Have a Disorder, Build a Website - Schizophrenia
| Leonard Holmes, Ph.D. http://mentalhealth.about.com |
This feature was first published in 1997 when About.com (then known as The Mining Company) had just begun. Personal websites come and go. I will leave some of the dead links in these articles a bit longer than most in case they become active again. If you know of updated links to any sites in this article please email me.
Previous articles explored websites created by persons diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, Dissociative Disorders, Eating Disorders, Depression and Attention Deficit Disorder. There seems to be less stigma among the wired computer-literate generation than in the general population. Much of the web is autobiographical, and many people's biography includes a diagnosis. These sites are conceived to help others. There is information to help fellow consumers/patients, information for friends and family members, and information for the general public.
Schizophrenia is a disabling mental disorder which causes a severe split with reality. It does not lend it self to autobiographical homepages to the extent that some disorders do. Join me for a tour of four sites created by persons with this disorder.
The Experience of Schizophrenia is Ian Chovil's Home Page. Chovil bravely describes his own experiences with schizophrenia in words such as these:
I have schizophrenia and have been on medication now since 1990, the length of time I have lived in Guelph. I'm 43 and my schizophrenia started in late adolescence. I struggled for ten years between 1980 and 1990, quite delusional, and very poor. I eventually got in trouble with the law and received three years probation with the condition that I see a psychiatrist for those three years. I've been to jail, been actively alcoholic, attempted suicide, and been homeless. I hope that the next generation doesn't have to repeat my experience. (The Experience of Schizophrenia, 12/97)
His site is full of well-written text with some graphs and charts. Chovil's writing ability allows us to get inside the head of someone with this disorder in a way that is seldom possible.
William J. MacPhee was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1987. He started Schizophrenia Digest as a print publication in 1994 because few publications were available for the public. It now has a website which includes back issues from the print publication. There is a section entitled Schizophrenia Info which gives some basic facts about the disorder.
The back issues are by far the best part of this site. When I viewed it there was an annoying blue bar down the middle of the page (with my browser at 800x600). This results from a faulty background graphic - someone designed the site for a narrow browser window.
Maurizio Baldini tells his story on Internet Mental Health. He first became ill at age 22 while attending law school at the University of British Columbia. Here too we get a revealing glimpse of how schizophrenia feels from the inside. Here is an excerpt from his description of his first psychotic break:
Suddenly the noises made by cars and planes going by outside my house took on secret and deliberate meanings. I became convinced that I was involved in the start of a nuclear war and the only way for me to survive was to find the answer to a difficult riddle. During this first episode of psychosis I fluctuated between wild delusions of grandeur to deep depressions about my future. I thought I would become the next prime minister of Canada and rule by divine right over a new world order for our citizens. Maurizio Baldini's Story, 12/97
Schizophrenia - Adrift in an Anchorless Reality
is Janice Jordan's story. It is also told on Internet Mental Health, and it originally appeared in Schizophrenia Bulletin. Jordan also has harrowing descriptions of her hallucinations and delusions, but she also offers hope. She summarizes her experiences by saying:It is up to us, people with schizophrenia, to be patient and to be trusting. We must believe that tomorrow is another day, perhaps one day closer to fully understanding schizophrenia, to knowing its cause, and to finding a cure. Schizophrenia - Adrift in an Anchorless Reality, 12/97
| Leonard Holmes, Ph.D. http://mentalhealth.about.com |
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