To help me better explain and develop my idea ready to pitch to my group in our next meeting I decided to research a few mental illnesses that I was considering basing my idea on as its all about someones mental head space.
Schizophrenia
This is a mental illness that effects the way the individual thinks. It doesn't mean they have split personality or can be more aggressive however it is shown that they can be delusional or have hallucinations. Schizophrenia is not something you are born with but instead something that develops within your brain and there are many different factors as to why this does develop in certain people. It usually develops in young adults but not exclusively. It isn't something that can be tested for and instead must be diagnosed by a Psychiatrist. It may be that you get diagnosed with Psychosis fist before they are able to diagnose it specifically as Schizophrenia. The main symptoms I found on a website about Schizophrenia are:
-Hallucinations
-Delusions
-Disorganised thinking
Then there are different types of Hallucinations with in this which can help show what severity of Schizophrenia you have. These are:
-auditory (sound)
-visual (sight)
-tactile (touch)
-gustatory (taste)
-olfactory (smell)
The most common type of Hallucination people have with this illness is auditory where they usually hear voices or sounds. These voices can be someone they know or someone they have never met or heard before. They can either hear them occasionally or some people hear them all the time.
Their are also different severity of Disillusions. For example it can reach an extent were you think your loved ones are planning against you or even the government are plotting something.
Disorganised thinking can be were you lose train of thought easily and what your saying doesn't make sense to others around you. You might also begin to speak faster or slower.
Here are even more symptoms I found which are listed as the Negative symptoms:
-lack of motivation
-slow movement
-change in sleep patterns
-poor grooming or hygiene
-difficulty in planning and setting goals
-not saying much
-changes in body language
-lack of eye contact
-reduced range of emotions
-less interest in socialising or hobbies and activities
-low sex drive.
These symptoms are usually the ones which last longer and people with this illness actually class as effecting them and their lives a lot more.
I feel having done this research that it has opened up a lot more opportunity to pin point specific parts of this illness to portray in our piece without being offensive and instead to give insight to people about what it is like living with this.
I feel like the 5 attributes (senses) we should show with the five words and sections should be:
-'voices' This will be the actor portraying the voices in their head but for the sake of the piece they will only say the word voices through out this section and will start off happy with themselves and then slowly as they look in the mirror realises that it isn't real.
-'shadows' This is to reflect the disillusions that someone can have when this illness effects them. The character will feel paranoid that shadows are following them around the space. (possible use of second actor)
-'Unconsented' This is to show how they feel attacked by their own mind at times. They have a tactile experience where they feel touched by someone else who isn't really there. again this could involve a second actor and they realise they aren't there when they look in the mirror and only see themselves reflected back.
-'Confused' This is to show how hard it can be learning to recognise your illness for what it is instead of believing your hallucinations and illusions. To show this we have them trying to run after the second actor who is the illness but never catching them. (lots of close ups to confuse the audience too)
-'Alone' This is the realisation of how alone this illness can leave you no matter how severe you have it. It effects you on so many more levels that you would realise not only mentally but physically and emotionally and your personality can completely change. This will be shown by the actor sat in the middle of the space staring into the mirror and changing facial expressions rapidly.
In between these five sections there will be sound scapes to represent the place this person is in reality and I feel like a Cafe would be a recognisable place because of all the noises you have and also it links quite directly to the photo we were focused on by Hannah Starkey.
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