I’m going to my first NAMI meeting in about 2 hours. It’s a “peer to peer” meeting. What should I expect? Will there be schizos there? I really want to meet some!
I went to one and it was just a bunch of people with anxiety or depression. I didn’t fit in at all with that crowd.
Is it like AA? “Hi, I’m Bill and I’m an alcoholic” only “Hi, I’m LED and I have schizophrenia” ?
That’s why I was hesitant to go there as well. Even though I have depression with psychotic features, I tend to connect more with people with schizophrenia than other depressed people. Many schizophrenics understand what it feels like to be depressed. Hardly any depressed people understand what it feels like to be psychotic.
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Did you ever go though? What was it like?
Nope I chose not to because from what I read about it it was mostly people w anxiety and depression.
I had a similar experience in PHP. I was one of 2 people in the program w a psychotic disorder. Majority were bipolar actually. I actually overheard some people there making fun of the sz guy for his beliefs/symptoms. Made me less willing to share mine.
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PHP was like that for me, too. Lots of depression, PTSD, and anxiety. I was the only one with a psychotic disorder. It made me feel very uncomfortable. But I’m gonna try this today and see how it goes. Being adventurous I guess. I leave in T-minus 15 minutes!
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Good luck!! Tell us how it goes!
Went to a 8 week peer to peer course. It was helpful and beneficial for me. Only one similar with psychosis, a lot of people with bipolar/depression.
I go occasionally to just a general support group. There are people with various mental illnesses and I am sure that there are other schizophrenics there.
There was a guy there with SzA! YAY! But he has terrible TD and you can barely understand what he’s saying. Must have had a little too much Thorazine back in the day. Everyone was super nice and I didn’t really get into the specifics of my situation but I did engage in talking about others and offering advice/sharing relevant experiences. I think next week I’ll try to talk about what’s going on with me.
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That’s great! 
Is it peer led? So like a facilitator runs it who’s not necessarily a professional? What was talked about just general things and experiences?
I think the NAMI group near me meets like…every first Tuesday of the month or something weird like that. I wish it was more regular.
This one is peer led and it’s every Thursday except for the second Thursday. We just kind of drifted naturally from topic to topic but the facilitator kept notes so he could make sure everybody got a chance to speak. A lot of it was us old timers helping to reassure some girls who were seeing a psychiatrist for the first time, very nervous, etc. One of those girls had a boyfriend and he was fiiiiiiiiiiine lol I wish he could have stayed in our group!
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I’m trying to get up the courage to go to a NAMI meeting in my city at 7pm today. Do you have to join to go? I’m bipolar/SZA coming of a full-blown psychotic break that lasted 4 months and didn’t involve mania, so I’m not a purebred bipolar. I guess I could go and just listen.
Wow that’s really unfortunate. I hate to see stigmas withing the mentally ill community, of all places
No, I haven’t. But I would like to.