What it’s like to have a brother AND a father with schizophrenia? Well….
My dad has paranoid schizophrenia. My brother has paranoid schizophrenia. They are NOT related- my brother has a different father. Do you know the odds of that??? Somewhere a statistician’s head is exploding.
The homeless person you passed on the street talking to themself? That was schizophrenia. And it might have been my dad. He was engaging with one of the voices in his head.
My brother’s half dozen voices are all women- they put him down, criticize his sexuality and lack of sexual experience, and generally exist to make him feel like he is inferior to them — and inferior to all real women — and that he is ‘pathetic’ and a ‘loser’.
My brother’s not pathetic or a loser though, I’ve known him his whole life… he’s a cool dude. Was super popular in school. He was the class clown. He has a great sense of humor.
My dad’s voices number in the hundreds. They are all different genders, ages, races etc. He says that they are the souls of the dead and God tasked him with a special mission to ‘listen to and counsel’ these departed souls until they go to heaven or hell or wherever it is…
