Overcoming Schizophrenia

Lately, I've been under a lot of stress with work, volunteering, family life, and promoting my book. My mental illness seems to enable me to do what I want and need to do, but I feel I need to tweak my medication, because of my challenging thoughts and depression. Whenever I experience a lot of unwanted thoughts, anxiety, and a lack of motivation to keep my house neat I know I must focus on managing my stress. To help myself with the stress, this week I organized my work into one binder opposed to keeping a lot of folders and loose papers. It helped a little for my work environment. However, my mood and home environment are my most difficult concerns, because I am less accountable to keep a clean house, and I could make up a series of excuses as to why there is a mess. Last week I cancelled my doctor's appointment because of a valid reason that I will not go into detail about. I will reschedule my appointment ASAP because I feel like some of my symptoms are gradually retur...

Do you think it is best that someone living with schizophrenia, or any mental illness, live independently or with a caregiver? I ask this question because it became a small debate in a support group. One group participant said her doctor suggest that she live with someone even though she strives to live independently. She wanted to understand how is it that people living with schizophrenia live on their own. The therapist said that sometimes the doctor will suggest that a client live with someone because they are unstable on medication or are suicidal among other reasons. In my opinion, I believe it depends on the situation. I would not make a generalization for all people living with schizophrenia or mental illness in regards to living independently because we are all on different levels in our recovery. In addition to that, many of us living with schizophrenia have various treatment plans that may or may not include medication. I am all for whatever works best for the individual w...

What do you think about the commercial? I was wondering and getting upset at the fact that I have not found any commercials about mental health and then I found this one. I think it is a great commercial because it focuses on the things people living with a diagnosis endure- stigma. Stigma is misunderstanding, lack of information, prejudice, and discrimination like in the workforce or in housing. I like this commercial because it paints a realistic picture of what life can be like for some of us living with a diagnosis. In fact, just the other day in group a friend of mine was bringing up his concern about job hunting. He said that he called a retail store and asked someone if they were hiring, the employee replied, "you cannot work you get disability." Comments like that are so ignorant, and upsetting. First, of all not everyone living with a mental health diagnosis is on disability. Second, even if someone is on disability they can still work if they choose to. It reminds m...