and i think as eyou saw in that first segment, and sometimes, i think, we re arguing against ourselves here, because we always say the majority of seriously mentally ill people are not violent. and yet we can t gseem to get or hands around how do we tell and what do we do? can we start by asking you from your experience as a diagnosed schizophrenic or a person with schizophrenia, whichever is pc, did you find yourself having dangerous thoughts? well, that s a very appropriate question at this time, i think. i ve been picked up by the police a number of times, so ing of i was doing something that triggered my being picked up. i remember once i was picked up and they were kind enough to ask me, in my words, did i want to go to jail or to the loony bin. and i said, well, i ve been to the loony bin before, i prefer
more likely to get help in jail more than anywhere else. we should not require a person who has a brain disorder to commit a crime in order for them to get treatment in medical help. when it comes to confronting the stigma of brain disorders, few have been as brave as frederick frieze, he s been an advocate for the mentally ill for 30 years. and there s more. i m a psychologist, i m a marine. and i m a i m schizophrenic. i know, you ve got to be politically correct. so i m also a person with schizophrenia. fred frieze and pete earley are next. for a whole-mouth clean. and it s never felt so good. new less intense listerine® zero™.
doing, about a decade ago, you expressed hope that a cure for schizophrenia might be within the next decade, next 10, 12 years. we re kind of there now. where are we now in a cure, and then in the treatment of? i wish that i could say we were closer to a cure. i don t think we are even close to a cure. i think we are getting closer to treatments that can possibly prevent the disability associated with schizophrenia. we certainly have medications that target the acute symptoms and i think we have approaches, for example, supported employment or vocational rehabilitation that assist people with these illnesses and actually getting and keeping jobs. sounds good but it s not available to a lot of people. i m more optimistic than that, candy. i think we are closer than that to having some very definitive
when you were early on, and again, you say you have not been hospitalized for yeah, since i got married. oh, since you got married? 33 years ago. so kudos to her. did you know when you were involuntarily committed that you needed help, or me? yes, you. i don t need no help? there s nothing wrong with me. now, they told me i had schizophrenia. this deteriorating brain disease and i would probably carry it the rest of my life. but my own perception is, why are you doing this to me? and yet, what you re saying is, that it was easier to commit you 30 years ago, right, than it is now? oh, yeah! absolutely. and someone gave me a, i thought, a really good example. they said, if a person with alzheimera
at. was there a point where either of you and first to you, dr. dixon, was there a point you thought, here s what should have told people that this is a dangerous obviously, we know he bought a gun, but no one was with him. was there some sign we thought this is a red flag for danger? i think when people feel threatened, that would be a big red flag for me and access to weapons. the fact that people were frightened of him, that they had this reaction, that s a little unusual. usually people with schizophrenia don t have that kind of reaction. and then the key thing, of course, is he was not on medication. medication makes all the difference in the world. people on medication, there s no increase in violence by people with schizophrenia on medication. unfortunately, this young man was not treated. and but the truth of the matter is that there are people who don t want treatment. people can be so sick they don t know they need treatment. then what?