Never thought I'd hear of this happening
I have a set of post-it notes that say, at the bottom, "Even if the voices aren't real they have some pretty good ideas." Bought 'em at my local independent bookstore. I also take ballet exercise with some fascinating ladies, damn near all of them older than I am, and several are in the medical/mental health/teaching/social work fields. We talk about anything and everything in this class, and have been known to refer to it as group therapy with exercise and a group mind, since one of us always knows something about anything, it seems. (We also eat dinner at said local bookstore about once a month, but that's sort of beside the point.)
A few months ago, for whatever reason, we were discussing schizophrenia while bitching our way through exercises. Our instructor is now a ballet teacher, but has a psych degree and used to be a social worker, and she said something about just once it would be nice to run into, "No, really, the voices in my head told me to get a job," or practice random acts of kindness or even just get a shower. You know, instead of "He's evil and must be destroyed," or "Take drugs," or "The Devil made me do it" or whatever. Oddly enough, this actually happened where we'd find out about it.
One of our classmates has recently returned to work as an OB/GYN nurse, and was going through all the paperwork/orientation/learn this computer system/pass these exams 'fun' of starting a new job with a hospital. She'd also gotten sick a couple weeks in -- I'm told this is predictable just about to the point of time-table; exposure to new, germ-rich environment, but I digress. Anyway, she'd been telling herself all day that she just had to finish the computer orientation and go home and she could sleep for a couple days.
She came home and her husband had bought her flowers.
He'd bought her flowers because he'd been stopped in a parking lot by a tiny middle-aged lady who told him, completely seriously, that his wife was having a dreadful day and he needed to buy her flowers. Today. Here are the two kickers: the lady wasn't selling flowers, she was sending him to buy some. And she told him, equally seriously, that Jesus had told her to pass this message on and she listened when Jesus spoke because it was important.
What can I say, I thought it was wild, and neat.
A few months ago, for whatever reason, we were discussing schizophrenia while bitching our way through exercises. Our instructor is now a ballet teacher, but has a psych degree and used to be a social worker, and she said something about just once it would be nice to run into, "No, really, the voices in my head told me to get a job," or practice random acts of kindness or even just get a shower. You know, instead of "He's evil and must be destroyed," or "Take drugs," or "The Devil made me do it" or whatever. Oddly enough, this actually happened where we'd find out about it.
One of our classmates has recently returned to work as an OB/GYN nurse, and was going through all the paperwork/orientation/learn this computer system/pass these exams 'fun' of starting a new job with a hospital. She'd also gotten sick a couple weeks in -- I'm told this is predictable just about to the point of time-table; exposure to new, germ-rich environment, but I digress. Anyway, she'd been telling herself all day that she just had to finish the computer orientation and go home and she could sleep for a couple days.
She came home and her husband had bought her flowers.
He'd bought her flowers because he'd been stopped in a parking lot by a tiny middle-aged lady who told him, completely seriously, that his wife was having a dreadful day and he needed to buy her flowers. Today. Here are the two kickers: the lady wasn't selling flowers, she was sending him to buy some. And she told him, equally seriously, that Jesus had told her to pass this message on and she listened when Jesus spoke because it was important.
What can I say, I thought it was wild, and neat.