Chaos Magnet

Schizophrenia -- more common than you think?

Phillip K. Dick was always terrified that he suffered from schizophrenia, which alters your perception. If you're not familiar, it's not the same as Multiple Personality Disorder (or Dissociative Identity Disorder) but rather a medical disorder in which you experience things that aren't there (such as seeing, hearing, or even feeling things) or believing things that aren't real, most commonly of the paranoid variety, such as thinking everyone can hear or see their thoughts, or that there is a vast conspiracy against them. Yesterday someone whose sister was just diagnosed posted to Slashdot asking about Schizophrenia Experiences and Suggestions? and the ensuing discussion is absolutely fascinating. I never read Slashdot comments -- until now. Schizophrenia is exacerbated by isolation and lonliness, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised at how many Slashdot readers -- probably more isolated by choice of profession than the average -- admit to suffering from the disorder.

I'm not saying that nerds in general or Slashdot readers in particular are crazy. Please don't generalize my comments.

But at the risk of sounding like I, myself, need to be evaluated, let me ask a Phillip K. Dick-esque question:

How do you define reality?

Technorati tags: schizophrenia | mental illness |

src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~s/ChaosMagnet?i=http://www.chaosmagnet.com/blog/archives/000416.html" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">