I recall telling people in the past that my head is not well. I once told it to an occupational therapist and she said I shouldn’t say things like that to myself. It made me think. Nowadays I’m very carefull how I present my illness to friends or family or professional people. I have more respect for myself and see myself as a normal person with an illness. Have you ever self stigmatised because of the norm out there or maybe because of lack of insight or for whatever reason?
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Yeah, I did. For a while there, a long while, every time I recognized a delusional thought I would mutter “Crazy person”, my therapist is very abrupt, saying noone should use the word crazy like that.
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Yes, when the thought of having schizophrenia first set in properly, my legs gave in and I fell down to the bathroom floor to cry for a couple of hours thinking my life was over.
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yes for 10 years…2000 to 2010…now i have become a advocate since 2010
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Yes, but it has gotten a lot better in the past few months, esp. since leaving Facebook. Recently, I have been told by a friend to stop thinking of myself as a SZ.
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That sounds like good advice from a friend who care. Thanks for sharing.
I’ve heard it can be useful, in terms of self-identification, to make the switch from saying “I am schizophrenic” to “I have schizophrenia”.
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There are times that I think that maybe I can’t do something because I’m schizophrenic. I wonder if my meds will go bad and when I’m away from home I will relapse. It’s scary but I have to take the risk. I thick back to the time I had in college and would like to go back for a PhD but right now the memories of hallucination that I had there are too fresh. Plus I did some things I’m not proud of. Will like to get a job and then get my PhD when I’m older. Hopefully before I croak.
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I felt my principal characteristic was my illness for about ten years after going crazy. It was a relief to have it pass.
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