CORA Hi I'm Cora
JONNY Hi I'm Jonny
CORA And today we're talking about schizophrenia and stigma.
CORA So have you had any experience of stigma surrounding mental illnesses
JONNY I guess the stigma I've had is people saying to me, "Oh you dont look like someone
that might have a mental health issue", that's just really frustrating, I mean, you know,
you wouldn't say that to anyone who had say cancer - cancer can affect anyone at all, and it's
the same with mental illness, it can affect absolutely anyone
CORA Yeah and I think that we see like the Hollywood representation of things a lot of
the time, and do you think that's really impacting on the way people perceive things like schizophrenia?
JONNY Yeah absolutely, if you look at something like Hollywood - the films aren't exactly
very inspiring or uplifting or positive when it comes to mental health issues, if you look
at a film like Girl Interrupted, everyone there you know is just really really unwell
and there's so many people out there that are, particularly young people, that are living
and functioning and doing so well, with mental health diagnosis, but yeah we rarely get to
see and hear from those people which is such a shame. Because that just creates even more
stigma
Cora: How do you think that we could try and like change the stigmatising behaviours?
JONNY I believe we need to get into education. We really need to start from a young age you
know, teaching people about mental health issues, and you know, saying it's OK to talk
about mental health because there is a like yeah, fear? A fear of talking about it whether
it's you yourself or a friend its like what do you say and how do you approach it, and
is it going to make things worse? It needs to be like the same as physical health, you
know, we just, if you see someone with a broken arm or someone that you think might be in
physical pain, you wouldn't hesitate to be like oh are you alright you're like holding
your stomach are you alright? But when someone's going through a mental health difficulty like
depression or anxiety, there's a lot more kind of fear around it, and that needs to
change, and yeah it needs to start in schools really, and just making it OK to talk about
menatl health the same as physical health
CORA Yeah that's absolutely right, and I think possibly one of the problems is not knowing
how to talk about it, like the kind of language they're supposed to use
JONNYYeah and again that's why we need it in schools, you know, we need it.
You know when I was growing up, when things started happening to me I didn't know how
to vocalise it, or how to..I just didn't understand what was happening to me. as a result I waited
such a long time to go and get help and really admit that i was struggling because I didn't
have the language, but also I was embarrassed and ashamed.I was like oh I shouldn't be feeling
this way, and I thought it was a weakness you know, to be struggling with my mental
health, and obviously now I know it's not, it's actually a strength to go and ask for
help
CORA: Yeah for sure
So another problem is there's a lot of misrepresentation around schizophrenia, there's loads of myths
like it means you have a split personality or that you're gonna swing like really drastically
in your moods, or that you're gonna be really violent, things like that. So what are the
facts behind these myths?
JONNY: Yeah, I mean a lot of these myths are simply, myths, they're not true. For me, schizophrenia
is basically losing touch with reality. You're not sure kinda what's real and what's not.
It's got nothing to do with split personality, and I hate it when people say ohh he's so
schizo or she's so schizo because they're you know, changing from like this person to
that person - it's NOT true at all.Schizophrenia is maybe you hear things that aren't there
or see things that aren't there, for example hearing a voice, or being delusional - I used
to think I was being watched by cameras wherever I went, and you know, I still hear a voice
sometimes, so sometimes it's hart to tell kind of what's real and what's not. And that
is essentially what schizophrenia is, it's got nothing to do with the split personality,
and especially not swinging from like you know, moods, that's got nothing to do with
schizophrenia. Also the common belief that people with schizophrenia are violent and
dangerous is completely untrue, it's ver y very rare that people with schizophrenia are
violent, the truth is that people with schizophrenia are much more likely to be victims of violence
than actual perpetrators of violence
CORA And what do you think it is that could cause people with schizophrenia to be victims?
JONNY: I think there's just a lot of misunderstanding around schizophrenia, just that term, schizophrenia,
people are like woah, like you know, people are scared of it. But yeah there's lots of
people out there who are living with it and managing it. There 's a hight number of people
out there who recover completely and never have another episode of schizophrenia, or
losing touch with reality, ever again, so recovery is possible
CORA so sometimes when you just say like schizophrenia, people think it's all one thing and everybody
is going through exactly the same experience, but that's not really true
JONNY no, no there's different types of schizophrenia.So some people are diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia,
which is a very different type of schizophrenia to the one that I was diagnosed with which
is schizoaffective disorder - with my diagnosis, they call schizoaffective disorder like a
combination of schizophrenia and bipolar - so you're got the symptoms where you;re sort
of losing touch with reality, but you've also got the moods changes as well. There is a
good chance of recovery, and there's a good chance that you will be able to manage your
diagnosis.
CORA Thanks so much for coming and talking to us Jonny
JONNNY Thanks very much
CORA it's been really great. And we'll see you next time, if you want more info on mental
health you can see the links in the description. Bye!
JONNY: Bye!