Reaching out is a sign of strength and courage

September 19, 2019 2:54 PM

Living with Schizoaffective Disorder (22:27 YT). In a frank and disarming interview Special Books by Special Kids has a conversation with Daniel about living with schizoaffective disorder, including complex PTSD, borderline personality disorder, psychosis, paranoid delusions and hallucinations.

(SBSK previously.)

posted by bonehead (9 comments total)

Wow. That was very interesting and Daniel was really eloquent about his conditions. I don’t know what effective treatments or therapies are like for him but it must be incredibly hard existing in what must feel like a parallel dimension.
posted by amanda at 3:52 PM on September 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

Thank you for sharing this. I didn't know about them before and today was the sort of day it really resonated with me.
posted by y6y6y6 at 5:16 PM on September 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

I really appreciated Daniel's honesty and willingness to share. This was both rough to watch and hear and also incredibly uplifting to watch and hear. I haven't heard about SBSK before, but I'm not sure I've ever seen a "learn what this person's deal is" interview that was conducted quite so kindly and compassionately before.
posted by Secretariat at 6:27 PM on September 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

Absolutely worth the watch. Thanks for sharing.
posted by RolandOfEld at 9:24 PM on September 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

So I watched the video interview with a Williams Syndrome individual and kept getting Mr. Rogers vibes, but a bit faster paced perhaps because his audience isn't children, and then he drops a straight up "I'm glad you are the way you are because I've enjoyed getting to know you today" and, yes, this person is quite impressive in how he kindly and gently interacts with the people around him.
posted by RolandOfEld at 5:18 AM on September 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

What a fantastic idea for a site (and an FPP). Truly fascinating stuff. Thanks for posting.
posted by scratch at 5:37 AM on September 20, 2019

Thanks for posting this; that's a great site I'd never heard of before.
posted by holborne at 8:26 AM on September 20, 2019

i don't feel fantastic about the interviewer but thats mainly because i want to see a conversation like this with someone more in the know. just means i need to look elsewhere! i'm off on a thought tangent right now thinking about the overlap of not being able to trust your physical reality with the psychosis and not being able to trust your emotional reality with the bpd and now i want to talk about that. also, what a comfort to see someone as fidgety as i am totally handling it!
posted by gaybobbie at 1:00 PM on September 20, 2019 [2 favorites]

Just on my commute this morning, I saw a guy walking down the street who appeared to be going through something but also handling it and, while I absolutely do not know what his issues might be, if anything, this video really made me think about what might be happening and helped me find my compassion and more openness in how I might approach or interact with such a person if called to do so. Herd mentality is a thing. Pinging when anti-social behavior comes into your purview is both natural and learned. However, understanding how some of this behavior manifests and also when it is or isn't a danger really helps. I might post this to some of my neighborhood groups because oh my do people freak out about people behaving in certain ways. It's all rooted in fear and it's not necessarily a good thing to ignore that fear but this really did give me some additional perspective to put in my backpack of experience.
posted by amanda at 1:12 PM on September 20, 2019