A woman on TikTok is bravely sharing her experience of living with schizophrenia.
Last week, she detailed her hallucinatory symptoms in a post that went viral with more than 5.1 million views on the social media app.
She uses her video editing skills to demonstrate the phenomenon – which she describes as seeing “black masses” instead of people.
“Most of what I’m going to see is this [there is] a black shadow behind me—like this,” she says to the camera just before the footage cuts to a loosely formed silhouette standing in front of a door.
“Or I’ll see them look around the corner—like that,” she continued, pulling away to show the same doorframe and her face slowly peering across the threshold of the same doorway.
“That’s one of the main reasons why I don’t have doors [open]”, she added. “They’ll look through the crack in the door and just look at me. It’s f-king scary.”
“Or I’ll be in my living room and they’ll be watching me from the kitchen.”
While usually haunted by dark figures, she claimed to have also seen “zombie-like” visions in the past. “But I was very close to a mental breakdown,” she explained.
TikTok users reacted to her video with sympathy.
“You are a strong woman,” read one of the top comments.
“I’m so sorry you had to experience this. I’m terrified.” added another.
Schizophrenia is a chronic mental disorder that affects the way people perceive reality, leading to hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking and speech, paranoia, and time gaps.
More than 200,000 people in the US live with schizophrenia, for which there is no cure. The cause of schizophrenia is still unknown, but research suggests that a combination of genetic and environmental factors likely encourage its onset.
In another recent post, the “recently diagnosed” patient described the long-term effects of schizophrenia—specifically, the reduction of gray matter volume in the brain.
Gray matter is a type of brain tissue that processes most of the information the brain receives, including physical sensation, visual perception, movement, speech and memory.
“The longer you go without treating schizophrenia, the less gray matter you have in your brain,” she said, adding that she will likely take medication to reduce her symptoms for the rest of her life.
She went on to warn viewers of the tell-tale symptoms, urging those who have the same experience to contact a doctor without delay.
“If you have a lot of background noise in your brain … go see someone,” she began. “If you’re seeing things peaking around the corner, seeing things hovering, black masses … go see somebody.”
“If you experience thoughts that are not your original thoughts … please go get help.”
“Your life depends on it.”
#hallucinate #schizophrenic
Image Source : nypost.com