A student explores mental health issues
The Monsters We Create: A Conversation with Sammy Davis on Schizophrenic Occurrences of schizophrenia and other mental health conditions
It’s a chronic mental health condition where a person experiences symptoms of schizophrenia such as delusions and depression, and this is what he explores in the show. 3 in 1000 people experience it and that’s why it’s rare.
“I’m not dangerous. I’m not crazy. And I’m not delusional,” he says in his podcast, The Monsters We Create. “I’m just one more guy, with a mental health condition, living with it.”
His emotional and deeply personal entry was chosen by our judges. As the grand prize winner of this year’s NPR College Podcast Challenge, he’ll receive a $5,000 scholarship.
An international student learns Spanish from a friend’s first language: I don’t want to tell anyone about you, but I can’t lie
“Of course I had to tell her this is happening to me: I hear voices. I feel presences,” says the 22-year-old international student at Miami Dade College in Florida. “This is who I am. I can’t lie. I cannot lie.”
It was a big deal for him to tell her. He was living in a foreign city, speaking his second language, far from his family back in Colombia, and Pella would be the first person outside of his family he’d told.
She says she was worried that they would judge him and even judge her. Why are you dating this guy? I was scared,” she says, “and I wanted to protect him, too.”
He called his parents after NPR gave him the news. His mother, who spoke Spanish, told him that she was crying from joy.
Why do people think that voices are distorted? A candid account of a Colombian doctor’s experience with suicide and the NPR contest
He says that it’s not always to show his experience. In some cases, it’s a way of making fun of the prejudice that people have by using distorted voice recordings. Because they think that you’re hearing these voices to try to go hurt someone,” he says.
This openness is pretty radical for Vargas Arango. His family back in Colombia didn’t really talk about mental health, and, as a kid, his schizoaffective disorder presented itself as “imaginary friends.”
“You can probably imagine what the reaction of my Colombian religious mother was,” he says in the podcast. She believed I could see a ghost. I can’t see ghosts. Sadly.”
“I was one of those people that had this perspective of, ‘these people are crazy, these people are dangerous, these people are delusional, you got to be away from them,'” he recalls.
Talking openly about his condition and his treatment – which includes medicine and therapy – and then winning the NPR contest has also helped his family, he says.
If you know someone who is contemplating suicide, you can reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis phone line by calling 8-8-8 or texting to 741741.
Speaking about schizophrenia, a chronic mental health condition where a person experiences symptoms of schizophrenia like delusions and depression, ‘The Monsters we create’ host Sammy Davis said, “Three in 1,000 people experience it and that’s why it’s rare.” “I’m not delusional…I’m just one more guy, with a mental health condition, living with it,” he added.