Has anyone heard of Cecilia Mcgough?

Has anyone heard of Cecilia Mcgough?

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She is highfunctioning szphernic… she collects money for charity to provide money for diagnosed szphernick to help them pursue their study…

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Yes, she’s one of the more famous schizophrenics. And better yet, she’s famous for something positive :smiley:

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high functioning? She is super-ultra-mega-hyper-gold high functioning. It is good that she tries to fight the stigma but I don’t know, normies may be tricked to think that being sz is like being like her while the illness is generally much more severe.

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I give it to u zeno …!!!

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I would definitely rather have people think of her when they think of schizophrenia, as opposed to thinking of mass murderers and serial killers. If more doctors are aware that we can achieve those functioning levels, maybe they won’t write us off so quickly.

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yes, better but still an inadequate stereotype, the stigma will be over when there will be the weird homeless guy that thinks he is Jesus and that the goverment is against him on the stage speaking about schizophrenia and why he thinks he doesn’t have it. :smile:

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I don’t like the idea of that. That would send the message to other sz folks that they don’t need treatment. I like folks like Cecilia McGough and Elyn Saks because they show us that we can achieve anything.

I truly don’t think they are anomalous. I believe we can all achieve that level of recovery with the right supports and interventions. And that’s what she is trying to do. She wants to provide those supports to other kids.

But that is what the stigma is about: florid psychosis and loss of contact with reality. :thinking:

How is this possible?
Many schizophrenics have big cognitive deficits, severe thought disorders or negative symptoms. Others even on meds still have troubling psychotic symptoms.

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Studies have shown that early intervention can make a significant difference in the lifelong prognosis for many folks. By targeting people at college-age, she is helping them get treatment before the brain damage has a chance to occur.

Additionally, it has been discovered that it is possibly to reverse some degree of the brain damage and cognitive deficits that occur in schizophrenia, with proper treatment. This is a very new area of study, but it shows a lot of promise. Again, there are greater benefits in people who seek treatment within the first two years of developing symptoms.

By showing young people that they can have a positive future, rather than a future as a paranoid homeless man, she is helping them feel able to seek treatment earlier, and therefore achieve the greatest levels of recovery.

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A study about reversing brain shrinkage:

A study about early intervention:

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People used to think paralysis was a permanent condition. Now, most patients who experience paralysis are told to expect to recover, and most of them do. The difference is that doctors now believe recovery is possible, and work harder on helping patients achieve their full potential.

But what does this mean for people who didn’t get early intervention or can’t get any medical assistance? Yes early intervention helps but not everyone can get that.

I don’t mean to be a pessimist but what about treatment resistant people and those with severe cognitive symptoms? Like I do believe we can all achieve our goals. But idk if it’s possible for all of us to function that perfectly.

Also if she became the stereotype yes it’s better than ax murderer. But it also would open a lot of doors for people to dismiss or struggles. “Oh you can’t do thing A, other schizophrenics can do thing A you just aren’t trying hard enough” and that would also be pretty crappy. Not saying we shouldn’t strive for that and like I said waaaaay better than ax murderer. But idk.

As far as the homeless man speaking about sz. I don’t think it sends any message about treatment at all. Tbh I just hate the idea because the homeless schizophrenic stereotype is already a stereotype. Yes a lot of us have been homeless at some point. But honestly it’s probably right after ax murderer as the most common stereotype/stigma

Which is shitty cause it makes people treat us like even less. Even people in this community make jokes about those who end up homeless because of this condition. It’s shitty my dude.


As for Cecilia though I’d never heard of her before today but she does seem incredibly inspirational from the brief amount I read on my Google search. Gives me some hope.

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There will always be statistical outliers, but for the most part, proper supports + proper treatment = positive outcome. I’m not coming from this as someone who doesn’t understand how severe things can be. I’ve been homeless before. None of my doctors believed I could get better.

It took me ten years to get proper treatment for my schizophrenia, largely because I was afraid of admitting I was sick due to the stigma. If I had seen Cecilia as a college kid, I would have jumped right into treatment, and I would have saved myself years of poverty and illness.

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Ok yeah I can agree with that. Proper supports and treatment of course equal more positive results.

I know I’m not saying you don’t. I was just unsure about some of the things you said.

Nobody likes to admit they have a problem no matter how much stigma there is or isn’t. I’m sorry it took you so long to accept it. I struggled for a long time to accept my condition as well so I know how turbulent it can be.

Like I said she seems like a positive influence nothing against that. My point was I’m not sure if it’s possible for all of us to recover fully.

this is my goal functioning level. How does she do it?! Lol :joy:

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Yes it is a stereotype, but compared to the sz killer and the sz genius stereotypes which represent the 0.x% it is much more accurate and statistically relevant.

Furthermore if he speaks the other people would get a much better view of the symptoms and how they change these people; also the right message would pass: schizophrenics are suffering and they need help and compassion. :slight_smile:

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Does being high functioning make her a better person than someone who is low functioning? Not necessarily.

Does doing her best to help others with the illness make her a worthwhile person? Yes

Depending on where we start with in terms of severity and type of symptoms some of us will do better than others. The hope is that with prompt and appropriate help we will reach as near to our full potential as possible.
The key to this is early intervention and a psychiatry forward thinking and intelligent enough to treat the whole person.

Some of us never got that prompt and appropriate help and have suffered the consequences. We must strive though to ensure those who come after us are more fortunate.

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The famous botanist? The chief executioner in the middle ages for the Catholic church?? Am I getting close?

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