Lunatics?! – by Hannah(Hye Eun)

Hey, guys and gals!

As we have stayed in Portland for quiet a long time,
everybody must have seen a lot of street people.

Then have you paid attention to…

a person like him??

This man was actually stumbling, smoking, and was trying to find a cozy spot to take a nap…
He looked like a homeless person or a beggar.

And what do you think she was like…?

She was on the max with me this morning.
It looked as if she were talking to somebody…
She was dressed in tatters, and she couldn’t make an eye contact on an object or a person near her, for a long time.

We have seen these 2 people above,
but we cannot perceive them only as beggars or homeless people.

We should diagnose them.

Although we are not doctors, we can at least see what illness the person has.
So, in a nutshell,  they might be suffering some mental disorders.  Those people are called “Lunatics” (sometimes called “Psychos”).

There are numerous types of mental illnesses, but let me introduce  the particular mental disease the woman above had. Although we are not doctors, we can at least assume the name of her illness by comparing her behaviors with the facts mentioned in Psychiatry.

It seemed like the mental illness, “Schizophrenia”.

The main symptoms that patients with schizophrenia suffer are bizarre delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized speech and thinking with significant social or occupational dysfunction. Because of the hallucinations, many patients talk to somebody who can be seen only by the patient him/herself. So they might seem like they’re talking to themselves, but actually they’re not.

Many doctors prescribe medications for the patients who suffer schizophrenia, so that their brains won’t make up the hallucinations. But recently, the number of the doctors who prescribe medications like Prozac, Paxil are decreasing. Because many doctors are starting to understand that counseling is much more effective than chemically-controlling medications.

Wasn’t it interesting, learning about the patients who seem like suffering “schizophrenia”?

If you pay a little more attention,
you might also be able to see some people on the streets with this kind of illness.

You don’t have to make time to visit some mental hospitals to see those people.

Look around! There are so many people out there suffering mental diseases, who you can meet!