The Mentally Ill
This may seem like a strange topic, but I've been interested for some time in mental illnesses. I would hate to have one myself, but I'm particularly interested in schizophrenia and psychotic illnesses - I read that about one percent of the world's population is going to experience a schizophrenic episode at some point in their lives - I think that works out to be 600, 000 people in Britain. I don't think all of them have the full-blown illness, but they experience at least one episode.
Does anyone here know how the mentally ill in hospitals are treated? Can they read books, watch TV, listen to music? I'm reading the book "A Beautiful Mind" about the mathematician John Nash who succumbed to schizophrenia when he was 30 (he doesn't have it any more now) but for about three decades, he was ill. He was a paranoid schizophrenic and experienced delusions and voices in his head. It's interesting, but in quite a horrible way.
I also dislike the way people in mental institutions are called "inmates", as though they are criminals - I think they should be referred to as "patients." After all, many of them are not criminals - they're just ill people.
I'm not old enough yet to see "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", although I'll probably try when I'm older, because my parents say it's very good and also because Christopher Lloyd (the Doc!) has a part in it. But I basically know the whole story anyway. Nurse Ratched sounds like a terrible person.
This may seem like a strange topic, but I've been interested for some time in mental illnesses. I would hate to have one myself, but I'm particularly interested in schizophrenia and psychotic illnesses - I read that about one percent of the world's population is going to experience a schizophrenic episode at some point in their lives - I think that works out to be 600, 000 people in Britain. I don't think all of them have the full-blown illness, but they experience at least one episode.
Does anyone here know how the mentally ill in hospitals are treated? Can they read books, watch TV, listen to music? I'm reading the book "A Beautiful Mind" about the mathematician John Nash who succumbed to schizophrenia when he was 30 (he doesn't have it any more now) but for about three decades, he was ill. He was a paranoid schizophrenic and experienced delusions and voices in his head. It's interesting, but in quite a horrible way.
I also dislike the way people in mental institutions are called "inmates", as though they are criminals - I think they should be referred to as "patients." After all, many of them are not criminals - they're just ill people.
I'm not old enough yet to see "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", although I'll probably try when I'm older, because my parents say it's very good and also because Christopher Lloyd (the Doc!) has a part in it. But I basically know the whole story anyway. Nurse Ratched sounds like a terrible person.