Unrelating Words

Following on again from last week, today I'm going to talk about another schizophrenia symptom, disorganised thinking (speech). We will once again look to the Mayo Clinic for our definition: 'Disorganized thinking is inferred from disorganized speech. Effective communication can be impaired, and answers to questions may be partially or completely unrelated. Rarely, speech may include putting together meaningless words that can't be understood, sometimes known as word salad.' (http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/schizophrenia/basics/symptoms/con-20021077)
     This symptom, thankfully, I have never had and this is reflected in the characters throughout Aberrant Selected. In fact, the characters in the collection, despite their mental illnesses, are more or less lucid. However, when one does suffer from this symptom, all rational conversation is impossible. I currently have a neighbour who is schizophrenic and still refuses to take her medications. This symptom of disorganised speech is very pronounced with her and I have two or three times attempted to talk her into taking the much needed medications. Her replies were mostly in non sequiturs, but with a vague theme running through them that everyone else is crazy, but not her. 
     This incidentally brings me to another observation. Of those few who enter a full remission with schizophrenia a large part of the recovery is done by the patient, recognising that they have a serious problem and seeking the appropriate remedy(s). This was entirely the case with me and with the fellow schizophrenics I have known, and mentally ill in general, who are able to lead a more or less normal life within society.
     But back to this lady with the severe word salad. Most of the time she is more or less understandable but then suddenly she will approach me and declaim a disjointed list of complaints about her life and abuses she has suffered. Whether these abuses are real I don't know, but I suspect that there is an element of fact in these chaotic ramblings. I have since given up reasoning with her as doing so only seems to make her violent and more agitated.
     To conclude, I guess I am a rather fortunate schizophrenic, for once I had been stabilised on the medications the nurses and doctors involved in caring for me sometimes noted that I was very highly functioning. I just wish I could help my neighbour to be similarly healthy.