Research on Schizophrenia

Before and during our writing of the first draft of ‘Living with Ronnie’ we did a lot of research into Schizophrenia in order to fully understand the condition and all its varieties. We started by just looking ate the definition of the condition, the effects and how people cope with the illness. We found that our preconceptions of the illness were floored. We original believed that Schizophrenia meant a split personality, when in actual fact it is something slightly different to this. The person with Schizophrenia, depending on the servility of the case, will see a second person. They will talk and interact with this ‘personality’ and in cretin situations will become their second personality, looking at themselves.



We also found that, People with the disorder may believe other ‘people are reading their minds, controlling their thoughts, or plotting to harm them.’ (National Institute of Mental Health) We wanted to include this to a degree, with the confrontation scene in later drafts, so decided that Edgar would have a debate with his mother about the existence of Ronnie. This also helped trigger the realization at the end of the film.

We wanted to handle the subject matter with as much care as possible, and to portray a server case of Schizophrenia without being insensitive. For this reason we also looked at how people live and deal with the situation. We discovered a support group called ‘Mind’. This helps us to understand how families and patients deal with the situation they are in.


Sources:
• http://www.mind.org.uk/help/diagnoses_and_conditions/schizophrenia
• http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Schizophrenia/Pages/Introduction.aspx
• http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/schizophrenia/complete-index.shtml