sloth_ha7

My general rule is to be very aware of the person's baseline behavior and aware of the environment. Lot's of my patients will have hallucinations but they accept them and will continue to talk while they are happening. One used to ask me to wait in the middle of a conversation and would look up and to the side while moving his lips.

Yes, it's entirely possible.

From my understanding of the new research on Schizophrenia, depending on your genes, people experience the illness differently and have different mental health symptoms. Some will constantly respond to internal stimuli in front of strangers, some just move their lips or grimace/contort their face, some internalize the hallucinations and need to be prompted to come back. I'd say depending on the severity of the symptoms and reception to treatment, both medical and therapeutic, you can definitely live a "normal" life.

My agency has peer supporters that were diagnosed and are living with Schizophrenia. They talk with new staff that are working for the company.

ALSO, a lot of psychotropic medication shortens life span, so many people that take them for a long time may die earlier.

Generally, if it is one of the "good" voices, I will follow along and ask open ended questions in order to have them keep talking about it. For many patients, being heard is one of the most important things. I don't usually try and convince a client that the voices aren't real unless I have a good relationship with them and can assess their frame of mind.

People with Schizophrenia don't just hear voices, I think a lot of people think that's what the illness is all about. They will have tactile, auditory, and visual hallucinations as well as delusions. I had a client firmly believe that one girl he met at a hospital years ago was the love of his life and that he would be with her again in a few days. Broke my heart.

Even parents of the clients will call and ask me how I talk with someone that is clearly hallucinating. I think they focus on these hallucinations a lot and it gets in the way of being able to see them as a human being with an illness.

There's also the obvious stigma of "crazy" people. Lot's of the older men with the illness struggle with personal care and will generally look homeless as well.

I've never really thought about it. It may be due to the amount of people getting the services. More and more people are requiring services for depression/anxiety. Maybe this is due to the awareness? That's a good question.

As for other countries, I live in the US as well, so I'm not sure.