Alternative Explanations for Schizophrenia Diagnosis

I talk to myself. A lot. All the time.

I decided to look up some scientific explanation for this behavior to make myself feel better.

I found this healthline article:

It’s Totally Normal (and Healthy) to Talk to Yourself  by Crystal Raypole and medically reviewed by Timothy J. Legg, PhD, PsyD

(https://www.healthline.com/health/why-do-i-talk-to-myself#benefits)

Everything in this article was super comforting to me. 

Then I got to the "When to be concerned" section.

Got me thinking that maybe there are alternative explanations for what someone is experiencing when they are given a schizophrenia diagnosis.

I'm not schizophrenic myself and I don't have a degree in psychology - this is just my opinion - but maybe it could help somebody.

Four possible alternative explanations:

1) neuroplasticity either breaks down the reality barrier or doesn't allow it to fully form

Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to change and adapt. Think of it as mental flexibility.

I had an experience as a kid that might seem odd, but it falls in line with many stories you hear about children that are often explained away as being somehow "connected" to sixth senses or other realms. Through analyzing my own memories, I wonder if the real issue (at least in my circumstance) was something more related to the concept of object permanence.

I could look at pictures on the wall and it would seem like their mouths were moving. I've heard plenty of similar kinds of stories of kids seeing ghosts etc.

This sounds super creepy, but if you tell a full grown adult to look up at the night sky and imagine fireworks, they probably could do the same thing. Only their mind has formed enough to know the difference between the reality in front of them and the "overlay" of what they're imagining there. My hypothesis is that - as a child - you're born with a mind designed to understand whatever reality you find yourself in and it's still learning what's "real" and what's "imagined". Not having a solid boundary yet, you get this kind of effect and if the kid is aware enough to notice but not control it, you might seem like you have a problem.

If that neuroplasticity continues into adulthood, without the proper framing, you might end up with what appears to be schizophrenia. 

This could also be very relevant in the false connection between marijuana use and schizophrenia that has historically done little but tarnish the medicinal value of cannabis due to stigma.

2) a coping mechanism taken to an extreme degree

Focusing on the idea of talking to yourself, even the article referenced here will say that everything is pretty much fine as long as no one "talks back". What if people, again, just don't fully understand their own experience, and when they go to explain this to a therapist they end up with a diagnosis that often puts them on serious medication - maybe what they really needed was a support system they could trust and someone to consistently be there for them with their best interests at heart.

I can imagine the combination of loneliness and that level of misunderstood neuroplasticity being a perfect set up for this situation.

3) mirroring popular culture to manifest an identity 

Another totally different option - and perhaps only for a select number of cases - could be that people watch movies (for example) and then feel a kind of way and the only behavior they have had modeled for them to express themselves comes out as a Hollywood interpretation of "crazy". 

I think about the movie Silver Linings Playbook - which I mostly loved - and how one character wipes everything off the table in a public restaurant in a moment of anger. People in the scene clap for her. She seems like a badass. But in real life, I can't imagine this working out in anyone's favor. In fact, mirroring that exact behavior in real life could potentially have devastating consequences. The boundary line for acceptable behavior is up for debate, but I wonder how many - especially teenagers - have simply mimicked what they saw in a movie and it ended up "tagging" them for life or even ruining their lives completely. We don't have a set rule book for how to act, and you almost wouldn't want that anyway. People seem to just do what they can get away with until someone stops them. But the poor and marginalized end up suffering the most from this "calvinball-esque" way of living. One person gets to be an eccentric, the other ends up on medication that may prove more harmful than helpful in the long run and is stigmatized.

4) conspiracy to make someone appear dismissable

If this were happening, I'd think it'd probably be the most rare circumstance. The big problem is that - in and of itself - fearing that there's a conspiracy of some kind against you can be seen as a symptom of a mental health disorder. You'd have to prove people were messing with you somehow. However, if someone was in a situation like that, I see various ways certain tactics could be used to make the subject appear like they're having issues that usually indicate a mental health disorder. It would be an extremely cruel thing to do.

Again, this is just my take. There could be even more possibilities out there. It could be different from case to case. For as much as we know as a modern species, there's so much more we don't. I'm just applying personal experience and observation to the world around me. I'm not an expert - but maybe this could change the way people are seen and how they understand their own experiences in general.

By the way, happy new year.

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https://youtu.be/4Jc54RvDUZU?t=6164

JAMES BALDWIN & NIKKI GIOVANNI - A CONVERSATION (1971) Complete

1 hour 42 minutes 44 seconds:

"...friend of mine - a musician - he said, "you're junkie too". I thought to myself and I mean you know something in the way he said it maybe because I came from the same streets; I knew why he was junkie and I knew what had happened to me. He said, "you're a junkie because you talk to yourself". I had to think about that and I thought about it and I - what he meant was - you have to listen to your own sound. You gotta find a way to listen to your own sound. You live in a kind of echo chamber. And it's true, you know..." - James Baldwin