Since im schizophrenic no one takes me seriously, I mean, the only few people that treat me like a human are those who do not know that im schizophrenic, and I ever try to hide my sz, and the worst is that people that judge me and no matter what I do they always see me like the poor guy or the weirdo, well I guess I said too much…how you do to cope with the stigma?
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I cope by hiding myself away and living like a recluse. I only socialise with close family members.
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Geez don’t stigmatize yourself. That’s the first step.
I meet only people with mental disorders, I would like to live in an asylum, as far as possible from normies and their evil stupidity, among people with mental disorders.
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I just try to educate people about it as best I can. And I don’t tell anybody about my condition unless I have too or want too.
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I never tell anyone I am mentally ill in real life. A few people know but they have no clue how severe it is.
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Right, only my cat knows my diagnosis. 
I’ve found that even a lot of other MI people stigmatize against Sz/SzA.
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I feel the opposite. I talk like a normal well educated person and I get head scratches even from my day treatment counselors as to why I’m not working. My sz friends think there is no way anyone would guess I’m sz by the way I talk. Only my therapist thinks I have a reason for not working… When you say you have sz everyone bases their opinions on what they already know and sometimes don’t recognize that everyone is different.
Hold yourself in high esteem first. No one will have respect for you if you don’t respect yourself so as @everhopeful said, stop self stigmatising.
SZ doesn’t mean you’re less than a person. You’re still an intelligent contributor to the world. You still have lots to give.
Go out there and give it. Show everyone what you’re worth.
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I deal with the stigma by not telling a single soul about my sza diagnosis. That way, everybody just assumes that I’m a normie and I get treated like a normie. I live in a retirement home, and I look like I’m in my early 60’s, (I’m 57) so, no one wonders why I’m not working anymore. They just assume I’m retired.
I deal with from my inlaws they think I do nothing all day. And that I am stupid. They compare mental illnesses to mental retardation.
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I just stay out of the spotlight as much as I can. Live and let live kind of life.
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I guess I just don’t let it define me.
It was incredibly difficult growing up because of my parents stigma I never got the mental help I needed. I went through years of unnecessary and likely avoidable suffering because of it. And now I’m facing it in my future to where it may hurt my job prospects with certain careers demanding disclosure on psychosis and requiring rigorous testing and monitoring and treatment like you’re a criminal. I try to live day by day and appreciate what I have now and make the most of it.
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