Brian A. Plank's Blog, page 2

The Gift

I’d read that in some cultures, schizophrenia was considered a gift, and was celebrated.

In my culture it was still a highly stigmatized and misunderstood illness. Add on the fact that it is an invisible illness, people tend to shrug it off.

I did see the beauty in the madness – having schizophrenia had brought out all kinds of heightened cerebral activity. If the sick mind’s activity could be harnessed it could be ...

I Know it’s Easier Said than Done… April 2020

I’m anxious. I’m paranoid. I’m down. I’m not sure how to feel. I don’t know who to trust. I’m bored.

This is all too surreal.

I’ve been waiting for my alarm clock to wake me up for about eight weeks now.

Suddenly, over the past few months what may seem to many as the Apocalypse – is happening. The Four Horsemen are upon us: War, Famine, Plague, and Death.

At first, I started seeing memes and jokes on Facebook ab...

Why We Allow Ourselves to be Stigmatized – It Makes No Sense to Me

I’d read that only about one third of those who suffered from mental health issues ever admitted to their illnesses. Using the terms ‘sufferers’ and ‘illnesses’ alone hints that these individuals were sick and therefore ‘lesser’ in some way than the rest of the population. It is akin to a cancer patient – they suffer from an illness and are therefore labelled as victims of that illness.

I would think that this would make for a more empathetic society.

I believe that education is key – Peop...

Unless You’ve Lived with It, You Couldn’t Begin to Understand…

He was an eccentric man in almost every conceivable way.

If describing him with great modesty, it would have to be said that he had unsettling mannerisms. Most found him disturbing. Many found him intolerable. At the very least he was considered disruptive and annoying. The apparent consensus by those who encountered him was that he should be exiled somewhere – anywhere – the further away, the better. He was rarely given the benefit of the doubt, let alone offered a sympathetic hand or ear.

...

To Tell or Not to Tell? Admitting there Is a Problem – Stigma

I was 34-years old when I was formally diagnosed with Schizophrenia.

Since my childhood, I had been suffering from increasingly debilitating feelings of anxiety and depression. As I approached my teens these feelings intensified; and, by my mid-to-late 20’s, I was subjected to delusional and crippling paranoid thoughts, and I started hearing arguments within my mind.

When I was in my late-teens and early 20’s, it had never occurred to me that I may have a sick mind. I simply believed that ...