Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that can cause sufferers to experience false beliefs, voices in their head, hallucinations and a difficulty to understand reality. You might have seen schizophrenic characters in movies such as Shutter Island, A Beautiful Mind, Fight Club and even Lord of the Rings.
But the reality of this condition can be terrifying for the sufferer.
Student Cecilia McGough has detailed how schizophrenia affects her and it sounds like her daily life can be the stuff seen in a horror film. The 23-year-old has several apparitions that appear in front of her, including a thing she calls Mr Blob Man, which she describes as a shadowy figure.
But she also has very vivid hallucinations and those take the form of some of the scariest things you've seen on a screen.
"It was more around junior and senior year of high school where I started actually hallucinating the clown from Stephen King's It and that was terrifying. I also hallucinated large spiders," she says.
"The clown hallucination is 24/7. But whenever I start seeing the girl [like out of The Ring], that's a hallucination that I'm a little bit more afraid of: the girl stabbing me.
"It's called a tactile hallucination, so my brain is registering it as an actual feeling, so it hurts, it's very painful."
Advert
Bad dreams can be scary enough, but imagine those visions coupled with the actual feeling of being attacked. Tactile hallucinations in schizophrenia patients is actually quite rare as a condition, with only about 20 percent experiencing the disorder.
Interestingly, these types of seemingly physical hallucinations are sometimes brought on by emotion. Some people experience the feeling of being kissed or someone lying next to them when they're lonely, while others have different images when they're feeling guilty, angry, fearful or depressed.
Cecilia says she was aware of her condition way before she was diagnosed.
Sadly, the student says it wasn't until after a suicide attempt that she was able to get the help she needed.
Advert
While she was scared of her schizophrenia and the hallucinations at a young age, once she realised that it was a result of a chemical imbalance in her brain, it allowed her to handle how she reacted to those visions.
Cecilia says she wanted to be open to people about her condition because she wants to break down the stereotype that people with schizophrenia can't be active members of society.
There is a variety of genetic and environmental factors that can cause the disorder and people usually use antipsychotic medication to keep a handle on their symptoms.
Featured Image Credit: Barcroft TVTopics: Mental Health, Inspirational, Interesting, Feels