Since there's one piece on the rec list questioning a joke made about mental illness in response to the Saturday hate mail-a-palooza, I thought maybe I'd take a moment to explain exactly what schizophrenia is and talk about some of the misconceptions people tend to have about it.
First to be clear, schizophrenia is not multiple personality disorder. I'm not certain as to where the genesis of this misunderstanding comes from, but I suspect it's got something to do with the root terms, which come from the Greek words for "split" and "mind." For whatever reason, people have managed to misinterpret that to the point where there are a lot of pop culture references to schizophrenia as MPD. My earliest memory of this is from a Robin Williams skit in which he made a reference to schizophrenia and then mimicked two personalities arguing with one another.
But people can learn, and Williams clearly did-- his portrayal of a schizophrenic years later in "The Fisher King" was actually quite well done and poignant.
But... back to what schizophrenia actually is-- it's a mental disorder which can take two primary forms. First, though-- I need to clarify two terms. In this context, "positive" and "negative" refer specifically to addition and subtraction.
Therefore, "positive" schizophrenia involves delusions (misinterpretation of real events and situations to imply illogical and absurd causes), such as believing that the music you are hearing is sending you signals in Morse code, and hallucinations (seeing or hearing people, creatures or events that are unique to your own experience) such as creatures that chase you in the night or voices telling you to come outside.
"Negative" symptoms are withdrawal and lack of expression. They can also include catatonia, which is a type of rigidity and frozen mode that some schizophrenics can go into for extended periods of time.
There is a wide variety of prognosis for schizophrenics, and it takes more forms than this. One "positive" aspect of some peoples' schizophrenia is a type of excessive paranoia that can inhibit their interest in being treated. This is demonstrated fairly well in "A Beautiful Mind" -- Nash not only develops a fairly severe paranoia, he creates people in his own mind who help foster the paranoia.
For a lot of schizophrenics, medication helps but in varying amounts. It seems to be more effective for those who exhibit positive symptoms-- it's easier to suppress hallucinations than to promote social engagement.
Most schizophrenics live with a fairly major level of frustration within the world around them. Many of the medications have severe side effects, including diabetes and dyskinesia-- dyskinesia is an inability to control one's muscles well ("dys-" from the same root word as "dysfunctional" and "kinesia" from the same root word as "kinesthetcs") so that simple movements are much more complicated and can often involve shaking and spasms. Imagine, for a moment, that you are given medications that include these side effects while experiencing episodes of paranoia. They do little to suggest that the paranoia is unwarranted.
One issue many schizophrenics face has to do with processing of information. If, for example, you and I were to hear two people reciting numbers with some small amount of overlap between them, you'd find it easy enough to list those numbers while listening to them. For schizophrenics, it's not that easy-- the multiple stimuli can totally screw with their ability to process the information.
Another common side effect of schizophrenia is what's known as "formal thought disorders." It's incoherent conversation or writing that can take different forms: confused discussion, which rambles without transition or clear meaning; halting discussion that stops in mid-sentence from time to time; distracted conversation.
People who suffer from schizophrenia do not always realize they are experiencing it. Sometimes it takes a long time to manifest. Some get better. Many do not. They're real people, suffering real symptoms, some of which are dangerous, many of which are just kind of sad and painful.
I mention all of this because it's easy to talk about this in the abstract-- making jokes about taking your meds, complaining about the joke because it's offensive to the mentally ill, etc.
I don't think I need to say that, from my pov, jokes about peoples' mental illness, even in jest, are uncool. Mental illness is real in ways that are just too horrible to explain well. People live in private hells that leave them feeling isolated, marginalized and alone, and mocking people about mental illness, whether intending to imply actual mental illness or not, doesn't help on any level.
But I know just saying that doesn't convince anyone of anything, so instead, I'm just trying to give you all a picture of what schizophrenia actually is.