A Journey.

As I was getting ready to eat something in the kitchen, I turned the T.V on and the TLC channel was on. They were talking about a girl, Jani, who has schizophrenia and how she constantly talked about numbers as imaginary perhaps, animals. I was sort of confused since I had turned on the T.V after the program had already started. As I tried to keep up with the documentary I could not seem to understand how such a young and beautiful child can have such disorder. I looked at her and it was hard for me to understand that at that age her thoughts are distorted and in her eyes she shows a blank stare with a lot of confusion and indifference.
Schizophrenia- Disorder characterized by hallucinations, delusions, thought disorder therefore deteriorating the ability to function in everyday life. It affects their ability to differentiate between fantasy and reality.
I always wondered what schizophrenia really consists of, and what does a person with schizophrenia see and hear. For a minute I try to imagine it. First of all, I am those kind of people that can only do one thing at a time. I cannot seem to work as efficiently with noise around me than when there is no noise at all. I guess we can say I do not concentrate the same way. Now, someone with schizophrenia constantly has loud voices telling them what to do or just talking all at the same time, and the worst part is that these voices constantly put the person's and other people's lives in danger. Let's also imagine always feeling like someone is out there to get you. We can say that we never feel safe; therefore it is hard for us to function normally because we believe someone is always trying to hurt us. What should a parent do when they find out that their son/daughter suffers from schizophrenia disorder? Get help, get informed, and start treatment. This disorder can be noticeable in the early 20s of their lives. But what happens in the case of childhood onset disorder? Parents have to look for help, and they shall never feel alone for there is a lot of information out there to help and other people going through the same situation. I have never met someone who is schizophrenic, but I went ahead and uploaded a video of Briana. Jani Schofield's case is one of the most heard out cases of childhood onset schizophrenia, but there are also other children, like Briana.

This video gives us a clearer example of schizophrenia, and explains to us how the child's thoughts are distorted. I am trying to learn the most I can so I can be educated enough to help others once I work in my profession.
**In Jani's Journey (link), her story is told in videos, and a book. Check it out if you are interested in learning more about Jani and her story. Briana is Jani's closest friend, so she comes up in a clip. Her story is very interesting.**

You will always have me...

I grew up with two very special people in my life. We would do everything together, from going to the stores, celebrating holidays, and going out to Six Flags in San Antonio every summer was a must. When we were young life was way easier. No commitments and no worries. When my friend was 16 she had her first real boyfriend, who she fell deeply in love with. I remember it was hard on her sister and me, since she would dedicate all her time to him, and rarely pay attention to us. They were together for two years, until she got sick which made things complicated on them, since she would spend most of her time in the hospital. A little after she was finally home and out of the hospital, she found out he had cheated with one of her best friends. It broke her. I couldn't be with her every day to feel her pain but I knew how she felt because her sister would tell me. When I did go to visit her sometimes she didn't even want to see me! Of course, selfish me would think "what did I do, why is she mad at me?" I guess I didn't understand how she felt since it had never happened to me. Still, sometimes I didn’t care and managed to make her smile, I just wanted her to see that she didn’t need him, and that she had us: all of us. I remember seeing her in bed all day, sometimes not wanting to talk to anyone, and with a very low appetite. She even mentioned how she would want to sleep all day not to feel the pain, and at the same time she woke up every morning earlier than usual to try to think of answers to her situation, not to mention all the tears she would shed daily.  I would try to cheer her up, but must of the time I failed. She would laugh at some moments, only to go back to her sadness. I can never forget she once asked me, "why me? Sickness and cheating at the same time. Why?" She really felt betrayed because at one point she even blamed her sickness to be the reason for his cheating, making it all about her fault. She never really went to the doctor to get help since she was already dealing with doctors for other reasons, but she did suffer from depression for about 1 month, well according to the symptoms which she went through. Eventually her good mood came back, and slowly she let go of those feelings, after she finally decided to let him go as well. Surprisingly enough, she told me that her father has suffered from depression for about 7 years now. On the contrary, he did get help and takes medication as well as other medications for an anxiety disorder he recently developed. Can we say genes are involved in depression? Going back to my friend, I have to admit seeing her in that stage broke me and I promised to always be there for her. The same way she was always there for me, when something similar happened to me in my adolescent years, but that is another story...

In this video they explain to us the difference between regular feelings of sadness compared to a a clinical depressive state.

1,2,3 Smile!

We always take smiling and all other facial emotions for granted. When we see someone sad we can almost respond immediately "turn that frown upside down". Has it ever happened to you that you are smiling or laughing too much that your face cheeks start to feel sore? The outcomes to a smile are beneficial to all of us because in this way we form close friendships, relationships and social response. Imagine when someone tells you, “You have a beautiful smile” we respond in happiness because they are complimenting us. When we smile we can show what emotion we are feeling, but what about those who can't show their emotions for other viewers? I had never heard of the rare condition; Mobius syndrome. Someone who has Mobius syndrome is unable to move their facial muscles to make a smile. Since two of his/her cranial nerves are either missing or they are not fully formed this causes facial muscles to be paralyzed. As I was saying, unable to smile actually makes it hard on people to understand what the other person is feeling because of their lack of emotions. Let’s imagine for a second that we smile at a person with Mobius syndrome while shopping at a store and as a response we always expect a smile back as a social smile. Now, when we encounter someone with this condition they would not able to respond to us even if they did want to smile we can only see their lack of facial expression. Having Mobius syndrome does not mean that they don’t experience happiness it just means they are unable to show it. This condition is present at birth. Perhaps inability to suck, crossed eyes and excessive drooling in a newborn aside from difficulty nursing are all possible characteristics to look at in a newborn baby.  There is no prenatal test or cure for Mobius syndrome but there is a Facial Reanimation Program that treats all aspects of facial nerve paralysis and partial paralysis. Speech or psychical therapies are useful to improve their gross motor skills and coordination, also plastic surgery helps to provide artificial smiles.
Let's look to this Elisa's story which is another example that rare conditions can't stop us from going on in life and being happy. After surgery, Elisa now feels a more "natural" way of smiling and showing her emotions.


Everyone smile! Let's be thankful that we are very blessed for being able to show our emotions. We can never take anything for granted.