Overcoming Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a seroius mental illness that affects one percent of the population or 2 to 3 million Americans. The illness affects the mind in the form of hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking and other symptoms. There is no cure for schizophrenia, yet, however, there is treatment that reduces symptoms. You can help scientist come up with a cure for schizophrenia through giving. Here are just some of the organizations where you can donate your financial gift to, I encourage you to learn more about an organization and to support them: 1) National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression or NARSAD 2) National Alliance on Mental Illness or NAMI 3) Schizophrenia Research Institute (Australia) 4) Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia (Canada) To learn more about schizophrenia visit the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) or Schizophrenia Society of Novia Scotia . Thank you for your support!

I have not written any blogs lately because I was involved in several different activities the last couple of weeks. For those of you who are reading this, thanks for not forgetting about me. This post is for caregivers and patients with mental illness. Medication compliance can be a difficult thing to cope with in the beginning, but as time passes things get a little easier. When living with schizophreniak, your priority should be following a medication regimen. Taking your medication regularly relieves symptoms and makes you feel better than you did when and/if psychosis actually took over. Psychosis is a combination of symptoms including delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized thinking, etc. For example, I believed people were poisoning my food even though I had no evidence to justify this belief, this was a delusion. There are many reasons why people with mental illness do not take their medication. It can be due to the side effects of the medication, truly forgetting to take t...

Part of schizophrenia is irrational behavior and disorganized thinking when untreated. Before I knew I had developed adult onset schizophrenia I believed some strange things. For instance, I questioned family members, to distinguish if they were really my relatives or impostures. I believed they were impostures when they did not answer my questions the way I wanted them to. Where the real relative went, I did not know. As I asked these questions I had a blank stare that scared my family: "Who was your childhood friend," I asked my sister..."What high school graduation gift did you give me," I asked my grandmother."..."What did I write on your Mother's Day Card?... Was it taped or sealed?" I asked my mother..."What restaurant did you take me to before we went to the zoo a few years ago," I asked my uncle. These questions seemed minor or mediocre, and of no significance, but they were very important to me. "Where are your glasses?...W...

This is what schizophrenia is like when untreated... It is a nightmare that you cannot wake up from. The illness causes you to believe that everything is about you; a television program, a song on the radio, a stranger's glare. The illness makes you feel trapped, as if everybody is watching you and trying to harm you, but you can't escape- you're outnumbered. You can't eat food because someone is trying to poison you. You can't take a shower, because someone has tampered with the soap and it will burn your skin. You can't tell your family what's going on because they have been replaced too, they're impostures! You can't trust your friends because they will run and tell someone your secrets. You know they are gossiping about you and they are out to get you, you can feel it, God has blessed you with special powers that enables you to feel menacing and positive spirits in people; you are sensitive to people's emotions. Everything is a sign, that tru...

Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness that disrupts a person's thinking, emotions, and behavior, which can lead to the extent of isolation to suicidal thoughts. There is no cure for the illness, yet. Schizophrenia affects males and females alike and people of all cultures. It affects 2 to 3 million Americans, and one percent of the world population. Despite my illness, I am motivated to keep going because of my family, online peers, and self determination to not go backwards. Nearly two years ago I was distraught at thoughts of people following me, people trying to poision me, and the voices telling me 'I was a dishonor to my family.' Before all of this, I was a junior in college, an AWANA church teacher, a cross country runner, an intern, a daughter, and a sister. Like many of us with a mental illness, I would not have thought I would have had a mental illness, but something had to explain the paranoia and symptoms. The illness sneaks up on you and snatches away everyt...

While listening to Aaliyah's song, "Try Again," I was inspired to write this post. In Aaliyah's song she says "if at first you don't succeed, dust yourself off and try again," I can relate that to my struggle with schizophrenia. If you mess up, you can try again and make things right, but don't give up. Almost two years after my psychotic break I have not given up, and I continue to strive to overcome my illness. Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness that could either break you or make you stronger. In the past, I experienced some tough situations- the devil was trying to send suicidal messages that I had to ignore. (Once on the television I saw the words: "How to commit suicide," and on the radio I heard a song singing about how suicidal a man was over a woman. Back then, I interpreted it as the devil trying to get me to commit suicide, sending me messages. Not me, I was not ready to die! Hearing discouraging voices (the voices laughed...

This post is for the individual living with schizophrenia and is making a change. After my diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia loved ones gave me many suggestions as to how to handle my illness. When you have a serious illness people will try to direct your path, out of love, however, you have to make the ultimate decision. After I was released from the institution I had to make a lot of decisions about my lifestyle. The issues that demanded attention was whether I would apply for disability benefits and live in independent living. Family was very supportive of me applying for disability benefits because they wanted me to get well and to adjust to my newly diagnosed illness. I was hesitant about applying for benefits because I wanted to hurry up and get back into the flow of things I used to do. In the end, I applied for Supplement Security Income and was approved, however, it took five months for benefits to be distributed. I am glad I took advantage of this benefit because of less fi...

Trusting others is a hard thing to do in general, but it is especially difficult living with an illness such as schizophrenia, that makes you paranoid and suspicious of even your closest friends and relatives. This was especially difficult for me to deal with in the early stages of the illness, when I was oblivous, as well as family and friends were, to the fact that I even had a mental illness. The illness made me think my mother could read my mind along with members of the community, the illness also made me believe my aunt and cafeteria staff were trying to poison me or to harm me, and everyone was against me (even if they were a complete stranger). My illness made me think my family was against me or were replacements, this freaked me out! Because I did not know who was who so I asked each member various questions only they would know to distinguish the fake from the real . After spending some time away from my family in the hospital and in independent living and being stabalized ...