Gerald Gomez43 said:I feel like I’m drifting back into this topic, but it’s something that has stayed with me because of my time working in residential facilities—firstly with adolescents whose schizophrenia was just beginning to manifest, and later with adults.
I find myself wondering about the long-term efficacy of these medications in helping people maintain even a semblance of a normal life. From what I observed with the individuals I cared for, they seemed almost entirely blunted, stripped of any real emotional depth and rarely engaging in conversation. It was heartbreaking to see people who weren't even that old end up tucked away in an institution like that.
It’s particularly heavy when you realize some of them were incredibly bright, having finished college and possessing intelligence well above average, only to end up in such circumstances. It was a profoundly sad thing to witness.
What you wrote really hit home for me. Usually, I only pop in here every once in a while to catch up on new posts, but this caught my eye. My best friend deals with both schizophrenia and autism (supposedly a very mild form), and man, those meds have just totally flattened her. But, looking back, her parents ignored her condition for such a long time; they brushed off her behavior since she was little, even though it was super obvious. When she finally had a total breakdown in her mid-20s, everything went south fast, and suddenly she was being bombarded by psychiatrists and all sorts of doctors throwing every pill imaginable at her. She’s still on medication today, and she just has this empty stare, almost zero reaction to anything, and she struggles so much to express herself. She’s essentially a victim of her own circumstances, and as much as we can sit here and philosophize about whether someone with those diagnoses can truly be "helped"... ah, it’s hard to say, but honestly? No. Because none of us actually knows what it feels like to be in their shoes. You can only help by being a support system and staying hyper-vigilant about every tiny shift in their mood or behavior, because in my friend's case, that was absolutely vital! That’s the only reason her life was saved.
And before some self-righteous person comes after me for saying "they" can't be helped, I don't mean we should just give up on them entirely. I just mean they are never going to be "normal." It sounds harsh, I know, but it’s the absolute truth.