Some interesting info from Mayo.com about paranoid schizophrenia:
"Delusions. In paranoid schizophrenia, delusions are often focused on the perception that you're being singled out for harm. Your brain misinterprets experiences and you hold on to these false beliefs despite evidence to the contrary. For instance, you may believe that the government is monitoring every move you make or that a co-worker is poisoning your lunch. You may also have delusions of grandeur — the belief that you can fly, that you're famous or that you have a relationship with a famous person, for example. Delusions can result in aggression or violence if you believe you must act in self-defense against those who want to harm you.
Auditory hallucinations. An auditory hallucination is the perception of sound — usually voices — that no one else hears. The sounds may be a single voice or many voices. These voices may talk either to you or to each other. The voices are usually unpleasant. They may give a running critique of what you're thinking or doing, or they may harass you about real or imagined faults. Voices may also command you to do things that can be harmful to yourself or to others. When you have paranoid schizophrenia, these voices seem real. You may talk to or shout at the voices."
I have been reading quite a bit of what has been found that Loughner wrote. I am more convinced he is a paranoid schizophrenic than any other type of MI, and, it has been my experience, that paranoid schizophrenics tend to be fairly dangerous when not med compliant/untreated, unlike other illnesses.
And a word here on mental illnesses: as with any other illness, unless it's diagnosed, and treatment taken (which is a choice), it will, as with other illnesses, get worse. It can, as with other illnesses, kill you. What is different about MI is that it can kill someone else, too.
If someone is over the age of 18, they cannot be forced into treatment by their family. Unless they've been deemed gravely disabled, they are not assigned a conservator. And, in most instances, unless there is a clear and present danger, one cannot be hospitalized against their will.
Realize that many, many people are saying "why couldn't we stop this?" It is terribly difficult to treat paranoid schizophrenia, and if the sufferer is unwilling, it is impossible without hospitalization.
And most paranoid schizophrenics believe that the meds they're given are poison, given by governmental employees to...control the mind. Which makes them refuse the meds, which allows the illness to fulminate, which creates more disrupted reality, and the cycle continues.
I know several p'schizos. It is so hard for them, and they have my enormous sympathy. I don't know if this guy is p'schizo...
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