anelli420

I'm not sure if you'll see this but here it goes. I have a personal belief that we shouldn't treat schizophrenics as if their hallucinating. My thought behind this is that if something seems 100% real to you, then its real. Who am I to tell someone that their reality doesn't exist? So basically my question is have you seen any treatments that follow this? And have you met any doctors with similar ideas?

Hello! Being a psychiatrist i imagine you see plenty of schizophrenics or at least have. My question is have you ever considered treating a patients schizophrenia as a real thing? Basically what I'm getting at here is that shamans for thousands of years used hallucinogenic drugs in order to question our normal reality and these drugs helped them realize sooooo much of what our "reality" is, is created by our own minds. One of the main things shamans believe is if you experience something its real. So do you think there is any treatments that come close to this? Like instead of telling them they're seeing things lets treat it like they're not and find out exactly whats happening.

But it does that's the thing. Just because a hallucination doesn't follow the physical laws doesn't mean it didn't happen. The universe does alter itself for each person or at least we cant prove that it doesn't. For all i know you could see human beings as dinosaurs and I would never know and neither would you because to you, that's what a human being is. One of the first things a philosophy student learns is that you cant prove that anybody else is conscious other than yourself because you ONLY experience things through YOUR perception. So in that case you could be creating the whooolleee universe, even me, and wouldn't know it. So in that case even the laws of physics are a creation of our own minds. And as for the universe getting "bright and shiny" you cant prove that it doesn't. I actually know a few people that have seen the same things while on hallucinogens which is besides the point. What I'm getting at is you cant prove anyone but yourself is conscious, therefore anything that you experience, is a real experience. If I see my wall move, that's what happened. If you were with me when that happened and saw the wall stay as normal as it ever was, then that's what happened to. You can never prove me wrong because your not me and I would never be able to prove you wrong because I'm not you. I'll admit its not a normal theory but it is based on fact.

I don't know what you mean by the last sentence? And while everyone's trip can be different, many aspects will be the same. But everything we do is subjective so its impossible to have non subjective feelings. I don't think I fully understand what your trying to say.

Well right i was just using the hallucinogen thing as an example of how a hallucination is a part of your reality and is as real as anything else we experience. But thank you very much for that answer its very helpful.