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Working with a schizophrenic
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Javelin of Radiance



Joined: 01 Jul 2009
Posts: 1187
Location: The West

PostPosted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 3:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A fellow ESL teacher getting to know him better so as to make a better assessment? Assessment of what? On what criteria? Geez if psychiatry was only that easy. For all we know the guy's perfectly healthy and the poster reporting this has got it all wrong. Unless the guy's breaking the law through some kind of wierdass behaviour I can't see the employer getting involved either. Face it, lots of people in this business have a few bats in the belfry and still manage to function well enough.

Last edited by Javelin of Radiance on Tue Nov 27, 2012 3:50 am; edited 1 time in total
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The Great Wall of Whiner



Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Posts: 4946
Location: Blabbing

PostPosted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 3:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

How do you declare him schizophrenic? Are you a doctor?

Just saying...
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GreatApe



Joined: 11 Apr 2012
Posts: 582
Location: South of Heaven and East of Nowhere

PostPosted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

wonderingjoesmith wrote:

Quote:
disorderly thinking and utterance

In my experience, this is PAR FOR THE COURSE when talking about life in China! In fact, I'd be worried about any teacher who has worked in China for more than a holiday who has not been reduced to disorderly thinking, occasional mumbling, and even exclaiming "WTF!" out loud from time-to-time.

Repeatedly yelling "T.I.C!, T.I.C!, T.I.C!" while flapping your arms and pivoting in cirlces around the classroom on your left foot also works well sometimes. Then again, you never worked for my vice principal or our "Academic Coordinator." The former doesn't know anything about Educational Assessment and the latter doesn't know how to coordinate!

Seriously though, if the guy's having "delusions" as you said and if he's "paranoid" ... then he might really need help. I've known a few schizophrenics in my day, and I used to work closely with a guy at a restaurant in America who was schizophrenic. When he went off his meds all hell would break loose. It was not a pretty picture!

Maybe he's Bi-Polar. Maybe you caught him on a few bad days. Maybe he was hungover, or distraught for some reason or another. Maybe he's just stressed out ...

If he IS schizophrenic, chances are high that he already knows it. Personally, if I had a good working relationship with him I'd probably ask him outright in a non-threatening, "I'm-concerned-about-you" kind of way. (only YOU can evaluate if he trusts you or not and to what extent). If I did ask, it would be when he seemed 100% calm, cool and collected (read: "medicated") ... every schizophrenic I have known has been 100% up-front and honest about it when asked or when the discussion presented itself. It's not a sickness that necessarily lends itself to secrecy, particularly if you need to stay medicated daily and you're living in a foreign country.

The guy I worked with at the restaurant gave us his cousin's phone number when he first began working with us. We used it as an emergency contact number. My co-worker explained his condition and told us to give the cousin a call if he "started acting strangely" at work. Come to find out his med cycle would occasionally lapse for a three or four hour window once a month (we worked alternate-week, night and day shifts) and on those few days he would sometimes feel "odd."

Good Luck!

--GA
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wonderingjoesmith



Joined: 19 Aug 2012
Posts: 910
Location: Guangzhou

PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 3:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Great Wall of Whiner wrote:
How do you declare him schizophrenic? Are you a doctor?

Just saying...
No, I am far from a doctor. I haven't proclaimed him as a schizo, although I have suggested it, perhaps mistakenly, in the title. Sharing info on working with such people that possibly are shizos was my intention. How many such individuals would visit a doc? How many of them have choices to see a such a specialist in this country? Hell, it's not just this country but many other countries where we work.
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wonderingjoesmith



Joined: 19 Aug 2012
Posts: 910
Location: Guangzhou

PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 3:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

GreatApe wrote:
wonderingjoesmith wrote:

Quote:
disorderly thinking and utterance

Maybe he's Bi-Polar. Maybe you caught him on a few bad days. Maybe he was hungover, or distraught for some reason or another. Maybe he's just stressed out ...
Quite right! And, I've been wondering about it too.
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kungfuman



Joined: 31 May 2012
Posts: 1749
Location: In My Own Private Idaho

PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 11:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm crazy but both of me knows it
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GreatApe



Joined: 11 Apr 2012
Posts: 582
Location: South of Heaven and East of Nowhere

PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 11:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

@ kungfuman Laughing Laughing

One man's "crazy" is another man's "sanity."

--GA
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5h09un



Joined: 01 Jul 2010
Posts: 140

PostPosted: Sat Dec 01, 2012 4:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

milkweedma wrote:
Several posters have played this down but it sounds serious to me. The guy needs to be escorted home somehow before something serious happens to himself or others around him. Getting to know him better sounds like the best strategy as then a better assessment of him can be done and also getting the contact details of his family members can be done so that they can organise for him to go home.

China's the last place a mentally unstable person should be left alone in as the potential for tragedy or disappearance is higher because of the decrepit environment, language and cultural problems and inappropriate medical assessment and treatment options.


he probably won't be sent home until he does something truly unforgivable. the last school i worked at held on to people who had serious mental problems for as long as they could. one guy was kicking in the doors of the rooms of other teachers and threatening them. this was the last straw in a long series of episodes for him, and the only reason why the school finally got rid of him was because the FTs got fed up and said that they'd contact the authorities and have them intervene if the school wouldn't do anything.

another guy started making death threats because he was angry at the school's management for some reason. instead of sending him home, they sent him to one of their schools in the countryside for several months before they brought him back to the city because they were having staffing problems here. he was finally forced to leave when he pulled out a knife at school.

you're right that china doesn't understand mental illness or how to deal with it. mental hospitals are often used as tools of political persecution like in the soviet union. the new york times and the new yorker have published a series of great articles about these problems.

but i think there's a much bigger underlying problem in cases like this. management cares about profit above all else, including the safety and well being of their students and staff. fewer foreign faces means less money.
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wonderingjoesmith



Joined: 19 Aug 2012
Posts: 910
Location: Guangzhou

PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2012 11:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

5h09un wrote:
...the only reason why the school finally got rid of him was because the FTs got fed up and said that they'd contact the authorities and have them intervene if the school wouldn't do anything.
Funny that in my school no local teachers or administrators care about my coworker's mental state but all foreign teachers worry so much. We're trying to be considerate (listening to his cr*p talks), as it's been suggested on this thread, but I really don't know how long we can go on before someone confronts him. Let's hope he'll kick the doors only.
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gypsymike



Joined: 10 Jun 2013
Posts: 46

PostPosted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 6:42 pm    Post subject: sounds like a fanatic, not schyzo Reply with quote

I have a friend who is like that with politics. He is very intelligent but nobody can stand to be around him for more than a couple of hours. He gets so excited about his ideas on politics (American I should add) he'll start waving his hands around, his face gets all read and he just leans in and gets in your face about it--not angry mind you, just overly enthusiastic.

Now to address real schyzo behavior. I am returning to China soon, and I was there from 2001-2006. One teacher who we all met at the local expat watering hole in Guangzhou seemed normal--at first. After about six months he began acting increasingly stranger. Even before finishing his first drink he would be smiling and talking to himself while looking in the mirror behind the bar, making faces, winking and just, well odd. He wasn't drunk by any means.

Finally a group of us decided we should ask him if he was on any medication and had perhaps run out, and that we could help him because we were concerned by his behavior. He responded by telling us that yes, he was supposed to be taking meds but he wasn't "really schyzo", then he promptly left.

His behavior became even more irratic. He would be walking down the street and gestulating and talking to himself. Now to be fair, once someone spoke to him, he snapped out of it as if it had not been happening. Finaly one day in that same pub our little group of friends happen to meet the other teachers who worked at this guy's University (he had a Masters Degree BTW). They said they were concerned by his behavior. When we brought up the schyzo idea, one lady who was in her mid 50s seemed shocked by this, trying to deny it, saying "oh no! He can't be like that, surely! He's just maybe drinking too much?" saying it in a way like she was really hoping we were wrong.

A month goes by and we find out he got fired because of his strange behavior. He found other work, but continued to act strangely. I really hope he got help because he was a very nice, intelligent man.
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doogsville



Joined: 17 Nov 2011
Posts: 924
Location: China

PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 12:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Please stop with the 'schizo' and 'schyzo' thing. The condition is called schizophrenia and the people who suffer from it are called schizophrenic. That in itself is a label and not very useful. Those people who suffer from the condition often feel the label hinders more than helps them. If someone has cancer, we don't call them a cancoid, or a cancerer or whatever, we treat them with the respect and dignity they deserve. Schizophrenia is a serious medical condition that no one chooses to have. They are people first, sufferers of schizophrenia second and schizophrenics last. They are neither 'schizo's' or 'schyzo's'. Thank you for listening.
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5h09un



Joined: 01 Jul 2010
Posts: 140

PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 10:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

5h09un wrote:
the last school i worked at held on to people who had serious mental problems for as long as they could. one guy was kicking in the doors of the rooms of other teachers and threatening them. this was the last straw in a long series of episodes for him, and the only reason why the school finally got rid of him was because the FTs got fed up and said that they'd contact the authorities and have them intervene if the school wouldn't do anything.


i should add that this guy was sent home alone to AUS from northeastern china. he didn't make it all the way there. in guangzhou, he left the airport and wandered around the city causing trouble until he ran out of money and had no place to stay. this created problems for both governments and the guy's family too.
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Albert Cribbins



Joined: 19 Aug 2012
Posts: 79
Location: Sichuan

PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 11:23 am    Post subject: art and creativity? Reply with quote

Sometimes creative FT's can be weird, it happens. He might be going through booze withdrawal, under the influence of drugs, who knows. If he is mentally ill, best place for him is home, whether he wants to go back is another matter entirely Rolling Eyes
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chinatimes



Joined: 27 May 2012
Posts: 478

PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 2:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Never share your toilet paper with your other self. As David Mustaine used to say, "If the war inside my head...Won't take a day off I'll be dead"

Have fun chomping at the bit Twisted Evil
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whitehouse



Joined: 06 Mar 2008
Posts: 31
Location: CHINA

PostPosted: Fri Jun 14, 2013 1:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

There any number of reasons why someone acts differently . It does not have to be schizophrenia it could be Autism and Asperger syndrome. Most likely it is the insecurity brought about by the often poor management which exists in China. Better not to speculate and call someone a serious mental condition which can itself cause a lot of damage to that person if rumoured around.Leave diagnosis to the experts.
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