A Take on Loss

I may be biased. Some would say that I have a skewed view of things. This may be true, but it doesn't change my opinion. In my opinion, Dementia and Schizophrenia are two of the worst diseases imaginable. Don't get me wrong; cancer, heart disease, chronic pain, etc are all terrible illnesses and I would wish them on no one. These more "physical" illnesses cause loss and heartache; they destroy the body. Dementia and Schizophrenia also cause loss, I am talking of the loss of the person hood. They steal a person, leaving someone you don't know to remind you of what was lost.

I have seen tears flow and tremendous grief from families and victims of the more "physical" illnesses. I have seen suffering and courage. I have seen people overcome and persevere through adversity. They are brave souls with determined minds. But for the most part they haven't lost control of their minds; their souls are not left wandering.

The loss of the essence of a person, to me, makes Schizophrenia and Dementia all the more wrenching. In dementia the mind fades, rapidly or slowly, and as it does so the body fails. The person we knew fades. Often, the worst parts of their pre-morbid or pre-illness personality emerge. They lose track of who we are and why we are there to care for them. They are frightened, not knowing why they are here, where their spouse has gone, who took their belongings. They want to go home, and yet they may be at the home they've lived in for years.

In schizophrenia, the change may be rapid with a loss of pre-morbid functioning. A once promising youth may be unable to hold a job. Relationships are lost amidst a cacophony of auditory or visual inputs that are the product of their own minds. Fear runs rampant as paranoia descends. I cannot image the horror of being insulted, being told that all you do is wrong, that you are going to be killed, that people are after you - constantly. If you have trouble concentrating in a noisy room, imagine that you carry that noisy room with you wherever you go. The meds help - may provide relief and improve the ability to function better in society, but are not perfect and carry risk.

That is why I believe the way I do. The loss of a person.

*I call some of these illnesses "physical" as we tend to think of mental and some brain illness as NOT having a physical component. Dementia tends to be thought of more and more as being physical by the general public as our understanding increases. I believe that schizophrenia is every bit as physical. This was my admittedly poor way of differentiating between the sets of problems I was talking about. I realize that I probably have contributed to further misunderstanding, but for now I do the best I can do with limited writing skills.