I haven’t personally been diagnosed with schizophrenia or anything related, and I’m afraid to seek a diagnosis because I don’t think the parts of my mind that are mean to me will let me live with knowing I’m psychotic, if I am.
How do you guys cope with the stigma (from others or yourselves) of schizophrenia or schizophrenia-like illnesses?
Schizophrenic i cope with just fine.
The truth i can’t cope with.
It’s not schizophrenia at all.
Knowing that having schizophrenia, schizoaffective, or any other forms of psychotic illness does not make you any less of a person. If others think it does, they have the problem, not you.
You need to get diagnosed and treated. Schizophrenia is potentially fatal if not treated.
Thanks for your concern. However, I don’t think I am at risk of committing suicide or doing anything dangerous, and if I do in fact have schizophrenia, it is certainly minimal (if that’s an appropriate way of phrasing it). I’m not in a position to seek a diagnosis without being much more certain that I have a condition. Thanks again for your concern though.
First of all, you probably won’t be diagnosed with schizophrenia for quite some time. One of the criteria for diagnosis is that you have to have had symptoms consistently for at least six months.
I cope with the stigma by being as open as possible. Everyone and their mother knows I have schizophrenia. I used to keep it a secret, but doing so made me feel ashamed, like I had something to hide. So now, I tell people. If anyone has any questions, I answer them. I try to make the topic of schizophrenia as accessible to others as possible. Most people only fear it because they don’t understand what it is. They have only seen media portrayals, so they think we are all serial killers or something. By being a nice, nonthreatening, friendly person, I can show them that we are all just regular people who happen to face a few extra challenges.
The exception is that when I first get a new job, I don’t tell them for a few weeks. I wait until they have had a chance to see that I am a good worker before I mention it. And I am currently waiting to be accepted into a graduate program. I don’t plan on telling anyone at school until after I am accepted into the program. Once I am in, I fully intend to be open about my diagnosis.
This approach doesn’t work for everyone. I have to deal with an awful lot of funny looks, and I have a few friends who no longer speak to me. I have the kind of personality where rejection just bounces right off me, and I don’t care too much. Many people prefer to keep their diagnosis to themselves. It all depends on you.
I am proud of my sz label
I would openly tell to everyone what my diagnosis is. But once a nurse told me it could be bad (when I was in psychiatric hospital). Now I’m in doubt if I should tell people that I have schizophrenia. One part of me says its okay and the other one says it’s not convenient. Maybe I just need to find a balance.
I try not to think of myself as being schizoaffective. I sometimes still label myself that way, but I’m working on not doing that. Instead, I try to think of myself as a person who has schizoaffective disorder. I’m a person first; my illness is secondary to that. That may seem like a trivial matter of semantics to some, but to me there is a significant difference.
I had suffered from this jumble of “symptoms” for so long with diagnosis of depression, Bulimia and anxiety. As I became more aware of the fact that something was seriously wrong with me, I wanted to know what was going on. I originally thought I had Autism because I related to some of my students with Autism. But the psychologist said I don’t have Autism. When Schizophrenia was brought up, the word scared me. When I was diagnosed definitively at the psychiatric clinic, I cried. The reality of it scared me.
But the fact is, it fits. Finding truth can be scary but it has ultimately been helpful because I know what’s “wrong” with me now. The confusion and displacement is gone.
That’s pretty close to how I’ve felt for a while. I just wish I was as brave as you and could bring myself to seek help and a diagnosis for the things I think I might have.
I should let you know, if you do have a psychotic disorder, you should really get it diagnosed as quickly as possible. Psychotic episodes cause brain damage. It literally shrinks the amount of gray matter in your brain. The longer your psychotic episode goes untreated, the worse the damage gets. If you catch it early enough, though, the damage can be reversible.
And if it is something physical, like a tumor or seizures, it could progress very quickly and be potentially fatal. I don’t want to scare you, but it is so so important that you get help right away.
Instead of thinking I’m a schizophrenic, I think I’m a person with schizophrenia. The word ‘schizophrenic’ differentiates me from other people. When I think ‘I have schizophrenia’, I feel more like any person with any problem.
Well that’s mildly terrifying xD thanks for the heads up.
You can read more about it all here
Thank you, will do…
Huh. Very scary indeed. Maybe this is a little more in need of attention than I’ve been taking it up until now…
I don’t tell a lot of people. My family all know of course and a few friends inside and outside of work. Some days I feel really brave like I could be really open about it, but I never do.
People have a lot of misunderstandings about schizophrenia. I don’t have the time or energy to challenge them, I’d rather just go about living my life successfully in the face of it. Knowing myself that I’m living life against the odds is good enough for me.
You should be. You are 1 in a 100! No matter what you are always exceptional
every wrong in my life I paid for in my case
I wish I had gotten help when it first started. That’s on my mom, but she was scared and confused too… And then I disappeared for many years into delusion. I literally have years of time that I couldn’t tell you about popular movies or music, like other people talk about, because it’s like I was living in another world almost…
I was afraid to tell “my whole story” to anyone. And when I decided to, Seraton, my angel companion, threatened me that I better not tell anyone anything. It wasn’t easy and I understand your fear. But you need help and deserve help. Getting properly diagnosed allows you to know yourself better and allows people who can help you to know how.
BTW, I recommend Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It helped me more than anything else ever had.