A woman on TikTok is bravely sharing her experience living with schizophrenia.
Last week, she detailed her hallucinatory symptoms in a post that went viral with more than 5.1 million views on the social media app.
She employs her video editing skills to demonstrate the phenomenon — which she describes as seeing “black masses” rather than people.
“Most of what I will see is that [there is] a black shadow behind me — like this,” she says into the camera just before the footage cuts to a loosely formed silhouette standing before a doorway.
“Or I will see them peek around the corner — like this,” she continued, cutting away to show the same doorframe and her own face slowly peering beyond the threshold of the same doorway.
“This is a major reason why I don’t have doors [open],” she added. “They will look through the crack of the door and just stare at me. It’s f—king freaky.”
“Or I’ll be in my living room and they’ll be looking at me from the kitchen.”
While usually haunted by shadowy figures, she claimed to have also seen “zombie-like” visions in the past. “But I was really close to a mental breakdown,” she explained.
TikTok users reacted to her video with sympathy.
“You’re a strong woman,” read one of the top comments.
“I’m so sorry you experienced this. I’m horrified.” added another.
Schizophrenia is a chronic mental disorder that affects how people perceive reality, leading to hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking and speech, paranoia and time gaps.
More than 200,000 people in the US are living with schizophrenia, for which there is no cure. The cause of schizophrenia is still unknown, but research suggests a combination of genetic and environmental factors are likely to encourage its onset.
In another recent post, the “recently diagnosed” patient described the long-term effects of schizophrenia — specifically, gray matter volume reduction in the brain.
Gray matter is a type of brain tissue that processes most information the brain receives, including physical sensation, visual perception, movement, speech and memory.
“The longer that you go without treating your schizophrenia … the less gray matter you have in your brain,” she said, adding that she’ll likely be on medication to reduce her symptoms for the rest of her life.
She went on to warn viewers of tell-tale symptoms, urging those who have the same experience to contact a doctor without delay.
“If you are having a lot of background noise in your brain … go see somebody,” she began. “If you’re seeing things peak around the corner, you see things hover, black masses … go see somebody.”
“If you are experience thoughts that are not your original thoughts … please go get help.”
“Your life depends on it.”
