Introduction:
John Nash is considered to be one of the most influential and famous thinkers in the domain of Mathematics of the 20th century. He had published his biography called the Beautiful mind and there is also an award winning film of the same name that has won the hearts of millions of people changing the ways by which people see mental health illness (Nasar, 2019). He had been one of the most successful personalities who had fought with the mental disorder of schizophrenia and had emerged out victorious. This assignment will show how John had gradually developed the mental health disorders, his fight through the different phases of the disorder and how he emerged out successfully from the disorder with the support of society and close ones in the life.
Early years of John Nash:
Studies are of the opinion that core schizophrenia begins in the period of adolescence or that of early adulthood. This might be seen to include a psychotic break that involving diminished executive function along with that of the affective blunting and even various forms of thought disorders. The concept of “thought disorders” mainly means the inability in thinking clearly or in a consecutive manner. Studies are of the opinion that it does not necessarily mean that every people affected with the disorder would be suffering from hallucinations and delusions of psychosis. Coming to the context of the John Nash, it had been seen that his illness mainly began in the year 1959 at the age of 30 which although had passed the window for the period when schizophrenia mainly occurs (Martinez & Castro-Villarreal, 2017). After being a prankster in his school years, he achieved a scholarship to the Carnegie Institute of Technology. Here he had started with the subject of chemical engineering and later moved onto chemistry. Then he found a knack in the subject of mathematics where he both struggled with that of technical drawing and even laboratory work. He became quite loved and liked by all for his skills in that of mathematics. Even one of his professors described him as the mathematics genius whike he was found to be sending his recommendation to the Princeton University. It was during the time at the Princeton University which made him develop his doctorate of non-cooperative games which actually later resulted in his winning of the Nobel Prize. In the later years around that of 1958, during the time of teaching at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, different types of symptoms and signs of illness of Nash became apparent. Some of the symptoms that were observed were his sudden disappearance without warning to other people for many days and on return would provide no explanation to any people when asked. He was also seen to go on long reveries when he was in the middle of his lectures and he was seen to make meaningless comments to students as well as colleagues (Nowak, 2015). He was also seen to become increasingly paranoid as if he would not allow visitors to his office and he would also believe that he was followed all the time.
Studies are of the opinion that there are two categories of symptoms that might start to occur with the advance of schizophrenia. One of the categories is called the positive symptoms which are things that might start happening to the patients with the occurrence of the disorder. Another category is the negative symptoms of the disorder which are mainly the things that might stop happening with the advancement of the disorder. Some of the positive symptoms are the hallucinations that are seen to include auditory, olfactory as well as visual and tactile hallucinations (Nash, 2016). People with the disorder might see, hear, smell or feel things as no one else does. Others are the occurrence of delusions which are the beliefs that seem strange to most of the people and are easy to prove wrong. People who get affected with the disorder might feel that someone is trying to control their brain or that FBI is out to get them. People also gave disorganized speech or confused thoughts and also have trouble concentrating and may have movement disorders.
Example of hallucinations and delusions that John faced:
Hallucinations and delusions of John Nash were found to be quite severe. Parcher was the visual as well as the auditory hallucination that often haunted and even tortured Nash. Nash considered him to be an agent of the Department of Defense who wanted to engage in Nash’s services and intelligence for cracking codes for the government. Nash even considered Parcher telling him that his work would be important for the country (Donaldson, 2015). However, the culture of covertness as well as secrecy in the Department of Defense might have precipitated the first acute symptoms of schizophrenia that Nash experienced. Studies are of the opinion that it is not unusual for a visual as well as auditory hallucinations to be distorted form of an individual or that of the object that once had certain significance (whether positive or negative) for the already affected individual.
Perceptions and suffering of the people with the disorder:
People suffering from schizophrenia goes through the most difficult periods of suffering where they cannot decide what particular aspect in his environment to believe in as the struggle between the real and the hallucinated world always stays upright (Carey et al., 2018). Participants suffering from schizophrenia when interviewed stated their perceptions about the disorder. Increased frequency, intensity as well as persistence of the symptoms prove to be incredibly distracting and even more dangerous that had out the people whom he loves in difficult and unsafe situations (Bowyer et al., 2015)). Similarly in case of Nash, it was seen that once he left his son who was bathing in the water all by him where the child almost drowned. It was seen that when he was not hallucinatory, he felt terribly remorseful about such of the episodes. Just like the participants in the study, Nash had also written in his biography that when he was in the throes of the hallucination or other symptoms, he often used to find it very difficult in distinguishing between the reality as well as the state into which he had entered. Studies are of the opinion that it often proves to be difficult for those people who love him deeply to understand. It was noted that when he was symptomatic, the power of the hallucinatory figures who haunt him like that of the Parcher always encouraged him to ham his loved ones and he felt as if he never knew or cared about them (Seeman, 2017). Often these forms of issues associate schizophrenia with patients who can not only harm themselves but can also harm the people around them when they become psychotic. Just as in case of Nash, it became very difficult for his wife Alicia who was also quite affected by the disorder of Nash and who was placed in difficult positions about making painful decisions about his treatment for schizophrenia.
Approach towards overcoming the symptoms of schizophrenia:
For their part, the healthcare professionals were seen to try the different old treatments like that of the insulin shock along with the many new types of anti-psychotic medications. This was the particular time when the first generation of the antipsychotics was first developed at a very fast pace and therefore several new drugs like that of Stelazine (trifluoperazine) became available to that of Nash. Over the next several decades, he had been hospitalized several number of times and he was found to be on and off anti-psychotic medications. However, several studies were of the opinion that when an affected individual can survive the greatly increased risk of death by suicide and accident, then with gradual advancement of age, the conditions indeed appear to improve (Parker, 2015). It has been found that the sufferers learn to accommodate their psychotic thoughts and live a better-ordered life around them. It can be also seen that gradually sufferers learn in accommodating their psychotic thoughts and thereby they start living a better-ordered lives around them (Wang et al., 2016). Many of the sufferers are also seen to begin their questions of their delusions and thereby trick their hallucinations. In this way, they can develop the mystical quality which most of the healthcare researchers call insight, which is extremely important for the recovery (Dimand & Yahia, 2016)). Nash actually began interrogating various forms of his delusions intellectually demanding that they should be justifying themselves. Huang et al. (2016) had been of the opinion that in this way, Nash was able in discerning over the time that the delusions did not represent the reality and that they could be allocated to a part of his own mind which did not require urgent attention. Nash was of the opinion that his recovery from the disorder was not because of his medications but of the constant support he got from his wife and friends that made him fight the symptoms of the disorder and emerged out victorious.
Important observations that shows the requirement of further research:
Studies that had been conducted in the year 1930, before that of the medications for the disorder were available; about 20% of the people recovered from their own while 80% of the people did not succeed. More recent studies are of the opinion that with treatment 605 of the people with the disorder achieved remission (individuals having minimum number of symptoms for at least six months). Therefore, it often rose to debate why some people with schizophrenia got better and others did not (Brink et al., 2017). However, many of the researchers had come up with a large number of factors that help in the development of patients from schizophrenia among which many had been present in the case of John Nash as well.
People who have later onset of the disorder tend to do better than those individuals who experience their first episodes of the disorder in their teens (Lopez et al., 2016). In case of Nash, it was seen that he was only 30 years old when he started for experiencing symptoms of the disorder like the hallucinations and that of the delusions.
Secondly, many of the studies are of the opinion that social factors like that of having jobs along with supportive communities and supportive families who are able to help the affected patients with their everyday tasks are also linked with better outcomes for the patients. In case of Nash, it was seen that he had supportive colleagues who actually helped him in finding jobs where the people had been protective of him (Eskinen et al., 2017). His wife Alicia were also seen to be his constant support where she cared for him and took him into her house even when they were divorced that actually prevented him from being homeless. Being acceptable of the fact as he was and tackling and managing his symptoms throughout by his wife, made him feel stronger to fight with the symptoms himself. All such protective factors have contributed john in overcoming the disorder. Hence, people receiving he supportive environment tend to overcome the symptoms of the disorder successfully.
End of the legacy of John Nash:
The life of John was indeed full of surprises and this can be evidenced by the manner about how his death arrived with a great shock to all. In the year of 2015, on 23rd of May, he had been visiting Norway for accepting the Abel Prize. Here, Nash and Alicia had been travelling a taxi through the routes of the New Jersey Turnpike. Here it was found that the driver lost his control completely. This made their care colklide with the crash barriers (Pilon et al., 2017). The couples were not wearing any seat belts and therefore, the couple was thrown out from the vehicles by the jerk of the accidents that killed them. Their deaths were a huge shock equally to every people who were working in the field of mental health as those who are in academia.
Conclusion:
For people who are suffering from the disorder of schizophrenia as well as those people who are close to them, the story of John Nash provides all individuals with great hope. The cruel and destructive symptoms of the disorder makes patients suffer a lot with disrupted lives where they cannot recognize between reality and the delusions and hallucinations they develop over the course of time. However, the sufferers with course of time and with the help of skilled professionals can overcome the symptoms of the disorders. Through patience and care showed by their loved ones and building a supportive environment for the patients also contribute in overcoming the disorders and living a fulfilling life once again. Stories like that of John Nash show the world that although life with the disorder can never become easy, it might be possible to win at the end through hope and achievement rather than that of despair.
References:
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