You Can’t Ask That: myths about schizophrenia

Pick of the day: You Can’t Ask That, 9pm, ABC.

Everything from delusions to hospitalisations are discussed on You Can’t Ask That.

Pick of the day: You Can’t Ask That, 9pm, ABC.

This terrific factual series, which presents confronting questions to people of marginalised and misunderstood groups, continues tonight with the topic of schizophrenia.

As usual, nothing is off limits, as the participants candidly discuss everything from delusions to hospitalisations.

Many, including Sandy Jeffs, describe hearing voices.

“A male and a female,” she says. “They used to sound really crass in the way they spoke, but now in the last 10 years they’ve done elocution, so now my voices abuse me with a posh accent. They will tell me how evil I am, how disgusting I am, how disgusting I look, how my face is revolting, how if people touch me they will die because I will contaminate them with my oozing evil.”

Another question — “Is the government out to get you?” — gets a qualified laugh from some.

“That’s really funny,” Luana says, before adding: “I thought that normal everyday people could be working for the CIA, or spies, and they were trying to chase me down. I thought we were being experimented on in a government lab and we were going to be gassed in the hospital because I thought I could see smoke coming out of one of the air vents.”

One man named Richard addresses the question of whether smoking marijuana contributed to his condition.

“I’m very deeply affected by the question of why it happened to me,” Richard says.

“As with all illnesses there are genetic factors and there are environmental factors … like trauma at birth, drug taking and periods of high stress.”

He hastens to explain: one of the most negative stereotypes about schizophrenia is that all sufferers are violent.

“People who suffer the illness are far more likely to be the victims of violence,” Richard says. “Do I want to kill anyone? No. All I want for the world is peace and love.”

This season contains two more episodes, featuring drag aficionados and priests.