NPR : The Sights and Sounds of Schizophrenia

Man, this is cool.

I’d love to get the soundtrack from the sim to put on at a party.

I lived wth a schizophrenic man for a couple of years in Bloomington. He was seriously tormented by his illness. Once I awakened to find him inserting another roommates’ discarded medical injection needles directly into the veins on the back of his hand while yelling, in obvious emotional distress, at his voices. He had selected these enormous large-bore needles that the other roomie used to rehydrate his meds – I mean these needles had an interior diameter of up to 5mm.

My schizoid roommate had these needles stuck into all his veins and it was as if he’d just pulled a stopper out of his circulatory system. Blood was everywhere; when he’d gesture to emphasize a particularly compelling rant, streams of blood would go flying around the kitchen.

I got really angry with him and browbeat him into yanking the needles out, helped him bandage his hands, and made him promise that he’d never do anything like it again. It was a suicide attempt, I think; but it was hard to say with him because he was so in-and-out of coherence. He was not coherent that night.

I talked with him at length, over time, about both the general symptoms of the disease and experiences he has consequently had; and also his internal system of explanations and justifications that he’s developed and maintained since the onset of his disease, as a teenager.

I hope very much that this sim is released to the general public.