Schizophrenia or Psychic?

One of my clients today was a delightful young female college student. She has an engaging personality and we had a great session for overcoming exam anxiety. She seemed brighter than average but disclosed that she has great doubts about her ability to finish college. She was genuinely worried that she was seriously mentally ill. When I asked her how she knew she was mentally ill it was because she "knew things." She knew what her boyfriend was going to do before he did it. She claimed to know about events before they occured with great accuracy. She even spontaneously volunteered my mother's first name. Mom has been dead for 15+ years and there is nothing personal in my new office. Now she had my attention and we talked for an hour.

She stated that she had been admitted a couple of times to psychiatric units as a child ( age 6 and 14) because her mother believed she was mentally ill. She stated her mother is trying to have her diagnosed as schizophrenic and admitted to a long term psych hospital. When I asked her about this she stated that from an early age she had just "known things" about other people but had been too young to know that she needed to filter what came out of her mouth. At 6 she stated that her grandmother was going to die within a month. Grandma was apparently in great health and had no intentions of dying. Except that within the next 30 days she did indeed die. Her mother freaked out, took her to a psychiatrist and had her admitted to the psychiatric unit of a local hospital while Mom went to Brazil for a month to do research. (Mom is a PhD research scientist,) This experience taught her to filter what she told people.

At 14 she had a premonition that her best friend was going to die. She did NOT tell anyone and the girl accidentally took an overdose and died. When she freaked out her mother hauled her back to the psych ward for another couple of months.

She states that she has "experiences." She hears voices in her head--sometimes they sound like her voice, sometimes other voices. She sees things that are not there--ghosts, etc. And, again, she just knows things.

So, what seperates the mystic, the yogi, the psychically attuned from the schizophrenic? Do I believe this girl is mentally ill? Not for one minute. Do I think she could possibly get a diagnosis of schizophrenia? Absolutely, yes. But, so could Moses. He heard the voice of God talking to him through a burning bush that wasn't consumed by the fire? And, after Beethovan went stone deaf he kept on writing the music he heard in his head. So, he could have been daft also. What seperates the "knowings" this girl has from all of us who at times just "know" what to say to a client and it turns the tide for that client. If she can get a diagnosis of schizophrenia then I am mentally ill also. Has the entire health profession gone mad? Or is it just me?

How do you tell the difference between borderline or mild schizpphrenia and psychic ability or being intuitive? I read the DSM IV and a bunch of sites about this mental illness and I think 90% of todays "new age" people could fit the diagnostic criteria. Somebody help me out here.

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Permalink Reply by Pete & Lorraine on August 19, 2010 at 1:12am

What may help is getting her to psychic who can teach her to close off the incoming info. If I do psychometry or any psychic work healing etc. Then I have to open up to the information. You could also get her to imagine asking her guides to keep her safe and imagine closing off to the incoming info and opening when she wants or needs to let her come up with how it feels to close. She could then learn to work with her ability in a constructive and controlled way.

Hope this helps

Pete

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Permalink Reply by Antoine Pruyssers on August 19, 2010 at 2:07am

I have one client, that came to me for stress-handling, who also tells me, she is psychic.
I told her, that I tend to be sceptical towards psychic abilities, and that I can not give her any advice on it, while I'm not sure about it.
Sometimes we just need to be smart, and tell people:"I don't know."

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Permalink Reply by James Malone on August 19, 2010 at 2:53am

Melissa, with the caveat that I am not a psychologist, (although I was a case manager in the adult psych rehab field for over 10 years) this young lady does not sound schizophrenic to me either.

The "voices" most schizophrenics hear torment and/or them and usually offer no usually information or useful predictions and it creates a major disruption in their lives. Also usually one or more other symptoms are present too including delusions, thought disorganization, withdrawal and poor functioning.

And as we used to frequently remind our patients you really don't get hospitalized for being schizophrenic. Commitment takes place because the person's mental illness is perceived as making them dangerous to self, others and the property of others. If your client poses no such threat and gets along in life, she should have nothing to worry about.

A die hard skeptic may insist that belief in psychic phenom is a delusion, however it is a belief that poses no harm to others. Personally I believe in a world of infinite possibilities and agree with the Peter and Lorraine that maybe she would benefit from meeting other like-minded individuals who can help her embrace her gift. JIm

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Permalink Reply by Jan Krüger on August 19, 2010 at 3:29am

James Malone said:

A die hard skeptic may insist that belief in psychic phenom is a delusion

A true sceptic would not have the confidence to claim that. Scepticism values evidence (not taking into account the more extreme forms of scepticism which doubt that useful evidence exists), but if you find no evidence for X and conclude that X doesn't exist, that's not scepticism... that's inability to use logic.

That said, belief in a psychic phenomenon is hard to back up satisfactorily, and I wouldn't want to decide whether someone is psychic or not. As far as I am concerned, it doesn't matter. If someone thinks she's psychic and her "experiences" truly always predict things accurately, that's great for her. Though perhaps I'd tell her not to overdo relying on it.

From my point of view, psychics only become problematic when they start trying to help other people with their abilities. It's easy to ruin someone's life with a prediction, no matter whether it's true or not. Someone who is in the business of advising other people, no matter whether they have metaphysical channels of information or not, should be well-versed in conveying the right things in the right way at the right time.

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Permalink Reply by Leshem Yosef on August 19, 2010 at 4:16am

just my personal thoughts that some[not all] of this "mental sick" have a spirtual powers like an open channel but dont have the spirtual maturity so its just make them mental for real

MANIA
psychic ability "new age" people and the medium healers

also when somone feel powerfull or supernatural powers so he go under MANIA criteria

Wikipedia English - The Free Encyclopedia

Mania

Mania is a severe medical condition characterized by extremely elevated mood, energy, and unusual thought patterns. There are several possible causes for mania, but it is most often associated with bipolar disorder, where episodes of mania may cyclically alternate with episodes of clinical depression. These cycles may relate to diurnal rhythms and environmental stressors.

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Permalink Reply by Kathleen Hanover on August 19, 2010 at 5:11am

Short answer: if someone hears voices that accurately predict the future, who am I to say they're crazy?

Long answer: Psychologist Julian Jaynes hypnothesized that human consciousness (as we know it) has not always been present--that it evolved about 3,000 years ago as a result of the growth of human populations and other social pressures. His book, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, is a tough but extremely interesting read. He posits that pre-conscious humans routinely heard what they interpreted to be "the voices of the gods," but that the voices were actually generated inside the person's head as the two halves of the brain "spoke" to each other. He also ties the development of self-awareness and introspection (absent in "bicameral" humans) to the development of metaphorical language (which is a really interesting thing for NLPers to think about).

There's an entry discussing the bicameral mind theory on Wikipedia, and more info is available at the Julian Jaynes Society website.

Even longer answer: There's also a very interesting book by Lynne McTaggart called The Field. It describes a theoretical explanation for many heretofore unexplained phenomena including such things as clairvoyance and precognition. The description from Publisher's Weekly: "McTaggart, an investigative journalist (What Doctors Don't Tell You), describes scientific discoveries that she believes point to a unifying concept of the universe, one that reconciles mind with matter, classic Newtonian science with quantum physics and, most importantly, science with religion. At issue is the zero point field, the so-called "dead space" of microscopic vibrations in outer space as well as within and between physical objects on earth. These fields, McTaggart asserts, are a "cobweb of energy exchange" that link everything in the universe; they control everything from cellular communication to the workings of the mind, and they could be harnessed for unlimited propulsion fuel, levitation, ESP, spiritual healing and more."

Interestingly, HypnoSummit presenter Bernie Siegel has endorsed McTaggart's hypnothesis. And HypnoSummit presenter Bruce Lipton's work is in the same vein.

So...after you've done a lot of heavy reading, you may come to the conclusion that your client is boringly normal, and there are scientifically and psychologically valid explanations for all the phenomena she experiences.

Kathleen
Marketing and PR Opinionist
and heavy reader

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Permalink Reply by James Hazlerig on August 19, 2010 at 6:43am

Melissa,

Several years ago, I posed exactly that question to several people I respected. Some of them hemmed and hawed, and others looked at me like they just didn't understand the question. Finally, I got a satisfactory answer from a dentist who was teaching a shamanism workshop hosted by Catholic nuns. (That phrase should be in a confusion induction, shouldn't it?)

I asked this question because I had been experiencing spontaneous visions. Since I've had several relatives who were schizophrenic, the answer to this question was pretty important to me. How did I know whether I was experiencing revelations or delusions?

And this is the answer that finally set my mind at ease:

"The shaman swims where the madman drowns."

Best of luck with your client,

James

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Permalink Reply by Rob McKeon on August 19, 2010 at 7:08am

It's quite possible that the client was confabulating her history of premonitions and / or psychiatric history. I think that it is a more parsimonious explanation than the existence of psychic phenomena.

As to the general question about the utility of the notion of schizophrenia, there are many mental health professionals who don't hold that it is a particularly useful diagnosis. I recommend reading The Divided Self by RD Laing if you want an insight into the process, it is an extraordinary work.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Haifleigh on August 19, 2010 at 7:52am

Melissa,

I’ll preface this with a disclaimer:
I am not a licensed mental healthcare provider.
I have only read about your experience of your client.

Being able to “know things” (events before they occur; your deceased mothers name) without being able to explain how one knows these “things” is within the realm of human ability.
Abilities like these can be frightening to others. I suggest that your client spend some time finding two people that will create an alliance with her and for her. My suggestion is she find one person that is not considered to have these abilities but is neutral on whether these type of abilities can or do exist. The other, I would suggest, be someone who is known to have these types of abilities and also known to be a well adjusted, functioning, “member of society”. Melissa, you may be one of those people.

Having been admitted to a psychiatric unit as a child based on the circumstances you describe is something I would suggest she work with that at some point (no hurry). My point here is that six year old children accurately predicting someone’s death are showing the signs of somewhat unique. Those needs could be described as requiring assistance with understanding their abilities and how to interact in social contexts. It sounds like her mother was not able to provide that. Given that, it also sounds like your client’s high level of intelligence and emotional stability served her well along the way.

She sounds like an extraordinary person. This of course can be viewed as a “blessing” and/or “curse”. Being a social species, we all need some degree/type of support, and we all, as she does, have our unique requirements.

“Knowing things” and “having experiences” may seem a bit strange to self and/or others. The task may well be in the practice of “walking in both worlds” (that of being extraordinary and normal).

Namaste,
(with reverence to you)
(love, integrity, wisdom, and peace)

Michael

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Cole-NLPTrainingQuest.com on August 19, 2010 at 12:17pm

Melissa,

Before I share my thoughts, I'm curious... are your client's pupils (her eyes) especially constricted? Meaning the opposite of dilated? And or do you notice that her eyes appear to stand out a great deal?

I'm just curious, but whenever I've worked with clients who's eyes appear that way (I sometimes refer to them very light heatedly as "The crazy eyes"), it's often an indication to me that they experience much of what you are sharing.

I look forward to your answer, and when I have a moment, I will share how I work with these clients. They are NOT crazy. They simply have the ability to see things in a very different way than most of us. It's both a gift and at times... a curse.

Grounding is often a HUGE challenge for most of them and I work on helping them with that grounding, in a number of ways...

More when I have a spare moment...

Kevin

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Permalink Reply by Graeme Harvey on August 19, 2010 at 2:53pm

Melissa,
There is absolutely nothing wrong with your client. Her situation is simply that she has, as every human being has, the ability to tune in to "Psychic" material. We are all born with this ability but in most it becomes buried because of peer pressure and other sociological conditions. Her mother freaking out at her predictions is a good example of this, however she has managed not to subjugate these abilities.

An earlier respondent has said that you should direct her to people that can help and I suggest you could direct her towards the nearest spiritualist church where she is likely to be welcomed and find people trained in mediumship who can guide her and teach her how to switch off.

I have recently worked with a group of "psychics" to examine their induction methods for meditation and the similarities between those and the ones I use for hypnosis are staggeringly similar. Out of interest I joined their development group and found that with a little practice I too could pick up information from others. Psychometry is one of the initial techniques taught. This is where you pick up information from an object owned by the person you are reading for. I was amazed to find that in all 9 cases I was more than 90% accurate with the information I gave.

The one problem I have now, apart from them wanting to "develope" me further is that I have to be very careful dealing with clients that I do not pre-suppose, form opinions before treatment starts or plant suggestions during hypnotherapy sessions.

One of my specialities is Past Life Regression which is particularly rewarding when you discover a past life that can be verified by records. One of mine was as a soldier in WW1. I was on the Somme in October/November 1916 and again under regression was moved forward to April 1917 when I was a patient in a hospital in Oakhampton, Devon. (England). On checking with the Regiment Museum they were able to confirm every detail of the person I claimed to be.

The more open your mind is the more you will understand. Good Luck with this patient.

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Permalink Reply by Melissa J. Roth on August 19, 2010 at 5:46pm

Whether this girl has psychic abilities or not, she is not mentally ill. She is a young, confused and vulnerable girl who believes she is whole and well but whose mother is trying to convince her otherwise. The girl thought she was functioning pretty well. She lives with her boyfriend whom mom doesn't like, cooks and cleans and goes to class and makes decent grades. She claims she does no drugs and only drinks alcohol socially. She seems to lead a typical college student's life---eat, sleep, drink, go to some classes, drink, sleep, eat, repeat.

But, her self confidence has been undermined to the point where she was feeling vulnerable and confused. I can bet you money that in this town there would be a psychologist and MD willing to concur with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. But then, I have a very low opinion of most MD's when it comes to mental health. Even the best of the ones who refer to me think that if it doesn't respond to pharmaceuticals then it must be psychogenic. The neurologist sent me one lady recently with a note saying her daily migraines were due to a somatiform disorder and had totally failed to respond to medication and that she refused to continue (after 18 months) with the psychotherpist he had sent her to. As she talked it became very clear that she was suffering from TMJ disorder. I sent her to Walgreens to buy a mouth guard and she hasn't had a "migraine" since.