- In France, 660,000 people suffer from schizophrenia.
- Unfortunately, the cinema, the media, ignorance convey confusion and clichés about this disease, which occurs in 85% of cases between 15 and 25 years old.
- To better inform young people, several initiatives have been launched, notably on the occasion of the Schizophrenia Days (most of whose operations are unfortunately canceled due to the coronavirus).
"Obviously, the voices I hear do not compliment me, they insult me and make me doubt others," says Naama, 19. Since her 14 years, the young woman fights against a psychic illness as little known as stigmatizing: schizophrenia.
A disease that invited itself on its high school schoolgirl from the 3rd. “I felt like I was being persecuted, I had tried to kill myself several times. I got out of it little by little. Without therapist, without doctor, without medication. But at 17, again, she notices significant mood changes. Finally, the nurse from the school offered to go to the emergency room. The same evening, she was hospitalized in psychiatry. "All the prejudices about the psychiatric hospital, the camisole, the screams, I believed in it, I said to myself:" but what has it been like? I was very well received by the patients, they reassured me. There were actually mainly depressed people. "
"I was once again in a delusion of persecution"
Four months later, Naama leaves the hospital in good shape. "But a month later, I was once again in a delusion of persecution: I thought that there were cameras everywhere, in the street, the mirrors, the curtains, and that it was the state or the hospital who were watching me, ”said the girl. Return to the hospital unit. “In a year and a half, I had eight hospitalizations. Between the ages of 17 and 18, I spent more time in the hospital than at home. "
Finally, she discovers her diagnosis by mistake, noted on her file: dystimic schizophrenia. "Of course, I went on the Internet and said to myself" and shit! ". At the same time, I recognized myself. It is a mixture of schizophrenia and bipolarity. Naama has since been able to resume her studies in a study center and feels stabilized. But what makes her angry are the various prejudices that surround schizophrenia.
Violent, really?
First among them, violence. "Schizo equals serial killer for some," laments Naama. We are not dangerous for others, but for ourselves. In general, we isolate ourselves. "This is confirmed by Christophe Debien, psychiatrist at the Lille University Hospital:" It is a rare epiphenomenon. "
Another gap between representations and reality: the stay in the psychiatric hospital. "I was asked if I had been put on a camisole, if I had been tied to the bed," recalls Naama. People imagine the mental hospital as a 19th century asylum. »Snapshots that are particularly vivid among young people. “I heard good ones!” Exclaims Naama. In high school, some told me that they didn't want to hang out with me anymore because they were afraid that I would pass the disease on to them. It's not a flu! "
Not one, but schizophrenia
Another problem is confusion. “Some people told me that schizophrenia was split personality. "False," replied Christophe Debien, who made a little clarification: "It is a psychiatric illness which manifests itself by symptoms, of which the best known are hallucinations, whereas these are not the most frequent. In the cinema, visual hallucinations are often shown, whereas it is acoustico-verbal hallucinations, a mixture of parasitic sounds and voices, which are more common. There is also an alteration in the relationship to reality. A bit like putting on sunglasses: you no longer see the environment as it is. Finally, third part: the disorganization of thought, difficulties in reasoning, an impairment of memory. Above all, there is not one, but schizophrenia, with various mixtures of symptoms. "
Informing young people both seems to them to be an emergency. Because it is precisely between 15 and 25 years that the first symptoms occur in general. “Psychiatry suffers from stigma, specifies Christophe Debien. We could not deal with it if it were not a major obstacle to access to care. Especially since the earlier we detect it, the better we are doing. However, there is a delay in diagnosis of five to ten years. »Which leaves time for the disease to progress, with its attendant consequences: dropout, isolation, depression, suicide ...
How to educate young people?
“You have to go to their territory, that is to say social networks, and empower the media, screenwriters, directors, to work together with patients and caregivers to co-construct fictions that carry messages strong. The psychiatrist created with a colleague a You Tube channel, where he twists his neck to the clichés on psychiatry. For their part, the associations offer clear and nuanced information on the site schizinfo.com, site of the Days of Schizophrenia (whose actions in the field are canceled due to the coronavirus).
Fiction, as we have said, also has a role to play. That is why, the associations put online, on the occasion of these Days, a web series of a single episode, Schizo , produced with a committee of experts. Ten minutes in the brain of Alice, a schoolgirl who blocks on a red light, hears voices…
Schizo
Schizo season 1 Trailer VF
In May, my father's forest will be released at the cinema, in which 15-year-old Gina sees her father sink into schizophrenia. A film "not medical, but of love, up to a child", specifies its director, Véro Cratzborn. In addition, “the Maniac series manages to give a fairly subtle representation, welcomes the psychiatrist. Representation in fiction is changing, but in reality it is very slow. "
A program is also planned by the Ministry of Health so that everyone can undergo training in first aid in mental health, like the first aid diploma. To prevent tomorrow's young schizophrenics from hearing as much nonsense as Naama.
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