Schizophrenia and Dissociative Disorders: Crash Course Psychology #32

In this episode of Crash Course Psychology, Hank describes some of the most misunderstood psychological disorders out there: Schizophrenia and Dissociative Identity Disorder.

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Chapters:
Introduction: Schizophrenia & Dissociative Disorders 00:00
Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders 1:31
Psychotic Symptoms 5:04
Physiological Brain Abnormalities in Schizophrenic Patients 5:43
Diathesis Stress Model 6:49
Dissociative Disorders 8:05
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) 8:44
Review & Credits 10:47
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[ghosty]

Thank you for not demonizing schizophrenia and being incredibly respectful while educating. This is what we need these days.

[Ramirez]

"Understanding may be the key to compassion." Deep af

[CyriilB]

I have schizophrenia and the voices aren't really terrifying most of the time. You get used to them. They can come as a surprise at times and at first they were a bit frightening but I experienced an odd loss of self at the same time for lack of a better way to describe it, so I didn't experience the same types of emotions I probably would have had I not been suffering from schizophrenia. When I'm on my medication the voices are definitely less frequent and I can typically tell what's real and what isn't and filter out the hallucinations but I guess you get used to it. When I need a med adjustment or I forget my medicine for a while or something I usually don't even notice when I begin a psychotic episode. Someone else does and puts me in inpatient in the hospital. It isn't until I get back on the right course of medicine that I can start thinking clearly enough that I can see how oddly I was thinking and acting. I'm still a weird guy though even when I'm properly medicated. It kinda hit me like a ton of bricks when I was 24. Sucks tbh.

[seasorablue]

I have dissociative disorder because of my childhood trauma. Derealisation and depersonalisation are tough to live with! It feels like I'm always dreaming and I can't remember most of my life. I know I can get better though!
To all those also suffering from it, I hope you find a good therapist, medication, and recovery and relief comes quickly.

[lambo]

how does this guy teach me more in 11 minutes than my lecturer does in 1.5 hours?

[autumn]

"Understanding may be the key to compassion" I like that :)

[threeicys]

My mother was not diagnosed until she was in her 30's - manic depression, schizophrenia and split personality. Without a diagnosis or treatment she was able to provide us girls with a stable, clean home, regular meals, special birthdays and holidays. No parent is ever perfect but she gave it her all and I am so grateful.

[abc_cba]

*My mom had a heart attack* and i thought it was her delusion that she had other than imagining things. I asked her if her back was burning and she couldn't speak what exactly was happening to her as she was on a sedative and I assumed she was feeling better and sleeping like she would daily after the medication and she gave me hints that it was really a heart attack but she always wanted me to not spend money on her and *she had a massive cardiac arrest right in front of me* and she died in my arms while on the way to the hospital.

I've been in shock ever since and I have tears while I'm writing this. My mom suffered from schizophrenia for 30 years without treatment but when she got fine after her treatment last year, she just had a year of quality life and died because of my lack of understanding.

My father used to beat her black and blue, hit her, grab her hairs, break her bones, slap her, hit her while I was a child and I was helpless and he never treated her. When we grew up, my elder brother started beating and threatening her, and when I grew I thought she was very doing this purposely, I googled what was going on and it was shocking that she was living with this disorder and all her symptoms matched. I got her a proper treatment last year and she would sometimes talk about someone coming to harm us but she improved 99% on medications but I lost her a month ago.

I wonder how she lived so many years and raised us by working very hard while our father did nothing.
It's a terrible disorder and I pray to God that nobody has it ever. Nobody believes you when you actually need help. My mom's face keep flashing to my mind everyday. I simply didn't understand what happened because she had no signs or symptoms of heart attack and she didn't say anything but hint me because she cared a lot for our financial difficulty and didn't want anyone to bear her expenses. I miss my mother, she was a very important part of my life and she is why I grew up who I am despite she suffered all these years without medications.

Thank you for being sensitive on this topic and please get yourselves or those who suffer from it be loved and cared, that plays a massive role in grooming them and making them feel accepted.

[katie]

My grandpa had schizophrenia, it was terrible at the end. He believed that all of the doctors were plotting against him and when my Aunt missed a Christmas because of work, my grandpa somehow linked the two. He cut her out of his life for years. He would hallucinate the sounds of people walking around upstairs and he thought people were breaking in. I really wish I could have gotten to know the sharp, compassionate, witty lawyer he was for most of his life. By the time I was a teenager, things had gotten pretty ugly- he wasn't taking his meds and he also had severe bipolar disorder in addition to the schizophrenia. He's been gone for years now but I really miss him and wish I could talk to him again as an adult. I think he'd be proud of me.

[Baylaruse]

I dated a guy for 3 years who had DID. When he first told me that he had multiple selves, I assumed he was either schizophrenic or making it up, but I tried to withdraw judgment. Nonetheless, I'd be lying if I didn't say I was scared. I have diagnosed depression, anxiety, and OCD myself, but this seemed like a whole new ballpark of crazy. It was beyond my ability to empathize with him as I genuinely couldn't imagine what it was like to have multiple personalities at the time. However, that changed when I got to meet his alters. Realizing that this was 100% real to him, and just the sheer complexity of it, was mind boggling, yet extremely eye opening. Each personality inside of him was a fully fledged person, with all the intricacies that comes with it. The way each alter talked, acted, moved, even wrote--it was all that of separate people. The host--the self in charge of the body the most, may have been the person I initially fell in love with, but eventually, I discovered all three of them inside of him captured my heart. I want people to know that multiple personalities, as crazy as it sounds, is completely real, and these people who have it are not messed up. It's definitely not a walk in the park to have DID, that I know from him, but all of him, each self, were just as conceivable as you and I, albeit not as tangible. He sometimes would refer to himself as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ironically, but he wasn't a monster. All of him were--and is, a great man. He has since completed the difficult process of integration, which is where his personalities absorbed into one united self, but I still love the parts that used to be, and the person he is now.

[victoriamendez]

I am diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder. DID is a result is severe and repetitive chlildhood trauma or abuse that can only develop when these traumatic experiences occur when the individual in question is aged 9 or younger. I've never understood why people want to fake having DID. It's an incredibly difficult disorder to deal with, it can only form under horrible circumstances, and for many it's not possible to integrate (for all personalities to reabsorb into one single person). These sensationalized, inaccurate, and terrible depictions of DID in movies like Sybil, Split, and Identity are so harmful to the DID community, especially since most of us have been harrassed or called "fake" many times before. Also, plenty of research has been done on DID! It's even a recognized disorder in the DSM-5 of the American Psychiatric Association, the manual used to officially diagnose mental disorders.

[kafka]

Dissociative identity disorder is still a real thing, it is underresearched, underfunded and undertaught in psychology school

[JMaru]

Thank you for this video. I'm currently in a very serious relationship with my girlfriend who is diagnosed as a schizophrenic and this really helped me understand what I can do to help her and how to be more readily responsive to her when something happens. I cannot thank you enough!

[wala]

Sad to see depersonalization and derealization not mentioned under the dissociative disorders. Then again he did say "more rare and elusive" when it came to that section. One day, my soul will find me and I'll feel connected again, I hope.

[TenTigersofChina]

Normally I watch videos 1.5X speed, but this guy talks that fast.

[petiteham]

I actually ran across this video because my client of four years has severe schizophrenia. Numerous of her antipsychotics needed to be discontinued recently because they were poisoning her, and only two weeks without those medications caused her to be so delusional and confused that we had no choice but to admit her to a “mental health behavioral unit”. She’s so paranoid and I hope the doctors can figure out which medication helps to quiet the constant voices so we can take her back home again. She’s been rehabilitated for ten years, and she’s terrified to be in a ward again and she’s mentally handicapped too so she has trouble understanding her disability. It’s so bad, she thinks people can steal her body parts and be invisible and she gets aggressive thinking that people were shooting her and cutting her. She almost opened the door in a moving car because she thought someone was trying to kill her. It’s heartbreaking. I miss my girl.

[laughattack]

THANK YOU for covering mental illnesses, like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia! I'm glad that it's not only me who's out there telling people that they do not understand at all what they mean when they say things like "lol I'm so bipolar" 

[saltedsnail]

My grandmother had Schizophrenia. My dad has OCD and I have panic attacks, what a wonderful family. I just wanted to post this to show that even with all the problems, my family is still pretty great and I love them anyway.

[chelseymathers]

I was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder when I was 18. When I recalled being raped (ages 4-12) my mind released whatever part of me had been there for the abuse. She was a stronger version of myself. When I was very stressed from remembering my past, she would take over, and that was frightening. We merged together, as a concious decision.

[eddieD]

I sure appreciate this discussion. My brother has been paranoid schizophrenic for 40 years. He has, at one time or another, exhibited every single symptom of schizophrenia. He's been violent, abusive, ranting and raving, extreme delusions of grandeur, extreme hallucinations, word salad, blames me for everything, can't pay attention to anything, he tried to kill my mother several times, he's cost me friends, jobs, even a house.

Yet all the focus has been on him, always. There was no help for me ever, even when I repeatedly asked. My relatives (all dead now we're old) hounded me for decades to "fix" my brother. Now I'm old and tired (he's younger) and he hounds me to death non stop. He just can't accept that I'm not able to do everything for him any more. I'm lazy, selfish, a scapegoat. He's literally killing me with this abuse.

My point is that you shouldn't ignore the family of the mentally ill, but you should support them. I can no longer help my brother; I'm having a hard time taking care of myself. If someone would have helped me 30 or 40 years ago when I asked, then it would have been a whole lot better for my brother and me too.