I had training today, which is always a good opportunity to pick up some useless information - I can sense the trainer's bemusement as I scribble down the entire list of opening trivial gambits they dole out, and then stare blankly at the window through the course material proper. Anyway, the course was all about people's mental health or lack of it, and there were plenty of brain facts that my brain, who really should have known already, could barely comprehend. Like most body-related stuff, it involved astronomical figures - we each have 100 billion nerve cells in our brain apparently. How could anything be small enough to fit inside a human brain 100 billion times? Apart from Pierce Brosnan's penis of course, but that's another story.
It's these sort of facts that people are drawn to: factoids along the lines of 'the brain is two-thirds water' which make us coo with awe and delight. The brain is in fact made of 77% water, but the trainer kept saying this was 'about two thirds', and I had to bite down on my knuckles in order to resist the urge to point out that it was in fact three quarters. But I digress - my issue is that I don't really care how much of my brain is made of water, or how many billions of teeny tiny things it has in it - the concept of my conscious self being no more than a series of microscopic electrical impulses is strangely unappealing to me. Instead, here is a much more topical piece of information, one that everyone should know and that I'm embarrassed to say I didn't before today:
Schizophrenics do not suffer from split or multiple personalities.
Split personality is a result of Multiple Personality Syndrome, or MPS, which is usually a form of regression or disassociation from traumatic events such as abuse. Symptoms that schizophrenics may encounter appear to include paranoia, delusions, hallucinations and psychosis, which makes you wonder why the mainstream media (who, I think it's fair to say, aren't generally too understanding about mental health problems) have focussed on the idea of split personality. The term schizophrenia is Greek for 'split mind', which may be where the confusion arises. Another common belief about schizophrenics is that they are more likely to cause other people harm - this too is total nonsense.
This is where very small pieces of information like the one above come into their own - if everybody knew just one thing about schizophrenia, wouldn't it help to tackle the stigmas that surround mental health and allow people with established mental health problems to lead happier, less isolated lives, and also encourage those who need help to go out and get it instead of feeling embarrassed? Just a thought. I remember a few years ago Geri Halliwell released an album that has probably paved many a road since, and wanted to call it 'Schizophrenic' to represent her different musical styles (she changed it to 'Schizophonic' in the end, not that anyone cared). Has there ever been, in the history of time, a more ignorant and damaging misappropriation of any disease? Answers on a postcard to Knowledge Towers please.
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