"Born Schizophrenic" - The Story of Janny

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I wonder if the impetus for her schizophrenia was her name being January. Perhaps she associated herself with the month and therefore numbers... Each month is a number and contains around 30 others. If her characters each have numbers perhaps it is because she first determined that she had a number or two sets of numbers given that she may have a birthday that is outside the month of January. Could that have caused the initial split into two realities under the right social conditions?

I thought so too. If we're both mistaken, at least we thought of the same thing.

Yes, I saw that documentary and it disturbed me. The parents seem questionable to me. Somehow I wonder if abuse was involved somehow. I know that is taboo, but the parents clearly had problems of their own.

The girl seemed very smart to me, perhaps too smart for her own good.

It sounded to me like her problem wasn't her imaginary friends, which she seemed to play with nicely, but her tantrums. It seemed like the parents don't have enough skills to deal with those. But on the other hand, the father says in his blog he's against behavioural treatment for children on the psychotic spectrum, which strikes me as odd.

Is there really such a thing? I would be more inclined to think that a smart kid would need a better education to prevent psychological disorders. If her mind has the capacity to understand components of things adults are interested in and she doesn't have anyone showing her how to put it together, she will make wrong assumptions that can potentially lead to a psych disorder or enable the conditions for a psych disorder to develop.

The problem here may be more about giving the kid the attention she needs in order to fill in knowledge and understanding of all the fascinating epiphanies she has.

I worry that the antipsychotics, which have been found to shrink brains, will be more harmful to her outcome... At her age they may prevent propper development and cause other problems... In order to give that kind of stuff to one's kids you already have to have written off their existence and see them as a permanent problem. In the parent's defense though, they do want her to have as many good times as she can in the time that she can, so maybe the parents just need to think about it more.

I have a friend who who developed a brain tumor at 20 and her mother without putting much thought into her daughter's treatment demanded the strongest radiation therapy (<valid emoticon?) right off the bat cuz she thought that's what would be good for her. Sometimes parents are so worried and believe that they must act and hope, esp in times like these and it causes some rather large mistakes. It's esp hard to see it happening to a child. But this is what happens when media, marketing, and special interests rule. Maybe I'll write a book about the phenomena facing the US that allows things like this to happen... I keep saying I'm gunna write a book, but it never happens tho...

I think the emoticon is valid... And I've enjoyed reading your posts, you seem really intelligent.

I saw something like this on here before (I think it was on here) and one thing I noticed was her tantrums started to get bad when her baby brother was born. Could it be for attention purposes that she has these tantrums??

I think so, like every kid. People with disorders are just people, at the end of the day, and people tend to have similar motives. Plus in a lot of respects, she seemed like other girls her age.

To follow up with why I said what I did...

The following quote is from the dad's blog that disturbs me... alright, at least the guy is honest, but what disturbs me the most is he not only abused his child, he blames his abuse on his child and refuses to take responsibility for his actions. The only way he can relieve his intense feelings of guilt apparently is to say that Jani has schizophrenia and she is the one with problem. Yes, Jani may have been born schizophrenic. I am not denying that possibility. But the fact still remains that the parents are exploiting her, have been abusive to her in the past, and cannot properly take care of her.

"Five year olds are still desperate for parental approval.
Yes, kids have temper tantrums. But Jani would dig her nails into my skin and pull...leaving a bloody track down my arm or face. She would grin while she did this, a demonic grin that would have scared me had I had time to really think about it. But I didn't.


We tried everything. Positive reinforcement. Negative reinforcement. Hitting her back (I won't tell you how many people told us that all she needed was a good beating). We took all her toys away. We gave her toys away. We tried starving her. We did EVERYTHING we could to try and break her. Nothing worked.


Even then, it did not occur to us that our daughter was mentally ill. Now I wonder who was really delusional. Susan and I held fast to our belief that Jani was just a misunderstood genius.


Then Bodhi was born.


The violence became so bad that at times Susan and I both lost it and hit Jani as hard as we could. We hit in impotent rage.


We got a referral to a psychiatrist.


Two months later, Janni was hospitalized for the first of what has since been four times, but in truth will be many more times.


Today, Jani is no longer a brat. Today, Jani is schizophrenic."

TBH, the "we tried starving her" approach is used with autistics too... I can't be entirely shocked by it (even though I thoroughly disagree with it).

Kind of sad.

I think the key is education. Some parents really just don't know what they are doing.

My parents didn't know much about tics when I was growing up, and I remember my dad placing a mirror in front of me while I was eating to keep me from making funny faces. Apparently, he felt I could control it. It was a harmful approach, and yet he meant no harm. Did he have bad intent... no... but it was his approach helpful... no, of course not, and it was even damaging I would say. He was punishing me for something I had no control over.

With my mum, it was a lot of yelling usually, which was offensive to my hearing. Stuff like eating, writing etc. requires a certain amount of concentration to me, so if something makes you snap out of it, it can be quite startling.

That sucks. Sorry to hear that.

The majority of parents of children with mentally illness mean well as do my own, but sometimes they miss the mark in the best way to go about dealing with problems they cannot relate to. I guess this is why talking to a trained therapist is important (some therapists are idiots, but most of mine have been pretty understanding and helpful).

*nods* Yeah, I agree.

In her father's blog he admits to abusing her mom in front of her, starving Jani and beating her. Now they are saying their son is autistic then that's changed to they think he's schizophrenic and he's a toddler! All they keep doing is asking for money.

Jani is drugged up in mental wards. These drugs also cause hallucinations.
Jani was also diagnosed with autism several times but the parents weren't happy with that.

Onetime Jani in the mental hospital was bathed by her dad. She told the staff he put his finger in the washcloth and put it in her vagina. She wasn't believed.


http://www.januaryfirst.org/www.january ... es_F..html
He also took the opportunity oneday while she was slack jawed over drugs with a bleeding nose while watching a show about sharks to talk about how the sharks slowly kill their prey while she was watching animal planet to "teach her"


The parents come across as nutty and exploitative.

"We tried everything. Positive reinforcement. Negative reinforcement. Hitting her back (I won't tell you how many people told us that all she needed was a good beating). We took all her toys away. We gave her toys away. We tried starving her. We did EVERYTHING we could to try and break her. Nothing worked.

"Even then, it did not occur to us that our daughter was mentally ill. Now I wonder who was really delusional. Susan and I held fast to our belief that Jani was just a misunderstood genius.

"Then Bodhi was born.

"The violence became so bad that at times Susan and I both lost it and hit Jani as hard as we could. We hit in impotent rage."


http://www.januaryfirst.org/www.january ... try_1.html

"In her first two years of life, people would remark how well behaved she was. [...]

The more violent the world around her becomes, the calmer she gets. Because it is stimulation. This was even true of her behavior in the face of my violence. She grew calm, even mature, telling me "Daddy, it's okay. You need to calm down" when I would throw objects across the room and put holes in drywall."


http://www.januaryfirst.org/www.january ... ting..html

"Susan has seen both the best of me, such as now, and the worst of me, before I was on Lexapro (an antidepressant), when I would fly into violent rages. I have hit her."-Michael Schoefield


"She was two months old. I shook a two month old infant, screaming at her "WHY WON'T YOU SLEEP!" She screamed harder and I immediately felt guilty and tried to make it better. Eventually, she calmed down and fell into a fitful sleep in my arms and I watched German TV at four in the morning knowing I was a baby shaker. "

Thanks for the further info.

The guy is just creepy. If you read his blogs, you will see some very subtle but distinct narcissistic traits. He tries to make himself out to be hero when in fact he is a child abuser. There is no getting around it.

The fact that he admits to shaking his baby while simultaneously expecting to be revered as a champion of mental health is further evidence that he does not understand that he was in the wrong. I feel a little bad for him because a smarter person would cover their tracks better.... but I don't feel so sorry for him that I am actually going to defend him. The best way to help an abuser is to call them out on their bad behavior.

And yes, it is very possible that Jani is autistic. She is insightful but cryptic. In my mind, a person with full-fledged schizophrenia will openly admit to their irrational thinking once the medications kick in. She is heavily medicated and not responding, other than be dulled to oblivion. I'm not anti-meds, I'm anti-meds when they are used to cover up dark secrets and retaliation.