SS - Asylum Idea

Today we decided that we are going to do a promenade piece about an asylum. We want to put the audience on edge and crate a creepy performance but we don't want to do a horror maze. So we discussed and planed our characters.

Dan M: doctor

Freya: nurse

Dom: visiting phycologist

Tom: second coming of Jesus 

Meg: thinks she is 6

Ellie: unwed mother (we're set in the 60's)

Toby: looks normal

Kyle: doesn't speak 

Ashley: slow

Dan S: criminally insane

Me: schizophrenia  

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a medical disorder of the mind.

People with this disorder often do not behave the way most people do towards others. They also may not know what is real (this is called psychosis). Some common signs are strange beliefs, unclear or confused thinking and language, hallucinations (such as hearing voices that aren't there), poor interaction with others, less expression of feelings, and not doing much.

Diagnosis is based on observing the person and what he or she says about experiences such as hearing voices. Problems have to last for at least six months before the person is diagnosed as schizophrenic.

One error is that schizophrenia means that people have multiple or split personalities. This is not the case. The mistake may come from the fact that the name 'schizophrenia' comes from two Greek words meaning 'split' and 'mind'. 

People with schizophrenia often have delusions or hallucinations. A schizophrenic delusion is a belief that is very different from what other people with the same way of life believe. Hallucinations are usually experiences of hearing voices that don't exist. These voices often say unpleasant things to the person. Many people can hear voices like this without being schizophrenic, for instance right before falling asleep. This is called a hypnagogic hallucination. The brain cannot tell them apart from normal sounds that are heard. This is not yet fully understood by science.