Topics: Mental Health, Science, Health, Psychology, TikTok
A woman living with schizophrenia has shared her experiences of the mental illness online.
It's estimated that just over one percent of the American population have schizophrenia - a mental disorder characterized by disruptions in thought processes, perceptions, emotional responsiveness, and social interactions.
Symptoms of the illness include hallucinations, delusions, and thought disorders, as well as reduced expression of emotions, reduced motivation to accomplish goals, difficulty in social relationships, motor impairment, and cognitive impairment, the National Institue of Mental Health explains.
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What exactly causes someone to develop schizophrenia is still unknown, but scientists recently announced a potential huge breakthrough; a team of researchers in China believe they've worked out where the 'voices' people who suffer with schizophrenia come from.
After analyzing 40 people who live with the illness, it was concluded that the patients who hear voices didn't engage the 'corollary discharge' signal that fails to suppress self-generated sounds. This means those with the condition have a 'noisy' efference copy, as per EurekAlert, that 'makes the brain hear these sounds more intensely than it should'.
One person who knows this first-hand is Kendyl Culpepper, who openly documents her experiences with schizophrenia on TikTok.
A part of her illness, Kendyl will often hallucinate that her late father is still alive and that she still has interactions with him.
She takes medication to help with the symptoms, but on stressful days, Kendyl might still see her deceased dad, who passed in 2017.
Speaking about the mental toll it takes on her to keep having to relearn that her father's no longer here, Kendyl told BuzzFeed: "I was ready to absolutely just off myself because I couldn’t handle going through the grief over and over again of realizing that he was dead.
"It was almost like my brain couldn’t handle all of it so I tried to create this false sense of reality to give myself safety."
Kendyl believes she's been having hallucinations since the age of 10, but wasn't diagnosed with schizophrenia until her adult years.
With her previous suicidal feelings in mind, Kendyl wants others with schizophrenia to know that taking your own life isn't the only option.
She said: "It took me a long time to understand that I have schizophrenia for a purpose - so I can ensure nobody feels alone and like their only option is to kill themselves."
If you or someone you know is struggling or in a mental health crisis, help is available through Mental Health America. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. You can also reach the Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741.
