30 replies to this topic

[Dave The Hedgehog]

Friends? Girlfriend? Family? How many of you?

[SamSheppard]

goin with about 15 friends  

[lharris92]

SamSheppard, on 01 July 2010 - 03:41 PM, said:

goin with about 15 friends  

same but im going reading

[Electricityscape]

25+ and counting. We've got quite a big group.  

[Vieuphoria]

Girlfriend

and potentially other people.

[JaggySnake92]

Got over 40 of us going from college. No way were all camping together though!

[mallett]

im going with one other on the wednesday, but when i get there i think there will be a group of about 20.

[rexclark]

I'm going with my girlfiend who's been twice and my mate who's been six times, maybe meeting others down there.

[rbranigan]

camping with ~10 friends, going with ~35-40 people we know on a coach

[Lithium05]

Going with 3 mates. Though it's a tad complecated at the moment due to one of them having been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic (sp?). He was due to go last year but dropped out at the last minute, but the condition had only just reared it's head then. A year on and he's drinking way too much (shouldn't be drinking at all on the meds but we can't get him to stop because he says it "helps him forget his condition") a couple of examples being - on a night where no one else was drinking he promised to go easy, but ended up drinking 12 bottles of peroni in about 2 and  a half hours. Another time we were round a friends house, and one he'd finished his own been he started drinking everyone else's without asking. I don't think he should be going and need to talk to his parents/girlfriend about their take on it.

Apologies for giving what was probably far too much information, but I needed to vent.

[Dave The Hedgehog]

Lithium05, on 02 July 2010 - 08:54 AM, said:

Going with 3 mates. Though it's a tad complecated at the moment due to one of them having been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic (sp?). He was due to go last year but dropped out at the last minute, but the condition had only just reared it's head then. A year on and he's drinking way too much (shouldn't be drinking at all on the meds but we can't get him to stop because he says it "helps him forget his condition") a couple of examples being - on a night where no one else was drinking he promised to go easy, but ended up drinking 12 bottles of peroni in about 2 and  a half hours. Another time we were round a friends house, and one he'd finished his own been he started drinking everyone else's without asking. I don't think he should be going and need to talk to his parents/girlfriend about their take on it.

Apologies for giving what was probably far too much information, but I needed to vent.

Nothing's too heavy for me.

I love hearing stories like that. Not for any voyeuristic reason but because I've been around people who suffer from schizophrenia for the best (or worst) part of half my life. My family has a history of it and I've taken a keen interest in all facets of mental health since I was diagnosed with having clinical/unipolar depression when I was 15. Schizophrenia is not a very nice condition to have, and certainly not one you ever wish you would be diagnosed with, and it's a tremendous strain on everybody - I think what's important is not to feel alienated by your friend. Stick with him no matter what so that he doesn't feel alone and if the drinking continues then ultimately it might be best to arrange like a private consultation with somebody in the profession so that you can all act together, with his family and girlfriend, and make an intervention. Technically, by the sounds of things, he's trying to kill himself and so I think you could probably get him sectioned on the grounds that he's a danger to himself. It won't solve the predicament you're in with Leeds but in the long-run your mate will probably be better for Leeds 2011 and beyond.

It's a simple solution in theory but it's hard in practice. This is Dr. Hedgehog. Be well.

[Lithium05]

Cheers man, my main concerns (outside of the drinking) are that 1) when he gets really wasted he gets into this zombie mode where he just wants to go home and he can't fathom why anyone would want to stay out - and I'm the one who's driving. And 2) part of his condition that when he hears people talking and can't make out what they're saying, he assumes it's something nasty about him. It's bad in small crowds, imagine the tricks his mind will play while he's in his tent surrounded by people at a festival!

Oh and it's Reading, not Leeds

[PurpleFire]

Theres 4 of us! Two couples, we both have differnt music likes and i can see me and the other fella going off to see what we want too see while the girls go see something not my taste like Munford and Sons.

[Dave The Hedgehog]

Lithium05, on 02 July 2010 - 09:36 AM, said:

Cheers man, my main concerns (outside of the drinking) are that 1) when he gets really wasted he gets into this zombie mode where he just wants to go home and he can't fathom why anyone would want to stay out - and I'm the one who's driving. And 2) part of his condition that when he hears people talking and can't make out what they're saying, he assumes it's something nasty about him. It's bad in small crowds, imagine the tricks his mind will play while he's in his tent surrounded by people at a festival!

Oh and it's Reading, not Leeds

To be fair, I could say the same about a lot of people. God knows after about 11 or 12 pints and a couple of glasses of whiskey I feel as if I want nothing more than the company of my sweet bed to nurse my withering brain and punished liver. Alcohol does some 'funny' things to your mind by itself without the added inconvenience of schizophrenia to make it worse, and on top of that I can imagine he takes quite a significant amount of medication as per usual with somebody who suffers from it.

I also don't buy for a second the guy is using alcohol to numb the symptoms of schizophrenia because 99.999% of the time the medication does that anyway, and combining the two makes it a hundred times worse. In fact, 99.999% of the time the medication is so effective that it numbs everything, and not only does it numb everything but it changes who you are completely in the space of about 3 to 4 weeks, and the longer you take it, the more you change. Nobody is ever the same after taking any sort of medication for any mental illness. It's a double edged sword though because - even though it is detrimental to your personality and sometimes physical health, it's something you have to keep taking otherwise the symptoms get worse.

I've always said to people who have asked about mental conditions that the first step towards getting better or making the problems more managable is to accept that you have the condition and be aware of what your condition is; especially if it's something that can be sorted like clinical depression. With something like schizophrenia, it's best not to be aware at all and most of the time I think the medication is prescribed to people - not to treat the symptoms but to stop them from caring. The way a lot of psychiatrists see it; you can't suffer from schizophrenia if you are completely oblivious to everything so they stop you from caring about everything and basically just sedate and vegetate you for the rest of your life. It's an incredibly complicated illness.

My advice to you as an observer to your friend's problems is to gain some awareness of what he suffers from so that you can try to understand how he feels but don't ever think you will fully understand it because you don't suffer from it. That's the mistake everybody in the field of mental health makes. Unfortunately a lot of people don't usually bother trying to understand because they simply do not have the time, and they eventually just give up and forget about their friends and leave them to suffer on their own - and they do suffer. The schizophrenia you can do nothing about but you could help the 'alcohol problem' by stopping him from drinking it, or by doing as I suggested and organising an intervention with your friends, his girlfriend and his family.

[Dave The Hedgehog]

I apologise if I have deepened the tone of this thread.

Edited by Dave The Hedgehog, 02 July 2010 - 01:05 PM.

[RichieSpenno]

Just me and my mate.  We always try to get a big group to go and it always fails =/

[Benj]

Dave The Hedgehog, on 01 July 2010 - 03:33 PM, said:

Friends? Girlfriend? Family? How many of you?

There's 3 of us this year, me and two mates, me 33, them 34 (the old c**ts).

First time that it hasn't just been me and the one mate since '04. Long gone are the days of 6-7, never managed to get into double figures. Festivals weren't cool back in my day

Edited by Benj, 02 July 2010 - 02:34 PM.

[Lithium05]

Benj, on 02 July 2010 - 02:10 PM, said:

There's 3 of us this year, me and two mates, me 33, them 34 (the old c**ts).

First time that it hasn't just been me and the one mate since '04. Long gone are the days of 6-7, never managed to get into double figures. Festivals weren't cool back in my day

I was expecting your annual rant on why you shouldn't take women to festivals

I think the most people we ever managed was about 14 If I remember these correctly:

2003: 3
2004: 4
2005: 14
2006: 8
2007: 7
2008: 9
2009: 3
2010: 4

while I'm at it just for the comparison people for Download:
2004: 5
2005: 2
2006: 6
2007: 7
2008: 13
2009: 6
2010: 3

[ska_4_life]

I live in Reading, so i camp with whoever and just drift about seeing people i know. Think i shall be camping with about 20 people though... maybe more depending how close everyone arrives and if they can fit in

[Benj]

Lithium05, on 02 July 2010 - 02:49 PM, said:

I was expecting your annual rant on why you shouldn't take women to festivals

Hhahhahahahha, Im saving that for an early August outing this year.

Its my gift for the poor souls who are going with their girlfriends, I make it sound like absolute hell, so their expectations are shot to hell. Then when they actually get there with their missus, they're pleasantly surprised that its only really shite and not quite utter hell.