HORIZON: WHY DID I GO MAD?, BBC2, 9pm
DAVID Strange remembers his first psychotic episode. Without warning he entered a “nightmare world”. He says: “Suddenly I could hear five voices screaming at me and lots of hairy, dirty rat-like things running over my feet and I knew these things were going to eat me alive from the inside.”
Years ago he’d have been labelled as “mad”, but now we are moving towards a greater understanding of what psychosis and schizophrenia are and how they should be treated.
This documentary follows three people who suffer from the classic three symptoms: hearing voices, paranoia, and hallucinations, and they vividly describe how it feels.
Rachel saw a monster in the mirror and later believed she had an alien inside her. Such episodes are “beyond any imaginable terror”.
So what causes this, and could it happen to you at any time? Is being raised in an urban environment a contributing factor? Does it spring from biology or perhaps a childhood trauma?
BRITISH JEWS, GERMAN PASSPORTS, BBC1, 11.45pm
HISTORY is never over, is it? How naïve we were to think that 1989 meant peace, freedom and kinship for ever after.
The Jews who fled Nazi Germany to find refuge in Britain, and now their descendants, might be thinking of moving back across the Channel. The prospect of dual nationality is tempting many people as Brexit approaches, but for Jews with German roots it’s not as simple as filling out a few forms.
Moving back to the country responsible for inflicting such horror on their families might be upsetting or distasteful, yet it could also be the most sensible way for them to retain the benefits of being an EU citizen.
It’s a dilemma, as a practical solution comes up against terrible memories.
The German constitution allows the descendants of Jewish refugees to claim citizenship and this programme follows three British Jews as they grapple with the decision.
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