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intro.psych (Psyco 105) Discussion: Group 1 Discussion Group: Abnormal Psychology: Sites to Visit: Alison's Story - Living with Schizophrenia
By Connie Varnhagen (Admin) on Wednesday, September 2, 1998 - 11:52 am:
Read Alison's story. As Alison's story indicates, no cure exists for schizophrenia. Given this fact, and keeping in mind the social consequences of being labeled "mentally ill", is the benefit of the label "schizophrenia" worth the cost to the individual? (see page 616 of Gray for more information on labeling).
This is a topic that I have alot to say about, I will start today by talking about the questions adressed. Alison's story doesn't specify wether she was labeled or diagnosed with schizophrenia so we are not able to notice the difference with what she is experiencing.
This is an interesting topic! Even though Alison did not mention being labeled "schizophrenic, she did use words like "psychotic","depressed"and anti-depressant" in her passage. These are probably words she heard from her psychiatrist that she now uses to idintify herself with.
When I read the story, I wasn't sure if Alison knew she had schizophrenia, or what the psychiatrists told her. Alison mostly talked about the drug treatments rather than the diagnosis. I agree that schizophrenia is really terrifying, but I don't have any experience with it. I also agree that knowing the disorder is not someone's fault makes it easier for the person suffering. But knowing would also be hard because they would have to deal with the label. Society would probably view Alison as subhuman, especially if they were aware that she had been labelled schizophrenic. It seems to me that she would stop being an individual and become more like the "typical mental patient."
I think that Mike is right. When people find out that someone has a mental illness they may be inclined to treat the person differently. I was searching the web and found this page on how stigma affects people with mental illnesses. It's quite sad and interesting. http://www.searchlight.com/stigma/sting.htm
Through reading about the man's experience in the link I added above, it seems that he has become frightened of his own self and his mental processes. He mentions a feeling of being imprisoned and talks about how his constant and harsh self-judgement reminds him that something is wrong. He describes stigma from an internal view as opposed to others placing the stigma on him. It makes me wonder how I would function if I thought there was something seriously wrong with my brain but I did not have the power to change it. I can imaging that I would fell an extreme loss of hope.
WOW, is all I have to say. I went to the site you found and I found it was better than the other one simply because it was more about what was going on in the mind wether then just the medications. Anyways, I believe that his story is true and it makes alot of sense. It is nice to know that he can realize that things don't revolve around him and won't get done because of this illness, and as we all know it won't. He seems scared that it will simply consume him so that he is not able to function and provide himself with the "simplest" things that may keep him alive.
Many people would not use their label to their advantage, I agree, but many people use it as a reference to get help for themselves like the self-help sights you will find on the net. It is important to look at labeling from three viewpoints
Yes what you are saying is true but also there are people in society who may treat someone who is labelled better because they may be more understanding. They may be more understanding if they can know that there is a name for it whereas if there is no name for what is wrong they may just assume they are a "freak" or "crazy".
Yeah, I think it definately works both ways. Some people are understanding when they hear a label while others may be afraid from lack of knowledge and react with judgement or avoidance.
Oops! In the second last sentence of my last post disregard the word "not". Sorry!
I agree that knowledge has alot to do with it, what's the old saying 'ignorance is bliss'. Anyways, I feel that the more someone knows about something wether it affects them directly or not would be benifical to everyone and how they are affected.
I agree that people may react with judgement and/or avoidance towards someone is "labeled" whatever that label might be. People, in general, really fear the unknown. I believe that this fear is cause of racism and avoiding people who have undesirable and little understood problems. I also think that keeping the problems hidden may actually benefit the person affected as long as they are not deluding themselves. Everyone needs to fit in with some sort of social group, and with a label they may not be accepted. What society doesn't know about a person can't affect them, thereby reducing any stereotypical preconceptions of an afflicted person.
SUMMARY
I see a lot of very thoughtful comments in your discussion. This topic really sparked your interest and the discussion shows it. Your summary was comprehensive and covered a good portion of your discussion as well as addressing the questions on labelling clearly. I would have liked to see an expansion on the three viewpoints you mentioned. (You did this in your disussion but not in the summary). Good job on sourcing out an extra interesting site.
Go There
By Jep on Thursday, November 5, 1998 - 01:41 pm:
With personal experience through a family member, it is a good thing to be diagnosed to one degree because you know that it isn't your fault and that it is chemicals in your brain, but also it could be a very scary diagnosis. Think about the name itself, it is very scary, also the definition that goes along with it. On top of that a person has to deal with the stereotypical things about schizophrenia. It seems that this is the illness that is the worst to deal with, people believe that you are "crazy" although you are different and see things and hear things differently technically you are not "crazy" you simply can't understand the same. To be labeled with schizophrenia is a scary thing, but it is also a relieve to to know that it is chemical.
It's hard for me to explain what I am trying to say, and it is hard to discuss, but his topic fasinates me.
By Ivanka on Sunday, November 8, 1998 - 11:05 pm:
Although these labels help people to understand an illnes, they can also aid in lowering a person's self-esteem and posibly pulling them further down emotionally. Sometimes when people know that something is not as it should be and they are labeled by a professional, it can help them in being able to find information on their condition as well as support and alternatives for treatment. It can give a person something tangeable to hold on to and work on instead of just thinking that they are crazy.
However, these labels can be used to describe the person instead of the illness and cause the person to think that all they are is the illness
People tend to reinforce this with language. There is a difference between saying, "the schizophrenic girl" as opposed to , "the girl who suffers from schozophrenia". The first one makes it seem as though the illness makes up the entire person while the latter puts the person first and the illness as one factor of that person.
By Mike on Sunday, November 8, 1998 - 11:40 pm:
By Ivanka on Monday, November 9, 1998 - 10:57 am:
I hope it works for you. I'm not overly computer literate.
By Ivanka on Monday, November 9, 1998 - 11:20 am:
By Jep on Monday, November 9, 1998 - 12:41 pm:
I think that by having a label as an individual can be benifical if you are shown how to use that label, for example by taking it and looking up your illness to do something about it. Or is can also be harmful to someone if their doctor doesn't let thim know what the purpose of it. By just saying you have "_______" will not help because the chances are more likely that the person will view it badly, and don't know how to use it to their benifit.
By Ivanka on Wednesday, November 11, 1998 - 03:10 pm:
1) the professional
- determining appropriate treatments
- understanding of the person's illness or situation
2) the sufferer
- causes them to think that they are damaged (in an illness that states it has no cure, people tend to stop trying and loose hope)
- lowers self-esteem
- can help a person in searching out help for themselves
- can help a person understand biological and heredity aspects
3) society
- people may treat a labled "mental pateient" differently than they might if there was no label
- could aid in societies understanding of disorders
Feel free to add to my list!!
By Jep on Wednesday, November 11, 1998 - 06:13 pm:
By Ivanka on Friday, November 13, 1998 - 10:22 am:
I think another way that a label can be harmful is when the person who has been labeled does everything they can to try to cover up that label in order to appear as if nothing is wrong. We are studying "Disability as a Difference" in Sociology right now and I wanted to share this quote from my text that gives some insight into this topic. "people who have been stigmatized try to make themselves appear "normal" to others and deny their status as a persons with mental handicaps. This concept of passing can be applied to any stigmatized group that tries to cover up certain aspects in order not to suffer at the hands of the majority." - Anderson, Karen L. Sociology: A Critical Introduction.
I think that given what is said here it can be possible that people who are given a label might supress their problem and not deal with it properly in order to hide it from those around them. This could cause a cycle of secrets and self-deception which would cause the person to become even more mentally ill than they had been origonally.
There really does seem to be so many ups and downs to this issue that it is hard to establish if the benificial costs of labeling are worth the effects on the individual.
I was reading over our posts again and I wanted to go back to Jep's first post. I think I understand better what you are saying there. With a label, a person could learn about the biological aspect of the illness and therefore not relieve some of the blame on themselves for aquiring the illness in the first place. It gives them hope that with drugs and therapy together, they may be able to overcome their overwhelming personal situation
By Ivanka on Friday, November 13, 1998 - 02:28 pm:
By Jep on Friday, November 13, 1998 - 04:28 pm:
By Mike on Sunday, November 15, 1998 - 05:37 pm:
By Jep on Tuesday, November 17, 1998 - 10:12 pm:
As shown in our discussion, there are many ups and downs with concerns to schizophrenia and labeling. We discussed how ALison's seemed to only talk about her medical treatment and it wasn't clear as to wether she was actually diagnosed with schizophrenia. This lead to the discussion of labeling and how it effects individuals. In Alison's case it seemed like she used certain words such as "psychotic" and we thought maybe it was because that is what her doctor told her and they stuck. We thought maybe labeling could lower ones self-esteem, and cause them to think of themselves in terms of the illness rather than as a person simply with an illness. This may cause the individual to start being more like the "typical mental patient". On the other hand though we thought maybe having a name for what is wrong would take some of the blame off of themselves as an individual, and they would know that it wasn't because of anything they have done. By having knowledge about things such as illnesses and races we thought this would reduce the stereotypes that may come along with "labels". ALso we discussed that by keeping the "label" hidden from society may benifit, because the individual is not put into a certain "social group", as long as the individual is not in denial and trying to hide from the problem, or blame themselves. We looked at another site and saw another man with schizophrenia and say that he was scared that the illness would consume him and prevent him from performing simple everyday tasks. We looked at three different viewpoints to look at labeling, the professional viewpoint, the sufferer, as well as the societal viewpoint. THese different viewpoints would affect how a person deals with "their" label.
By Patricia on Friday, November 20, 1998 - 12:51 pm:
Grade = 3