Understanding why people born blind never develop schizophrenia could transform how we think about and treat one of medicine’s most baffling conditions.
Schizophrenia is really fucking hard to diagnose, someone whose never been able to see, can’t experience visual hallucinations, they just can’t. And that’s the main symptom, the one that people not only experience but can usually eventually figure out aren’t real.
They can experience auditory hallucinations, but are likely to have not only an inner monologue, but a richer one with more variation due to no vision. Creating narratives even subconsciously would help navigate figuratively and literally. With relaying on hearing so much, “false positives” would also likely be common, a study on how often blind people think they may have heard something may shed light. “Did someone say something” moments may mask auditory hallucinations.
It’s entirely possible there’s blind schizophrenics, and they’re either misdiagnosed or undiagnosed.
One thing that is weird, people born deaf also can’t experience auditory hallucinations, so instead they experience “floating hands” visual hallucinations that angrily sign at them.
So I’d be curious into research if schizophrenia in someone whose never experienced sight is exhibited in a radically different way. The symptoms are still just symptoms, they’re not what’s causing the issue. So it would make sense when such fundamental systems as vision and hearing are interrupted, symptoms may manifest in radically different ways, or even unnoticeable ways
My understanding was hallucinations didn’t specifically have to be visual, aural hallucinations were are sufficient to check the hallucinations box, is this incorrect?
aural hallucinations were are sufficient to check the hallucinations box, is this incorrect?
Auditory hallucinations but yeah…
What I said was that “did someone say something” false positives that you heard something are easily handwaved away, pretty normal.
But visual hallucinations are often what makes a schizophrenic realize that they’re experiencing hallucinations. Because a visual hallucinations can’t interact with reality.
If a blind person hears “fuck you Bob, step in the street”…
Bob can’t be 100% sure there’s not someone fucking with them.
That could be all the “protection” is, just having the benefit of the doubt. They could be experiencing shit, but just fucking dealing with it.
Meh…
Schizophrenia is really fucking hard to diagnose, someone whose never been able to see, can’t experience visual hallucinations, they just can’t. And that’s the main symptom, the one that people not only experience but can usually eventually figure out aren’t real.
They can experience auditory hallucinations, but are likely to have not only an inner monologue, but a richer one with more variation due to no vision. Creating narratives even subconsciously would help navigate figuratively and literally. With relaying on hearing so much, “false positives” would also likely be common, a study on how often blind people think they may have heard something may shed light. “Did someone say something” moments may mask auditory hallucinations.
It’s entirely possible there’s blind schizophrenics, and they’re either misdiagnosed or undiagnosed.
One thing that is weird, people born deaf also can’t experience auditory hallucinations, so instead they experience “floating hands” visual hallucinations that angrily sign at them.
So I’d be curious into research if schizophrenia in someone whose never experienced sight is exhibited in a radically different way. The symptoms are still just symptoms, they’re not what’s causing the issue. So it would make sense when such fundamental systems as vision and hearing are interrupted, symptoms may manifest in radically different ways, or even unnoticeable ways
My understanding was hallucinations didn’t specifically have to be visual, aural hallucinations were are sufficient to check the hallucinations box, is this incorrect?
Auditory hallucinations but yeah…
What I said was that “did someone say something” false positives that you heard something are easily handwaved away, pretty normal.
But visual hallucinations are often what makes a schizophrenic realize that they’re experiencing hallucinations. Because a visual hallucinations can’t interact with reality.
If a blind person hears “fuck you Bob, step in the street”…
Bob can’t be 100% sure there’s not someone fucking with them.
That could be all the “protection” is, just having the benefit of the doubt. They could be experiencing shit, but just fucking dealing with it.