I’ve met many other people with schizophrenia. Or at least I’ve been in the same room or building with them.
I had a friend last year who was schizophrenic. I met him through a NAMI program called “Peer Pals” in which NAMI matches up two people with mental illness. NAMI will train someone and then people like me will apply to have one of these trained individuals meet me and we get together once a week for 6 months to go do fun stuff.
There’s rules like: no drinking or drugs. No getting together for more than three hours a week. No medical advice. Anyways, I met a guy named Joe and we used to hang out at San Jose State University. We played pool or went out for coffee. He was supposed to be in the position of being stable and an example of good recovery and he was supposed to help me but I was actually functioning much more than him.
He was a good guy though and he meant well and he was good company. But we were talking about suffering and I said I was in a hospital for 8 months and he told me he was in one for a year! He was open about his schizophrenia and didn’t try to hide it. He would tell people in front of me. I thought he was brave for doing that but I’m sure it backfired on him sometimes