Can You Have Sex With A Schizophrenic?

In this episode of Schizophrenia and the City, Michelle Hammer dives into the topic of sex and schizophrenics, specifically if one can have sex with a schizophrenic.

Why does she ask this question? Michelle received an email from a person who had a relationship with a schizophrenic, despite his friends’ assertions that schizophrenics were “mentally disabled” and that to have sex with a schizophrenic would be immoral because they couldn’t give consent. The mother of one his friends had schizophrenia, and that friend was the most vehement in their denunciations. However, upon getting to know her, it turned out that she was a “normal,” sweet, rational person who was not hypersexual and who understood sex and its consequences. However, the sender felt guilty because of his friends’ opinions, despite his own explicit opinion that she was not “intellectually disabled.” Who, then, is right? Michelle’s opinion is this – the answer is obvious. His friends were wrong to associate schizophrenia with “intellectual disability,” an association that most likely comes from overrepresentation of violent schizophrenics in the news. Michelle offers a surprising statistic – one in five people in the United States are living with a mental illness, and the average number of relationships for men and women is 7.2. The result? Most people have had a sexual relationship with someone with a mental illness. To have sex with a person with a mental illness, schizophrenia or not, is completely fine as long as they consent – what does it matter that they have a mental illness?

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