I’m new here. I just realized that I don’t know anybody who personally understands what I am dealing with (schizophrenia). I’ve talked to therapists but none of them have schizophrenia and I don’t have any friends who have it. I have one cousin who has it but I haven’t seen or heard from him in like 17 years. I looked up support groups in my town but couldn’t find any and I feel like I would be awkward if I went to one anyway. This made me heel extremely alone. Thank you for listening.
i also used to go to nami(national alliance for mental illness) meetings in person they stopped because of covid but they are starting again in september
it was really hard to go at first it took a good 6 months to a year to get comfortable to speak
but that doesnt matter its up to you when you want to talk
some talk the first time but most take a few meetings to start sharing
you can get alot out of just listening to others
you can find meetings on nami.org then look up your area
i hope you find support here and if you want nami is good resource irl to meet peers
Welcome! I don’t know anyone irl with schizophrenia either. The NAMI meetings in my area are still not in person. One specifically for schizophrenia is an hour away. Anyway, the forum here is helpful to me. It’s nice to talk to other people with schizophrenia.
Most of the ones I got to meet were so highly medicated they could have been used as furniture to rest your feet on. The rare few who could speak only used the ability to whine about how horrible everything was and ever would be.
I have 2 friends who are twins, I knew them before they got sz. They were very smart and have a university degree in engineering. Sz ruined them. They both got sz at around the same age. Now they’re as smart as a rock bordering moderate intellectual disability doing worse than me. I feel sad for them. I talked to them yesterday through 2 of my other friends who were at their house.
I met a person on this site in like 2011. A year later I moved back to my hometown literally walkable distance to this persons house. Crazy. Luckily my town has a day program and probably NAMI. If you don’t have any programs in your area you can start a schizophrenics anonymous. It cost money for the material and you’d have to follow a program. I was in a similar situation and my dad ended up paying for the material for me to start one. I never did though.
If you haven’t become familiar with a support group for fellow sufferers, I think your circumstance is common.
I know I am Isolated myself, and I think thats common for people suffering with illnesses like schizophrenia.
I think it has been stated that one percent of the population has schizophrenia, which means you might come across a person, but they might only be an acquaintance rather than a friend as such.
Yeah, I’ve met a bunch. I was either hospitalized with them, worked with
them, lived with them or was in vocational programs or support groups with them. I can’t really generalize about them, I have had a few schizophrenic friends and they were generally nice people and good friends, much nicer than my friends I grew up with. I wouldn’t say all schizophrenics are nice but the ones I knew were pleasant enough and we had some good times together and had a lot of fun. I had a girlfriend who was schizophrenic and she was good looking and sweet.
