It makes me so sad how people misunderstand Mental Illness’s… in particular, Schizophrenia. People believe we’re all some sort of psychopath itching to kill or do something outlandish. They make movies with actors acting as Schizophrenia is some joke. Them acting as if every single person with this illness is some sort of sick murderer.
I remember when I told my teacher in High School that my attendance was horrible because I had a few episodes & had to stay in the psych ward. The look on her face still pisses me off to this day, she looked at me as if I was some sort of monster. & treated me completely different the rest of my senior year, as if I was a child… pure discrimination.
I completely agree. BUT. NAMI is out there making all the noise it can.
Just as it was in 1994, 1997, 1999, 2002 and 2003 when I was flopping like a fish on a pier.
I had to find a way. (I will repeat that.) =I= had to find a way. And so. The next time I was stabilized enough to do so, =I= took responsibility for =my= recovery and began to learn everything I could about how to stay out of the Terror Tunnel.
And on the basis thereof, I’d suggest the following.
Work with that “psychiatrist” (or “p-doc”) to develop a medication formula that stabilizes their symptoms sufficiently so that they can tackle the psychotherapy that will disentangle their thinking.
.
If you/she/he needs a professional intervention to get through treatment resistance, tell me where you live, and I will get back to you with leads to those services.
.
Look for mental illness clubhouses in your area (which can be hugely helpful… but may also pose risks). Dig through the many articles at Google to locate and investigate them.
I’ve dealt with the problem of stigma by associating almost entirely with schizophrenics. No matter how well intentioned they are, and there are a lot of well intentioned people out there, they cannot understand our mental illness. I live in an assisted living center for the mentally ill, and just about all my social life is with schizophrenics. Because of that I don’t feel isolated among a crowd of people who simply cannot understand what it is like to be terrorized by voices, to think people are trying to get you to kill yourself, or to think they’re fixing to call the police on you because you’re not sitting right. Someone who hasn’t experienced that couldn’t understand it. They can’t understand how relentless such symptoms are, and why we shy away from all social contact because of them
should have seen the look on the lawyer’s faces when i told them i would not be good for a jury due to my schizophrenia. the one that was standing actually stepped back about 3 steps. I couldn’t believe his reaction. They were terrified.
i have been on jury duty before and i found it very interesting but i immediately came to my decision on the case and had to sit in the jury room for 4 days being so bored and uninterested in deliberation.
That’s such a good reminder for me @crimby, that other people just don’t have the point of reference. I get so frustrated with my husband sometimes because I think he doesn’t care or take it seriously when I share things with him, but he just literally doesn’t understand. Remembering that takes some of the sting away.
I don’t like telling people unless I have too. My partner told the people at her work. She works In the dementia and alzheimers hall and explained she’s maybe does so good there because she has dealt with me on my worse days. I’m not comparing sz or sza to those terrible diseases. she just made me uncomfortable during her Christmas party i felt like they all were judging me. She claims they understand.
My boyfriend has it. I got on here so that I could have a better idea of what he’s going through. He doesn’t open up much, and I understand why.I will say that when we first started talking again (he was my boyfriend in high school, and then we were apart for 16 yrs), and he told me he had schizophrenia, I was a little worried. The only understanding I had of it was through movies. I knew though that I needed to educate myself on it because I really had no knowledge of it at all. It didn’t take long to realize though that I was wrong in what I thought I knew. A lot of people are ignorant to many things in life, and don’t care to broaden their perspective of things.
I don’t even tell people he has it, because of how I know they’ll act. He just told me the other day that he thinks he’s always had it, that he doesn’t rememeber when it started. That it was there when we were together as kids. I never knew. It hurts me to know that he never felt safe, and like he could open up to me or anyone back then.
Work with that “psychiatrist” (or “p-doc”) to develop a medication formula that stabilizes their symptoms sufficiently so that they can tackle the psychotherapy that will disentangle their thinking.
.
If you/she/he needs a professional intervention to get through treatment resistance, tell me where you live, and I will get back to you with leads to those services.
.
Look for mental illness clubhouses in your area (which can be hugely helpful… but may also pose risks). Dig through the many articles at Google to locate and investigate them.
Props to you! That’s great that you did your research & didn’t judge off how society portrays us. I’m sure he appreciates that even more than you can imagine!