schizophrenic people to be violent, they’re more likely to immediately react to schizophrenic people’s symptoms with violence, without even knowing for sure said schizophrenic person was going to be violent. all of this causes schizophrenic people to be more likely of being victims of violence and abuse. schizophrenic people also have a harder time getting out of abusive households because of the risk of their autonomy being taken away. if a schizophrenic person’s relative or partner is abusive, often the schizophrenic person has no way out of the situation, both because our disconnect from reality can result in us being easier to manipulate, and because the system is built in a way that it takes away our autonomy because of our condition.

also schizophrenic people and psychotic people in general, please do a lot of research before picking a provider for your own sake, and if they try to treat your psychosis in a way that you think is harmful then don’t hesitate to switch providers. your safety and wellbeing should be a priority over everything else.

can y'all please reblog this version instead

My father’s brother is schizophrenic. He can’t hold down a job or take care of himself. Sometimes, he gets insecure and starts calling everyone he knows, over and over, until someone answers the phone. He doesn’t have anything to say. He just wants to know that other people care about him.

My mother’s mother has some sort of undiagnosed mental illness and/or personality disorder. She’s been refusing to see a doctor about it for decades. Whatever it is, it makes her very difficult to engage with sometimes. She can be rude, hurtful, and occasionally bizarre. The family tries to see her regularly, but it’s always hard.

A few years ago, my uncle was calling people late at night and no one was answering. Eventually, he ran out of people he was close to to call, and ended up calling my grandmother, his brother’s mother-in-law. She picked up the phone.

The thing is, she wants to talk constantly in her rude and occasionally bizarre way, and he wants someone who will always answer the phone when he needs someone. So he calls and she answers and she talks and he listens. This has been going on for years now.

So that’s the story of how my two mentally ill relatives make each other feel wanted and cared for. Sweet, isn’t it?

             Can we cleanly define a personality construct? This essay explores how that might not be possible, and why.

Multiple determination

Lou Gehrig’s disease (which afflicted Stephen Hawking and was the subject of the ALS “ice bucket challenge”) is a disease of the motor neurons that control voluntary movement, resulting in total body paralysis, eventually affecting the facial and respiratory systems. The cause in unknown in most cases, and there is no cure. Part of the reason for this is that there is no one way in which ALS develops. ‘Degeneration of motor neurons’ is something we can understand at the relatively macroscopic level of cells and circuits, however there are innumerable ways in which genetic mutations or other afflictions can result in this degeneration. We simply don’t have a handle on the hundreds or thousands of cell processes that can go wrong. In addition, a single malfunction might not be enough to cause a case of ALS; it might take a dozen errors operating in concert.

             There is no one-to-one correspondence between a biological process and the symptoms of Lou Gehrig’s disease. A similar problem is encountered in the field of psychiatry. For the last few decades, biologists have tried to track down the genes responsible for disorders such as schizophrenia (operating under the hypothesis that these disorders are fundamentally biochemical). However, what they have found is a massive number of genes linking to schizophrenia at a statistically significant level, but each contributing only a fraction of a percent towards the likelihood of psychosis. The resulting hypothesis is that schizophrenia is a polygenic disorder. Like ALS (and a host of other conditions), it takes many processes acting in concert to result in the disease.

             (It might be noted that some social factors have been found to be far more predictive of schizophrenia than genetic factors—but that is a different discussion.)

             Many processes, one result. How does this come about? Part of it, I think, is a trick of language. We group individual cases of ALS or schizophrenia as the same disorder, even though the biological factors at play may be totally different. Furthermore, the actual symptoms of the disorder may be mutually exclusive between two individuals (for example, a schizophrenic suffering primarily from flat affect, versus one suffering from hallucinations). Are these really the same disorder? By what criteria are we grouping them? One answer was provided by Ludwig Wittgenstein, who recognized that our cognitive-linguistic categories are not defined by a set of essential features, but by overlapping similarities. Perhaps there is no essential core of schizophrenia! With its many determinants and many manifestations, there could be many schizophrenias, which are nonetheless grouped under the same header. Our language does not represent an exact reality but an approximate one.

Personality

             Whether you prefer to use the MBTI, the Big 5, or any number of other measures, the ideas of multiple determination and family resemblance categorization is readily applicable. Investigations of what these constructs are is a favourite pastime of mine and, I assume, of most of my readers. However, these often result in headaches and inter-theory conflict. Which ones are correct? What do we do about those that seem incompatible? I will focus on introversion and extraversion as an example. Here are a few of my favourite theories:

             The 20^th century psychologist Hans Eysenck saw introversion/extraversion as a measure of how outgoing and interactive a person is with others. He hypothesized that this difference was grounded in a difference in brain arousal. The correspondence is a bit counter-intuitive. An extravert would be characterised by a lower baseline level of cortical arousal, and as a result would seek stimulation to bring their level up to a desired amount. An introvert would be chronically over-aroused, and as a result would seek to minimize the external stimulation they encounter.

             Elain Aaron pioneered a new personality category, called the “Highly Sensitive Person”. While technically separate from introversion, there is a high degree of overlap and analogy. Somewhat like Eysenck’s theory, HSPs are characterized by a heightened sensitivity to sensory stimuli, or their own cognition or emotions (or a combination of these). This results in a timid and careful approach to the outside world, as they are more likely to be overwhelmed by a too-intense stimulus.

             The biological theory forwarded by many modern psychologists has to do with the dopamine reward system of the brain. Extraverts have been found to be more sensitive to activity in this circuit. In other words, they are more reward-motivated. This has the effect of pulling them more readily and eagerly into active engagement in the outside world. Specifically, this would correspond to the sub-trait of “Enthusiasm”.

             Finally, Jung thought of introversion as an attitude that favoured the inner world of the psyche, while extraversion favoured the outer world of things. However, his exploration of the types involves a lot more nuance than this general formulation suggests. Psychological Types is packed with statements and observations that often seem only tenuously related to the central theme. However, this is in keeping with the thesis of my essay. What if there is no one introversion and no one extraversion? What if the only thing binding the many versions together is our categorical mode of thought, rather than any single biological reality?

             This is perhaps a bit too strong. For example, it’s an empirical fact that the many facets of the Big 5’s extraversion are highly correlated. There must be some set of biological trends that support this. However, it’s also true that the same individual may be astronomically high in one facet and at the bottom of another for the same over-arching trait. We might conclude that there are some diffuse biological patterns out there, but they are clothed and warped by our cognitive-linguistic constructions.

             What’s the take-away here? One may be a more relaxed attitude towards any attempts to find the essence of a psychological category. It may not exist, although a diffuse “family resemblance” pattern might. That is not to say that we shouldn’t scientifically validate our hypotheses about what this pattern is made up of–just that multiple versions might exist in parallel, and that a greater precision is possible when describing two people as introverts, or when observing two cases of schizophrenia. The structure of personality is perhaps less like a series of well-defined islands and more like an ocean: A macroscopic pattern of currents that, when observed more closely, are a heterogenous assemblage of fish and flotsam.

Some links:

ALS fact sheet  https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-Caregiver-Education/Fact-Sheets/Amyotrophic-Lateral-Sclerosis-ALS-Fact-Sheet

Genetics of schizophrenia https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5380793/

Family resemblance categories https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_resemblance

Introversion and extraversion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraversion_and_introversion

“Highly sensitive person” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_processing_sensitivity

Your Voice Is All I Hear by Leah Scheier

Spoiler Alert: Beware of the illness that lurks in his shadows, curling its fingers around even the most innocently joyful times.

Currently Reading:

Your Voice Is All I Hear by Leah Scheier

therapy101:

missmentelle:

Schizophrenia. It’s the big one. The scariest word in mental health. Pop culture has already done a pretty fucked-up job of showing us what schizophrenia looks like; in the movies, people with schizophrenia are violent, paranoid, scary, unpredictable, incoherent, unable to take care of themselves, and, more often than not, permanently confined to mental health institutions.

But that’s not the reality of tens of thousands of people living with schizophrenia. So what’s it really like?

-Schizophrenia has two types of symptoms; positive and negative symptoms. Most people with schizophrenia will experience a few of each. Two people with schizophrenia can experience completely different sets of symptoms; no two cases are exactly alike.

-Positive symptoms are things that are “added” to a person’s normal thoughts. The word positive does not mean that they are good; in fact, they are arguably the most damaging and frightening part of the disorder. Positive symptoms include hallucinations, delusions and disordered thoughts, which are things that neurotypical people do not experience.

-Negative symptoms are things that have been “taken away” from a person’s normal thoughts. This includes things like a lack of emotions, a lack of facial expression, poor motor control, inability to experience pleasure, loss of speech skills and lack of motivation. They struggle to do certain things that neurotypical people take for granted. 

- Schizophrenia is NOT ‘multiple personality disorder’ or ‘split personality’. People with schizophrenia have one personality and one identity. Even if they are experiencing bizarre delusions, they still know who they are.

- Hallucinations are usually auditory. In the movies, they often depict hallucinations as seeing people that aren’t there; that does happen, but it’s rare. For most people, hallucinations take the form of voices constantly saying unpleasant things.

-Schizophrenia often comes with cognitive barriers. Although there are people with schizophrenia who have high IQs and go on to obtain advanced graduate degrees, many people with schizophrenia have cognitive delays, memory problems and learning difficulties from a young age. This makes it a lot harder for them to advocate for themselves and keep up with the complicated treatments they may be receiving. 

- We don’t really know what causes schizophrenia. We know that there’s a huge genetic component involved; having a close relative with schizophrenia substantially raises your lifetime risk of developing it. But there are other risk factors involved, like an unstable early life, violence in the home, lack of proper nutrition, being the victim of bullying, childhood trauma, and hostile or overly-critical parents. 

- Schizophrenia develops suddenly, usually in adolescence or early adulthood; the average age of onset for males is 18, and 25 for women. Although it can develop in childhood, or after the age of 30, this is fairly rare. 

-People with schizophrenia are rarely violent; in fact, they are much, much more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators. People with untreated schizophrenia are more likely to end up homeless, addicted to drugs or alcohol, and isolated from family, all of which mean they are easily taken advantage of in their vulnerable state. 

- Schizophrenia affects somewhere between 0.3% and 0.7% of the population, with males being more likely to be affected than females. There are estimated to be around 24 million cases globally. 

- The main treatment for schizophrenia is anti-psychotic drugs. There are no other primary courses of treatment. Getting on the correct drugs can be a long and difficult process that takes months or years. The side effects of anti-psychotic drugs can be severe and unpleasant; this, combined with the fact that 30-50% of people with schizophrenia don’t believe they are sick, can make it very difficult to get people to stay on their medication. 

-The long-term prognosis of schizophrenia is a mixed bag. Around 20% of cases are considered “high-functioning” - they adjust well to medication, resume their normal activities, and some go into remission completely. You might know someone with schizophrenia and not even realize it. On the other hand, people with schizophrenia have a life expectancy 25 years less than the general population, and experience high rates of poverty, unemployment, addiction and homelessness; around 5% commit suicide. 

Schizophrenia is an unbelievably complicated disorder; I’ve barely skimmed the surface of the basics here. You can study it for years and still not know everything there is to know about it. But the point is this: people with schizophrenia are not monsters. They are not something to fear. They are sick, just like people with diabetes, lung cancer, or pneumonia are sick, and they deserve compassion and support as they seek medical attention. 

If you have any questions about schizophrenia, or want to know some good resources to learn more about it, my asks and messages are always open. I’ll do my best to find the answer for you.

Although I really appreciate the intention of reducing stigma, there are a number of inaccuracies in this post. I’m going to address them in bullet point and not use quotations since the original post is pretty long.

• Schizophrenia has either three or four types of symptoms, not two:positive, negative, and disorganized/cognitive (these two are sometimes split up). 
• Positive symptoms are symptoms added across senses, thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, not just thoughts.For example, an auditory hallucination is a sensory aberration, not a thought. 
• Negative symptoms are symptoms that include the removal of a sensory experience, thought, emotion, or behavior- again, not just thoughts. For example, flat affect (showing no facial expression) is a disruption in behavior, not a thought.
• It’s true that hallucinations are mostly commonly auditory, but it’s not true that “for most people, hallucinations take the form of voices constantly saying unpleasant things.” For some people, this is true, but it is also common to have a single voice, or voices replaying memories, or voices saying positive things, or voices feeding into paranoia or grandiosity. 
• People with schizophrenia don’t have “cognitive delays.” A delay means that you do catch up, you just do it on a longer time table than average. In cognition, a delay usually resolves itself by adolescence. People with schizophrenia have, on average, an IQ that is at least 1 standard deviation below average. However, keep in mind that 1 standard deviation below average does not indicate impairment. For a significant group of people with schizophrenia, their IQ is at least 2 standard deviations below average- this does equal impairment. Cognition in schizophrenia is typically stable across time (it doesn’t get worse or better), although things like distracting symptoms and low self-esteem can decrease scores on cognitive tests.
• It is true that people with schizophrenia are more likely to be the victims of violence that to perpetuate it. However, it is not true that people with schizophrenia are “rarely violent.” People with schizophrenia are more likely to be violent than people without (especially women with schizophrenia). It is a risk factor for violence but not a determining factor. 
• There are a number of effective treatments for schizophrenia. Psychopharmacology is one often helpful but also quite flawed option.Coordinated specialty care is the best treatment option we currently have, and combines medication management, individual therapy, family therapy, supported education, and supported employment. There are also a range of other behavioral and therapeutic interventions that meet the criteria for empirically supported treatment, like social skills training and cognitive behavioral therapy for psychosis. Some people can be effectively treated without medication. 
• The prognosis of schizophrenia follows the “rule of thirds” pretty closely: about 1/3 people have one psychotic episode and then regain full or mostly full functioning with no relapses, about 1/3 have ongoing psychotic experiences without much or any remission, and usually get worse over time, and about 1/3 have intermittent psychotic episodes with variability in their functioning.Research tends to try and target the last 1/3 I mentioned because they are the people who are most likely to need treatment and benefit from it. 

When you read information presented as facts online, make sure you’re comfortable with the source. Ask for references to peer reviewed journals, textbooks, or experts. Especially when take home messages are very dire (”the only treatment for schizophrenia is medication”), make sure you’ve got enough information to trust what you are being told. Don’t be afraid to question if things don’t look right or seem too black and white, no matter for “expert” the source is. I have studied schizophrenia for 10+ years, and although I would never suggest I know everything about it, it is upsetting when misinformation is promoted. 

For real lol

*edit* My roommate is okay and is getting psychological help.

Holy fuck, so much had happened. Kinda spinning my world around like crazy. But I can finally say, I am staying mostly mentally stable during all of it. Up until a few days ago I’ve been mood wise, stable. Not manic, not depressive. I’ve had some auditorial hallucinations in the bathroom, but other than that I’ve been fine. Besides my anxiety. My anxiety is through the roof. I went to Alaska for two weeks, my sister had her baby. She’s adorable. It was great, I had so time of solitude. I miss it. Just hung out by myself in the guest room downstairs and wrote in my journal for hours. It was so quiet, peaceful. Besides feeling homesick I loved the trip. Then I got home.. first night back, my roommate lays on me that he had his suicide planned and wants to know if I can pay for the apartment by myself. It was like, what the fuck? I bawled, begging him not to go through with it. Well. That’s when I started having hallucinations and anxiety. It turned my world upside down. Then I finally met the guy I’ve been talking to for three weeks and my roommate (who likes me) got coked out, drunk and jealous. He kicked me out. But apologized the next day and told me I could stay. Mr and him are pretty cool but I can’t continue to live here. So me and my best friend are looking at apartments now. We’re trying to save up enough for the deposits and get her car situation. I’m so excited. This is gonna be home. Finally. Non toxic, healthy, fun. She’ll hype me up for work and my onlyfans. I’ll do better with work. I’ve already been so confident. It’s not even manic confidence. Because it started in Alaska. I started writing in my journal and I was just optimistic and finally talking about how sexy and great of a person I am. I can’t write stuff like that on here because I don’t want to come off as cocky. I’ve just never given myself pep talks and actually appreciated myself before. I’ve found confidence again. Life itself is stressful and hard. But mentally? I’m good. I’m holding it together better than I ever have before. With optimism. I’ve always been such a pessimistic person. It’s crazy how different my perspective of life has changed. I want to keep going for once. To give myself the life I know I deserve. I haven’t had one suicidal thought. I can’t imagine doing that, life is what I make it. I’m going to make it fun, and happy. I’ve kept myself in the darkness for a decade and a half. That’s over. I’ve suffered long enough.

Finally, I’m Over You.

It no longer hurts when I think about you. You no longer take any space in my mind or in my heart. I thought those two months meant more than what it truly was. It was a passing infatuation. And that’s okay. You helped me with something so important. You helped me move on from my ex fiance. I thank you for that. Now I’m no longer haunted by the thoughts and memories of either of you. I miss no man anymore. I’m free from you. Free from him. I thought it would take longer to get over you because you impacted me in such a huge way but 3 months was long enough. I don’t need you nor do will I ever want you again. You really missed out on something beautiful. Because when I love, I love hard. I love with every fiber of my being. It’s okay. Someone deserving of that kind of love will come along and appreciate what you threw away.

So well, I’m manic as fuck yet again. I’m doing drugs like crazy. Basically made a porno with another girl for my onlyfans. I haven’t had “sex,sex” with anyone though. Still not interested. Nor am I interested in men still. But I’m being stupid. I need to tell my psychiatrist this. This is crazy how bad my manic episode’s are getting. I haven’t been this bad since I was 17. 10 years. I’m out of control these days. I need help so bad.

How the hell am I manic again? I thought I was coming down. Stable for a bit. Now it’s all coming back. I can’t do this anymore. I’m doing good with my male roommate. I haven’t slept with anyone since I took my best friends virginity in my last extreme manic episode. I haven’t even kissed anyone, made an effort to hang out with anyone. I’m not “talking” to anyone. I’ve just been living my life for me. And not that I’m manic I’m scared I might cross boundaries that I firmly set when I was in a stable. I have my appointment with my psychiatrist on the 14th. We need to up my mood stabilizer because my schizophrenia symptoms are managed when I’m stable. It’s my bipolar that is throwing everything out of wack. I can handle everything until I’m extremely manic or extremely depressive.

Life Is Good.

I’m doing better. Neither manic nor depressive. Loving to the place and roommate. Not worrying about men. Staying single. I’m just enjoying life at the moment. It’s calm. I love it. My roommate has a pup. A 2 year old pitbull. She’s adorable. She makes living here even better. While he’s at work I take care of her. She’s on her period so I cut a hole in a pair of my panties and stuck a pad in it so she can walk around. Otherwise she would be in the kennel. But I’m having fun. Cleaning, taking care of the apartment, taking care of the pup, cooking. I feel like a mom again. She’s so cuddly and clingy like my former pup Ember. She reminds me of her so much. Me and the new pup have already grown so close. I love her already. She’s just so sweet. I didn’t know I was missing this that much. She is filling a void inside of me I didn’t know I had. I get to mother something again. It’s amazing. It feels so good. Life is good.

Thinking Clearly

So I’m more balanced. Thinking clearly. In no way do I want to be intimate or sexual with a man. I’m so uninterested. I haven’t even been flirting with a single guy. This is new. I’m usually always talking to atleast one person. I’m just happy I didn’t just go sleep with random guys or hop into another relationship like I normally do. I’m just completely over it right now. And although I miss my ex. I’m starting to get over him too. I don’t think about him all the time anymore. I don’t listen to his music every day anymore. I don’t text him. I see his posts on Instagram and yes those moments it gets to me. But I tell myself that he doesn’t love me. He’s not thinking about me. He doesn’t miss me. This doesn’t hurt him. He’s moved on. And it helps me. I’ll get over him. And hopefully I keep this disinterest in dating and men for a while. I want to stay single. Live for me. Make money for me. Living for other people has gotten old. I need to focus on me because I can make good things happen for myself if u just try harder.

Leveling out.

I think I’m starting to come down from my manic episode finally. I started taking more of my mood stabilizer than in prescribed. I’m at basically the lowest dose. I think it’s leveling me out. I’m still hypomanic but nothing is uncontrollable anymore. I’m no longer being reckless and incredibly impulsive. Well, not to the extent that I was at. It was scary how out of control I was. I was ready to commit myself. I’m still going out almost every night, having a drink. But I’m not hooking up with anyone, doing drugs or going to anyone’s house and staying the night. So there’s that. I just hope this doesn’t mean I’m about to hit a depressive episode. That’s what I’m afraid of. If I don’t work I’m fucked. So let’s just hope I level out instead of going from one extreme end of the spectrum to the next.

FUCKKKK!!! Fuck this. Maybe I need to be hospitalized. The decisions I am making lately. I’m fucking up big time. I’m not seeing it until I get really high and am in the situation already. I’m at my best friends. You know. The guy, who is in love with me. Yesterday was valentines day. I worked then spent it with him. Well, I took his virginity last night. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. What the fuck is wrong with me? I’m just going and doing everything that feels good without thinking of consequences. There’s literally no “stop and think”. Just do. I’m spending money I don’t have, buying and doing drugs.. TAKING MY BEST FRIENDS VIRGINITY! I’m so fucking stupid. I think I really need to be hospitalized. Like right now.

Borderline Personality and Splitting Yet Again

Goddamn. Splitting really fucking sucks. I Hella vibe with this guy the other night. Last night we went out to a bar and I was still Viking with him. Took some Molly and I was all over him. But when we got to his house I smoked weed and it intensified the Molly so intensely. In my “clarity moment” I split on him. He was the sexiest thing to me. 6'6, beard, deep voice. Sexy. But when I had my reality check all the affection I was enjoying made me feel absolutely smothered. I didn’t want to touch him, or kiss him. But he’s got aspergers so he didn’t pick up on my social cues. I completely shut down. I just couldn’t wait to get out of there. He kept being lovey dovey and it just made my skin crawl. It’s crazy. Going from one extreme to another. Splitting sucks because he’s a good guy. Not good for me though. I just am no longer interested.