I remember feeling disabled early in my journey with schizophrenia. But I watched a video about language and it struck me that if I used the word disabled to describe myself I would be stuck with that identity. Also, I had seen a news piece where a woman who had lost a leg in Afghanistan said she wasn’t disabled but rather she had a challenge to overcome. This led to think of myself as challenged. And it has made a difference. To me I no longer think of myself as disabled but rather challenged to use my wellness tools or personal medicine to lead a full life. Since I started thinking this way about schizophrenia I’ve gone back to work, gotten married and just in general feel better about myself. Let me ask you. Is schizophrenia a disability?
I refer to my schizophrenia diagnosis as an ‘affliction.’
There are different kind of schizophrenia.
Some schizophrenia you can’t do anything. And others you can have a job.
But for all it’s a challenge, for sure.
Agreed. There are degrees to this affliction, for sure.
For me, I tried that attitude before. It led to periods of pushing myself hard, then periods of burning out and crashing. I do have real limits to what I can sustainably accomplish. Those limits are ones other people don’t have. Reframing my attitude ultimately led to me being dishonest about what those limits are, then hurting myself and ending up even worse off.
Accepting that I have real limits helped me maximize what I could accomplish within them. And then, once I maximized what I could do within those limits, I was able to gently nudge them along and make them grow. My limits now are much higher than my limits at the start, but they do still exist. For me, the only way to increase my limits is by acknowledging that they are there, and being kind to myself when I hit them.
If schizophrenia isn’t considered disabling then how would all those get the help they need. Like disability pay and even insurance.
It just helps me think of it as something I can overcome.
I suppose we all have our limits whether it’s schizophrenia or just the average Joe.
My schizophrenia is a medical condition issue. Just like any other disability is a medical condition issue. And like some medical conditions that can be over come fully.
I believe that’s why they started call schizophrenia, Schizophrenia spectrum disorder.
Sz is disability.
That’s why I get money
and I’m considered 67% disabled
I think this line of thinking is a little… Circular?
Disability means you have challenges with daily life due to a medical/mental issue.
There is nothing wrong with being disabled. It happens. In all species, in all of human history. They are just challenges that we can make our best effort to over come, but you will never not have schizophrenia, and you can never regrow a leg.
I think it’s fair to call SZ-spectrum illnesses debilitating and disabling, because the truth is they can be for many people living with one.
Each person is faced with a different set of challenges that accompany these conditions— whether it’s persisting positives, negatives, or even comorbidities like General Anxiety Disorder or PTSD, to name a few.
However, it’s also up to each person to figure out what their personal limits are given the constraints of their condition, and ultimately push past those limitations to set new goalposts, if possible.
I do understand your point about labeling oneself as “disabled,” @simpjeff1– there is actually a sociological theory that suggests that labels can and do become ingrained in our psyches as truths, and we thus live our lives in accordance to said labels (tried to explain it the best I could 
):
Given all that, I get why some folks push that label of “disabled” away— but we can’t turn around and discount the heavily debilitating effects this illness and its related conditions have on so many people, either.
The “disabled experience” can be reframed with proper interventions, support, and care for people living on the SZ-spectrum. Having a disability should not mean being “written off” by our communities— instead, psychosocial outreach and integration should be standard in treatment, given how so many of us have suffered from the effects of isolation due to being ill.
Once we normalize disabilities as simply another facet of the human condition, the label “disabled” will no longer carry the heavy weight of stigma associated with it.
Exactly my thoughts. I did not have energy to type that out lol
Yes, its a disability. Multiple governments wouldnt be willing to spend billions of dollars on it as a disability if it wasnt. There are different levels of being disabled though and everyone with schizophrenia is not the same.
Also, as has been said before by multiple people on this forum, you dont know your limits until you try them for yourself. You dont know how disabled or not you really are until you try.
Schizophrenia can cause a wide array of positive and negative symptoms which impact the affected individual to varying degrees or not at all. So everyone is different.
Weather I overcome this disability or not. I know what I have dealt with and am dealing with. Regardless I won’t die with any less dignity than anyone else.
Schizophrenia can be disabling, but does not need to be. I don’t think it sets limits on me now. My relation to it is as to a conundrum, but not as to an obstacle. The only thing I do not do because of schizophrenia is drugs. I think of this as evolution and maturation rather than as disability.
Would expectations pre schizophrenia vs how one is doing now be a good measure of how personally disabling schizophrenia is? Just throwing that into the melting pot.
It hinders me socially and also in terms of entertainment because certain things are triggering to the point where I am overwhelmed. I’ll lose control of my positives first and insight not long after if I wander too far off the edge of my particular map.
I am very high-functioning, yes, but this is in large part due to having learned very well the things I cannot do easily, or at all. So, SZ is disabling for me in this respect. All that being said, I am aware of how well I have it compared to most others with the illness and I am not complaining. It’s just one of several disabilities I cope with, and they are all generally hidden.
Maybe. But then still, it can change. Reasoning from my own case: there were times I was on benefits, not taking care of myself etc. Definitely because of schizophrenia. Back then it was disabling in that sense. Now I am outperforming my peers - as i was in childhood - so no longer disabling. And interestingly enough I find it means more after the disabling period. But I suppose it fluctuates.
More generally though, what about the ‘schizoid’ or ‘schizotypal’ personality that can show and perhaps foreshadow problems long before proper schizophrenia sets in? Perhaps a really accurate observer can see “this child is a smart cookie, but s/he will have problems in adult life because of these tendencies”